Northeastern dishes are a feature of the northeastern heritage that stays true to its traditional style, even though much of society has changed along with the rest of the world and some of the people have moved away to find work in other parts of Thailand.
The arid, infertile geographical condition affects the way people eat because it is difficult to find plenty of basic ingredients for food. The sources of ingredients for their dishes are found in forests and rivers, and in overgrown bushes near their homes, such as fish, some types of insects, and vegetables and plants. They have several types of dishes: spicy and sour half-cooked minced beef with herbs, ground rice spiced with fermented fish juice, spicy and sour raw minced beef without ground rice, spicy and sour medium-rare grilled beef slices, spicy and sour cooked shallot dip, and spicy and sour vegetable soup with ground rice. Condiments and the culture of consumption are influenced by the neighboring countries: Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. They also devised ways to preserve foods to keep for future's use.