Kat Luang

Kengtung has one of the more interesting markets in the region. Unfortunately I didn't spend as much time here as I'd have liked because I was here during New Years and was terrified of getting my camera wet.

But it only took a brief visit to see that, despite being located in Myanmar, Kengtung's Kat Luang is similar - if slightly more exotic - to its counterparts in rural northern Thailand.

From the basics:

including dried turmeric, dried chilies and disks of dried soybeans - all essentials of Mae Hong Son-style Thai food - to the prepared:

which included many similar nam phrik (chili-based dips) and aeb (grilled banana leaf packages of meat), there were many culinary similarities between the food of the various Tai groups in Kengtung and that of the residents of northern Thailand.

A particularly fitting example of this was the general porkiness of the selections, as the pork rinds and bottles of lard above illustrate. The sausages, located in the middle, are known as sai ua in northern Thailand and sai long phik in Shan. But the bundles to the right, dork khae, a type of indigenous flower, stuffed with minced pork and herbs and deep fried, were something I'd never seen before.

There were lots of noodles:

Including khao sen:

thin rice noodles served with a tomato and pork broth - also big in Mae Hong Son.

But the most popular variety were flat, wide rice noodles served with meatballs:

the latter tenderised by a vigorous and extremely unsanitary pounding with two sticks:

The market is so utterly Tai, there wasn't a bowl of mohinga to be seen.

Link love addendum

Almost immediately after posting yesterday, I became aware of a few more sites I thought worth sharing: A blog about burgers in Bangkok; an inspiring yet entirely non food-related quote by Ira Glass about pursuing creative endeavours; A New York Times piece about the dangers of eating raw fish products in Thailand; A possible link between Thailand's fish sauce consumption and low IQ scores from Global Post; and a PRI piece about street food in Bangkok featuring, well, me.

Link love

Just a quick note to share a couple blogs I've recently come across that focus on Thai cooking. She Simmers, written by a Thai woman based in Chicago, is far slicker than this blog will ever look (it even has its own t-shirts!) and has some good posts on the basic elements of Thai cookery. The intimidatingly-titled ThaiFoodMaster - the FoodMaster being a foreigner who's lived in Thailand 20+ years and speaks Thai - has helpful step-by-step illustrations for most of its recipes, and videos for a handful of others. And if you're interested in Burmese food, be sure to check out hsa*ba.

Party eats

I arrived in Kengtung (also known as Kyaing Tong and Chieng Tung), Myanmar, just in time for the lunar New Year. I wasn't able to avoid getting soaked, but I did meet some interesting people and got to eat some interesting festival foods.

If visiting Kengtung from Thailand, it's obligatory to be accompanied by a guide, and I was fortunate enough to end up with Sai Leng, a native of Kentgung.

Like vast majority of the inhabitants of Kentung, Sai Leng is ethnic Tai (Tai Nuea, to be exact). His village, located just outside Kengtung, could easily be mistaken for a Dai community in the Xishuangbanna region of southern China:

His neighbours are predominately Shan and Tai Nuea, and as is the case with all Tai peoples, food plays a significant part in their traditions and celebrations. Eating at a neighbour's house on the first day of the New Year celebrations, we had some very local-style drinking food (illustrated at the top of this post): starting at 12 o'clock and moving clockwise, there was deep-fried pork; homemade potato chips seasoned with salt and chili, similar to what I've eaten in Yunan; pickled phak kum, a local veggie, served with lots of chili and garlic; pork fried with pickled phak kum and more garlic; a steamed cake of ground peanuts with a delicious chili-oil dip; and in the centre, threads of pork fried with ginger and garlic, similar to the Mae Hong Son dish nuea tam.

While we snacked, the same family was also busy preparing aeb khao, sweets of sticky rice flour, sugarcane sugar, coconut and nuts, strongly associated with Shan New Year:

The next morning, after they've been steamed, the sweets are given to monks:

When the snacks were depleted, we moved onto lao khao phueak, the local name for rice whiskey, with more neighbours:

We sat drinking and chatting in a mixture of Thai, English and Shan. The latter, although related to Thai and having many cognates, I found essentially unintelligible. Or maybe it was the lao khao phueak? Either way, when the booze was gone, we then made the next logical step: to the side of the road:

After this... Well, to be honest, Sai Leng's impromptu concert and my dancing soaking wet on the side of the road are pretty much the last things I remember. I woke up in my hotel room at about 10pm having apparently bought some expensive souvenirs on my way home, and in desperate need of something to eat. I headed over to the town centre, where near a stage erected for the festival, at least eight vendors were selling yet another local festival food, khao som:

the dish of rice, meat and blood steamed in a banana leaf known as khao kan jin in northern Thailand.

Meaty and oily - quite possibly the Shan equivalent of the post-hangover burger.

