Food & Farm

Eat Well, Train Well

For most of our guests, food is a highlight of their stay. Quality food is essential for martial artists in hard training, and our diet is calculated to best support our Kung Fu training. We understand that we are what we eat.

Locally Grown, Carefully Sourced

We are partially self-sufficient as we have our own home farm, kitchen garden, and herb garden. We harvest fruit from our own organic trees, including bananas, mangoes, and jackfruit.

What we don’t grow ourselves, we choose carefully by supporting local farmers: we buy food directly from them at market prices. This ensures they earn a good income while we get the best quality fresh food. Our rice is bought from local villagers: by buying rice directly from cash-poor ethnic minorities, we support their families.

Fresh from Our Garden, Guided by the Seasons

We prepare local-style food with an emphasis on using beneficial herbs to increase its value. There is something incredibly rewarding about watching our herbs and fruits grow, picking them, and finally eating them. It also ensures that they are absolutely as fresh as possible, naturally ripened and free of any harmful chemicals.

Please note that because our garden grows naturally, the supply is seasonal: different vegetables and fruits come into season at different times of the year. September – October are perhaps the most prolific months. The hot, dry season in March – April yields the least.

Meals and Drinks included

Breakfast is served daily, and evening meals on training days only (5 days a week).

Drinking water is always available free from the kitchen.

We also serve specialist teas one or two times a day during training: either high-quality Chinese tea – something integrally connected with Kung Fu training – or herbal tea for health benefits from our garden. Some of our teas are extremely rare and worth hundreds of dollars - but you get to try them as part of the package.

Lunches are not included We do not provide lunch. Most students prefer to choose their own from the wide variety of food available in town. Because our students come from many different countries and cultures, the food we serve may be unfamiliar to some of them. Being able to choose a familiar lunch can be especially helpful for students who have recently arrived.

We have a student fridge where you can store food, so if you don’t want to go into town every lunchtime, that’s no problem. You can also ask someone to pick up lunch for you, or order from one of the food-delivery services now operating in Pai. Many people choose to have fruit for lunch, thanks to the abundance of high-quality local fruit available at very affordable prices.

Almost any style of food can be bought in Pai or ordered in, including Italian, Western, Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Indian food. The local diet is based mainly on rice, meat, freshwater fish, vegetables, fruit, and spices. Seafood is relatively expensive in the mountains, but local fruit and vegetables are fresh, excellent, and very affordable.

Meals and Dietary Options

The food prepared on site is as fresh, organic and healthy as possible. It is usually delicious local Thai or Shan style, or occasionally Chinese or southern Thai style. Each meal is typically two main dishes with rice. Most dishes are vegetarian, but we do serve meat once or twice a week. There will always be at least one vegan dish as part of each meal. Meals are usually accompanied by one or two types of fruit.

We do not serve up a diet of greasy noodles every day. Instead we take pride in our food.

Share a Meal, Share the Wisdom

The instructors eat in the dining area, together with the students, which is a testament to the quality of the food and helps provide a good ethos for the school. Meal times are therefore ideal for discussing Kung Fu and asking questions