Discover Thailand’s first eateries offering dishes spiked with marijuana. 

By Ashima Sethi

You can now enjoy delicacies cooked using cannabis at Prachinburi’s Chao Phraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital. However, those who like to indulge in their greens (and by that we don’t mean vegetables) do keep in mind that the food will not actually get you super high.

Each of the restaurant’s dishes have been seasoned and infused using cannabis leaves, the parts of the cannabis plant that contains small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) considered legal for consumption, along with bark, stems, and roots. The flowers and buds of the cannabis plant that are high in THC are still very much illegal. 

The restaurant, Taste of Ganja, also known as Ganja Ros in Thai, offers a variety of Thai classics on their menu. Some examples include the Leng zaap, a herbaceous spicy and sour soup with slow cooked meat; Khao kraphao sook jai, translated to Happy pad kraphao, an aromatic basil stir fry dish; and the Yum, a refreshing savoury salad. Since the launch of their medical clinic in 2019 that specialises in cannabis oil, the hospital have been very active in promoting the use of cannabis in medical therapies and for pain relief. 

In a similar vein, Ban Lao Rueng (The Storytelling House) is another restaurant located near the Chao Phraya Abhaibhubejhr Hospital that’s also dishing up cannabis cuisine in a bid to demystify the plant. You can expect Thai and fusion items like Weed tempura, where cannabis leaves are deep-fried like the traditional Japanese dish. Their drinks menu also have marijuana centre-stage, like their Good mood soda that comprises of three shots, passionfruit, syrup and raw marijuana juice. 

There’s no doubt that these two openings are just the beginning of what to expect from Thailand’s dining scene when it comes to #CannabisCuisine.