If you're thinking of visiting Kengtung and need a guide, Sai Leng speaks English well and has a deep knowledge of Shan/Tai culture. He can be contacted at +95 94903 1470 and sairoctor.htunleng@gmail.com.

Lung Eed Locol Food

Am just back from Kentung, and no, I wasn't able to avoid getting drenched. But before I get into that, here's one of the more interesting places to eat in Chiang Rai.

Laap kai, chicken laap, is a common Isaan (northeastern Thai) dish, but as far as I can tell, is a rarity in northern Thailand. It wasn't until 2008 and with the guidance of an article in a Thai-language food magazine that I encountered the dish. Since then, Lung Eed, a restaurant serving laap kai and a handful of other interesting northern-style dishes, has been my go-to place in Chiang Rai.

Lung Eed's laap kai is unique in several ways. Firstly, I'm not sure exactly how they prepare it - the meat has light, tender, almost tofu-like texture that's somewhere between fried and steamed. This is in direct contrast to the copious crunchy deep-fried crispy shallots and intestines. The dish has a very subtle dried spice flavour and very little, if any, chili heat. The whole thing involves maybe five ingredients tops, but is one of those dishes that's so simple, I imagine that it'd be intimidatingly difficult to replicate.

The laap kai is also available raw (!), and they also do a fish version. And all of their laap are served with a basket of unique fresh herbs including paddy herb, young mango leaves and some sort of previously unknown peppery leaf.

They also do a tasty hor neung plaa, a northern Thai dish of freshwater fish combined with a spice paste, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. It was served with the standard spice paste for this dish - heavy on the turmeric and lemongrass - but not having eaten it in a long time, I was surprised at how almost southern Thai in flavour it was.

Lung Eed do a tasty fish head soup and a couple other snacky-type things, and that's about it.

Lung Eed Locol Food Th Watpranorn, Chiang Rai 11.45am-9pm Mon-Sat

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JRART

Via Appetite.

Summertime

You know it's summer when they set up the floating som tam stalls on just about every river in northern Thailand.

Songkran, the Thai New Year, is around the corner, and because I'd rather not have dirty water thrown at me by a drunk teenager, tomorrow I'm escaping to the hopefully more sedate streets Chiang Tung/Kyaingtong/Keng Tung Myanmar. Am looking forward to this, as I haven't been back in several years and am particularly interested in investigating the eats of the various Tai groups there.

Laap country

Well, not exactly. If you want to get all technical, Phrae is generally regarded as the spiritual homeland of the northern-style version of laap. But neighbouring Nan has a pretty good laap scene as well, as I learned on a recent visit.

My first experience in Nan-style laap was at Pu Som, a dark restaurant decked out with Cowboys and Indians paraphernalia. Fittingly, the emphasis here is on meat, specifically beef.

Pu Som's laap khua neua, cooked beef laap (illustrated above), is predominately beefy, emphasising meat over spice or heat. It's also slightly wet in texture and just slightly bitter, due to the addition of beef bile. Like all versions of the dish, it's topped with deep-fried crispy garlic and a mix of chopped coriander and green onion.

The dish in the middle of the pic is nam phrik khaa, a dip made from shredded galangal that usually accompanies neua neung, a northern Thai dish of coarse cuts of beef steamed over herbs. Dry, pungently herbal and spicy, Pu Som's is one of the best versions of the dish I've encountered. I'd be more than happy with just this tiny bowl and a basket of sticky rice.

Just around the corner from Wat Phumin - my favourite temple in Thailand - is what is allegedly many Nan residents' favourite place for local-style laap, Laap Khue Wiang.

Here I ordered the pork version, laap muu khua:

The first thing I noticed  here was that the spice mixture is quite coarse, as were the cuts of meat, which include bits of crispy deep-fried intestines and liver, as well as lots of fatty skin. The dish was well-seasoned, with an emphasis on the spices, and was both crunchy and chewy.

In talking to the woman preparing the dish, I learned that, rather than simply employing different proteins, beef and pork laap are essentially quite different dishes. She explained that she uses an entirely different spice mixture for the pork version, one that uses a variety of spices including not only the usual suspects makhwaen and deeplee, but cinnamon and coriander seed, among others. I had a whiff and it had a complex, almost sweet scent. Unlike other vendors, she doesn't use blood in her pork laap as she doesn't like the dark colour it gives the dish. She then went on to explain that her beef version includes a very simple spice mixture that includes only makhwaen, deeplee and chili, and the dish is darkened with blood and bittered with bile.

Pu Som Th Mano, Nan 081 675 3795 11am-midnight

Laap Kheu Wiang 14/3 Th Robmueang Thittai, Nan 054 77 2092 9am-9pm

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Khao soi nam naa

I'm currently on the road in northern Thailand doing research for Lonely Planet's Thailand guide. I’d love to blog on the food up here as often as I did during my previous tour of duty back in 2009, but am really pressed for time and will most likely have to keep it to a handful of standout dishes and restaurants.

