for the mashed potatoes, they serve the la jiao on the side.
those things are a culinary masterpiece.

Also the fresh tamarind juice is amazing!

Personally I think almost everything tastes good.

Almost all the "Thai" restaurants in KM are just Dai restaurants in disguise. There were a couple nice Thai places (though the food was still Kunmingized) but they closed a couple years ago. I went on a dreaded teacher dinner to a Dai place on Hai Yuan Bai Lu and it was all just way too hot for me to eat. Lot of people like that but I just could not eat anything, even the cold salad. My mouth was stinging for hours. I tend to tend of Dai food as grass and hot peppers mixed together. Lots of little Dai places in my area but have not eaten in one for years. Just can't see any big difference in the food made in the other places for the most part. I gather the staff, including the cooks, are still basically local Kunming people. Maybe the owners can be Dai, I would not know. But I don't think it is the same as the Dai food I had when I went to Rui Li or Jing Hong. But that stuff was spicy as hell too!

I love Dai food 傣味 and eat it every chance I get. Not a good choice, however, if you don't like the hot and sour taste combination.

Most always have 柠檬撒撇 (ningmeng sapie — not sure of the hanzi for the last word, could be wrong.) Very thin noodles served in a bowl with a lemon juice and very spicy chilies (probably "bird's eye" chilies) plus some organ meat sliced thin to be mixed in at the table (usually liver.) It is served cool 凉。

Roast fish 烤鱼 is a staple item in Dai restaurants. Hard to go wrong with it. Great flavor, spicy topping, though not a lot of meat.

I also always have one or another wild vegetable, fried with garlic and slivers of meat. Just ask the water what they have today. 野生菜 or 生菜 (Shengcai。)In Guangdong, 生菜 will get you lettuce, but not in a Dai place.

Spring and summer soups often involve both squash and squash blossoms (large and yellow.) In season, I order a bowl of that.

I avoid the grubs and bugs unless I'm trying to impress a foreign guest. Need to be consumed with 白酒 bai jiu for best effect.

Kunming has lots of good Dai restaurants, plus I always hit them when in Yunnan's deep south and southwest.

鬼鸡 ('Ghost chicken') is an amazing dish that never disappoints, you can find a recipe for it here on gokunming. But it's 鬼火怒 ('Fireghost fury') that truly separates the vikings from the wimps. Any Dai fish dish is also generally a treat; the ones that are dry, cut open and spread out are much easier to eat than the ones that are cooked in a pot with sauce, as there's a loooot of bone on those. Occasionally you can also find a kind of dry sausage that's very tasty and sooo savory, but it's more common in Wa cuisine I believe. They have this sausage in the some-southern-Yunnan-city-I-have-forgotten-the-name-of-restaurant on the same road as Slice of Heaven, but closer to the intersection with Xuefu lu.

This is the best value for the money Dai restaurant that I've found in Kunming, it's amazingly cheap and absolutely delicious: kunmingsshabbiest.blog.se/[...]

It's an a back alley in the 麻园 area, down some winding alleys to your right if you're facing the gate to the old art college, and have old Laowo bar in your back to the left.

Thanks for the tip on Lao Dehong. Not sure I can handle that volcanic chicken, but they are bound to have other selections that are not quite as fierce.

I thought BillDan was gonna say that the Dai food in kunming is Nothing like the daifood in Seattle..
Generally i like the Dai food but choose the place carefully. One place close to me, very authentic, is just terrible. I wanna checkout Natsymirs recommendation but blog.se seems to be blocked. Theres one place at doufuchang alley, stay away. At Yuanxi road there are some that i like.

Fish is good done Dai style but at tje same time theres nothing really special about it, fish with herbs n spices can be found everywhere. Most of all I like the cold shredded beef with lime. Generally asian food had too much sauces and soups and liquids for me, i prefer dry and solid food so the beef is good. Usually i find the meat quality of Dai to be better than regular chinese - fewer fatty bits.

The central thing in a Dai restaurant for me is the buo lo fan (pineapple rice). It's delicious, but it also comes to your table (most times) baked in a hollowed out whole pineapple. Also, the fish and mushroom dishes that are cooked in a banana leaf are awesome. My friend also introduced me to a dried, shredded tree moss that is served as an accompaniment to rice. It reminds me of Japanese furakake. Sorry I can't recall the Dai names.