Street Food
You Do Not Need to Read Thai to Order in a Thai Restaurant
Six words on a menu will get you a full meal. Not six hundred. Here is the actual working vocabulary of a Thai kitchen, and what to do when the menu has no English on it at all.
Street Food
What to eat, where to eat it, and what it actually costs. No lists of restaurants.
Street Food
The Heat Is Not the Same at Every Stall and That Is the Whole Trick
Thailand's chillies run from a mild, floral heat to something that genuinely hurts. Knowing which pepper is on your plate turns every meal from a gamble into a decision.
Street Food
Pad Kra Pao and Som Tam Are Not Dishes, They Are Decisions
The two things every Thai orders every day are a question about your week and a question about your stomach, and you only have to answer them correctly once.
Street Food
Thai Breakfast Is Four Dishes and None of Them Are Eggs on Toast
Jok, khao man gai, kai luak, sai kua. Four things a Thai eats every single morning, all of them within a hundred metres of each other, and all of them better than your hotel breakfast.
Street Food
Thailand Grows Some of Asia's Best Coffee and Almost Nobody Has Noticed
The royal development projects turned a subsistence crop into a speciality industry across the northern hills, and the result is genuinely good coffee in a country that drinks instant.
Street Food
Thai Fish Sauce Is a Category, Not a Bottle, and Nam Pla O Is Not Nam Pla Nua
Southeast Asia's best seafood, sold by weight in the morning and cooked in a banana leaf by the afternoon, and a condiment aisle that is more complicated than it needs to be.