Since Thailand decriminalised most parts of the marijuana plant and relaxed laws regarding its use in food and cosmetics products, many restaurants and cafes across the country have started infusing cannabis in their menu.
Latest to jump on the country's cannabis-friendly list is Anantara Chiang Mai’s The Service 1921 Restaurant and Bar, which was converted from a century-old colonial house that was once the British Consulate.
The century-old restaurant, which is now reimagined as a fictitious illusion of the British government’s secret intelligence service, has rolled out a healthy and nutrition-rich cannabis infused menu.
Signature dishes at the restaurant include deep fried seabass with crispy cannabis leaves and a cannabis tamarind sauce; spicy grilled prawns with traditional Thai herbs and cannabis; braised pork spareribs with a shitake mushroom and cannabis soup; stir-fried beef with cannabis and grilled river prawns with a spicy lime cannabis sauce.
The new menu also features insta-friendly cannabis-based drinks such as the H.I.D. (Hemp in Distiller) with fresh cannabis leaves, monsoon jasmine tea, pandan leaf, dry orange and chamomile tea. The genmaicha hazelnut latte includes genmaicha tea, milk, hazelnut syrup, cannabis powder, cannabis leaf and chocolate cookies. The cannabis fizzy combines soda, apple nectar, pineapple juice, lime juice and cannabis syrup, topped with cannabis leaf.
According to Anantara Chiang Mai, cannabis leaves are highly nutritious and contain significant levels of essential vitamins and minerals which compliment healthy dishes and drinks. When the leaves of the cannabis plant are fresh and raw, cannabinoids in the cannabis plant are found in their acid form rather than their active form, meaning guests will not feel dazed from eating or drinking raw cannabis leaves.