We wanted to put up a quick thank you here to Jeff, Sarah and Ai Seud at Fair Earth Farms for raising us two beautiful and very well cared for pigs.

Not every pig gets reared with love, in fact it’s a fairly safe assumption that few pigs destined for dinner tables get to run around a farm, get fed fresh organic garden veggies and get daily scratching behind the ear sessions (and the occasional shared sip of beer) from farmers who really puts the welfare of the animals first.

They ran around and lived a social life and ate good food and never had to face the stress and misery of transport at the end of their lives. They lived normal and contended piggy lives and they were cared for in the way an animal should be cared for, whether it’s a pet or not, just because that’s the right way to do it.

And the pork tastes fantastic – like the best pork you’ve ever had. And it’s now been transformed with the best of our abilities into a lot of sausage and ham and bacon and ribs and chili braised pork and a few other things that we hope you’ll really enjoy.

So take a look at the Fair Earth Farm website to see all the cool stuff they’re doing right here in Chiang Mai and if you’re in the neighborhood, come on in for some organic pork!

Been to battle and need some sustenance? Well, wander on over to the Salsa Kitchen and have a couple of burritos and a margarita or three as you refuel for the fight ahead.

We’ll be open for Songkran from 11 am to 11 pm on the 12th, 13th and 14th, closing only on the 15th, for one day of staff fun. We will also be out front with lots of water and anyone wanting a place to play is more than welcome to get down with us and our little (and big) water warriors.

At the Salsa Kitchen we are interested in:

1. Finding the best local meats and produce we can
2. Supporting small farmers who farm without using harmful chemicals
3. Supporting small farmers who raise their animals humanely

While we are a long way from where we’d like to be, we are proud to have taken some solid initial steps over the past year, namely:

• Becoming a member of Chiang Mai’s first Community Supported Agriculture project, the Mae Ta CSA. Through this we receive a weekly delivery of totally organic fruits and vegetables and we help to support a group of young farmers who are endeavoring to make a go of it through organic agriculture.
• Developing relationships with uplands farmers for organic pork. With the tremendous assistance of the people at Fair Earth Farm and The Uplands Holistic Development Project (UHDP), we’ve been able to make a contract with small uplands farmers near Fang to buy whole pigs, which we butcher on site at the restaurant. These pigs are fed on banana stalks and other organic foods and raised as backyard animals, in pens behind houses – free from the confines, stresses and abuses that plague the factory farmed animal. While this organic pork takes about twice as long to grow to maturity (minus the hormones and frankenfood) we think this just makes for tastier meat. The pigs are a cross between Meishan and Duroc breeds, are fed no antibiotics or commercial feed and live their lives in small family groupings, in covered pens, outside.

Because we buy whole animals, we do sometimes need to supplement with market bought pork (there are only so many ribs on any given pig!) but the majority of the pork we serve these days is organic and supports small and marginal farmers.

Please feel free to get in touch anytime if you’d like to hear more about what we’re doing.

We like to think so anyways – but then we have a different take on nachos than most. While there may be some appeal to the pile of chips with cheese glopped on top style, whenever we dig into such a plate we always end up eating all the good cheesy bits first only to be left with dry and bland chips underneath to end meal.

So we take a different approach. We make sure to make every nacho a work of perfection.

To start with, we fry the chips hot to order. When you order a plate of nachos, we cut up some corn tortillas and then fry them crisp on the spot. It doesn’t take much time and we think it makes for a better plate of nachos.

Next, on each individual chip, we pile on refried beans, sautéed peppers and caramelized onions, a homemade nacho sauce/salsa, your choice of grilled chicken breast or braised red chili beef or pork and then finish it all off with a generous throw-down of grated mozzarella cheese.

Into the broiler and 4 minutes later it’s done – and every chip is nacho perfection.

We like kids.

We have kids, 3 of them (4, almost 7 and 14) and since the restaurant is a family business, they’re around and they’re a part of things…and since we’ve got our kids here, you might as well bring your around for a visit too!

The Salsa Kitchen is a fun restaurant that happens to serve very good food. We are not a buttoned up formal kind of place and nothing makes us happier than seeing a big happy family come in for a good meal and a good time.

Kids like our food too – rare indeed is the child who won’t succumb to the pleasures of a plain melted cheese quesadilla…

We serve big plates at prices that make us a good choice for whole family eats and we understand full well that kids sometimes make a little noise and sometimes need to stretch their little legs a bit – it’s all fine with us.

So come on in and bring the whole gang – you are all very welcome here.

There are two kinds of restaurants in this world – those that cater to vegetarians and those that (although they may have one or two vegetarian options on a menu) treat vegetarian options very much as afterthoughts.

At the Salsa Kitchen, we offer 11 great tasting fully vegetarian options. We do not simply ‘omit’ the meat from a dish and call it a veggie plate, we instead work from veggie up – and add meat to some dishes to make them more meat eater friendly.

Because in truth, the heart and soul of Mexican cooking hardly comes from rich cuts of meat…beans and corn make up the true soul of good Mexican eats.

We feel that if you get the beans right; everything else falls into place – the beans are everything. While in Mexico, cooks might simmer their beans in pork lard for extra richness, we simmer our beans with onions that have been sautéed in oil until deep golden brown, and this adds a ton of flavor to the earthy goodness of the black beans that we use.

Some of the vegetarian options available include:

• Vegetarian nachos
• Refried black bean burritos
• Quesadillas filled with refried black beans, sautéed peppers and onions and tons of melted cheese
• Sweet potato fritters with a cilantro pesto sauce
• Vegetarian crispy fried chimichangas
• A spicy vegetarian chili topped with melted cheese and served with hot fried corn tortilla chips
• Many more

We are also happy to work with customers to create vegan dishes or to create dishes omitting and ingredients that do not fit into your dietary plan.

We welcome vegetarians and are proud to consider our restaurant a true vegetarian friendly place, and of course, and most importantly, the food tastes great!

See you soon!

With the importance of 100% corn tortillas in Mexican food, few cuisines lend themselves as well to Gluten free friendly eating as Mexican.

Additionally, since we have 2 members of our immediate family with celiac disease, we have a special awareness and understanding of the do’s and don’ts of gluten free eating.

So come on in and have a taco, some flautas, some nachos, a chipotle enchilada, a plate of ribs and much more and rest easy knowing that we understand your food allergy and that we can accommodate your needs.

As always, we ask that anyone who has a gluten or any other food allergy to make this known to wait staff, so that we can be sure to give you all of what you want and none of what you don’t! Should you ever have any questions or special requests, please ask for Ede or John. If we are not in the restaurant, staff can always reach us by phone.