Alerted by EatingAsia as to the presence of a previously unknown noodle dish in Chiang Khong, I kept my eyes peeled while recently in the riverside town.

While most Thais associate khao soi with squiggly egg noodles and a curry broth, the residents of Chiang Khong have an altogether different idea of the dish. Referred to locally as khao soi nam naa, the dish combines rice noodles served with a clear pork broth, the whole lot topped with a dollop of a thick tomato and minced pork mixture. This dish has become so synonymous with khao soi in Chiang Khong that the other version is called khao soi kathi, 'khao soi with coconut milk'.

Following EatingAsia’s lead, I sought out a stall selling the dish in one of the town's side streets. Upon seeing it, I realised that I’d actually encountered khao soi nam naa (or something very similar to it) previously, in Mae Hong Son, Laos and Myanmar. In Mae Hong Son and Myanmar, I seem to recall that the noodles took the form of round toothsome strands possibly made from tapioca flour, but here the dish was served with a flat rice noodle. The minced pork itself was dry and almost crumbly, and was held together by the paste-like mixture of chili, tomatoes and other spices and herbs. The dish was salty even for my taste, but otherwise was balanced and tasty.

A couple streets over at a flashier restaurant, Pa Orn continues to make and sell khao soi nam naa as her mother did more than 40 years ago:

She claims that her mother, an ethnic Dai/Tai from Xishuanbanna, southern China, brought the recipe from her homeland,  suggesting in my mind a pan-Tai link for this dish.

Served in huge bowls, I really enjoyed Pa Orn's version of the dish, particularly because it was served with a side of some of my favourite veggies. Again, the minced pork was almost dry and crumbly, but was held together by a similar red sauce, which in this case was less tomatoey and salty, but spicier than the previous bowl. Like the previous one, the dish was served with a spicy/salty condiment that was very similar in form and taste to the thick red chili paste one finds at Korean restaurants.

Pa Orn also does some more standard northern Thai dishes, including a meaty khao kan jin, rice steamed with blood:

Pa Orn Soi 6, Chiang Khong 8am-4pm

Khao soi nam naa vendor Soi 8, Chiang Khong Breakfast & lunch

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Ped Tun Jao Thaa

Thanks to my friend N (email tagline: 'story teller'), I was recently introduced to a pretty cool restaurant in yet another obscure part of Bangkok.

Pet Tun Jao Thaa is a tiny restaurant located opposite the Harbour Department (the Jao Thaa) on Thanon Songwat, the ancient riverside lane in Bangkok's Talat Noi neighbourhood.

The reason most people come here is for the eponymous duck, braised in Chinese spices and served with a spicy/sour dipping sauce. It's good (more on that in a minute), but I have to say that my favourite dish of the meal was quite possibly mee phat krachet, thin rice noodles fried with krachet, an indigenous herb-like vegetable (illustrated above). Supplemented with seafood and pork, the noodles were well seasoned - think garlic, lots of garlic, and chili - and very tasty, although I could have used a bit more krachet.

Instead of duck, we went for haan phalo,  goose braised in Chinese spices:

The slices of goose breast are served on a platter along with cubes of blood and par-boiled kailan, and the whole lot is slathered with the braising liquid and lots of deep-fried garlic. The goose is tender and flavourful and the phalo is rich and has a meaty depth - a stark contrast to the sweet cinnamon-flavoured sauce that defines many versions of this dish.

Despite this being a duck restaurant, the only duck dish we ordered was kuaytiaw pet, duck noodles, which were quite frankly the least interesting dish of the meal:

They weren't bad, and the duck was tender and tasty, but as a whole the dish was underseasoned and simply not as wow as the other two.

Ped Tun Jao Thaa Opposite Harbour Department office, Soi Wanit 2, Bangkok 7am-5pm Mon-Sat

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Pa Aew

I'm currently updating two Bangkok guidebooks, something which gives me the opportunity to spend time in the parts of town I wouldn't normally visit.

Ko Ratanakosin, the artificial island from which Bangkok sprung, is one of the more atmospheric parts of town. Unfortunately, dominated by Buddhist temples and royal palaces, the area has relatively few restaurants. If you need culinary incentive to visit, there's always Pa Aew, a longstanding street stall near Wat Pho.

The older couple here do exactly the kind of rich, oily, spicy central Thai food I love. Just about everything here's fried, but fried with care. Unsurprisingly, the dishes are somewhat oily, but oily in a rich way and not necessarily greasy.

There's almost always kung thawt krathiam, large shrimp deep-fried with garlic (shown in the centre of the pic above), and quite a few other seafood-based dishes. On my most recent visit I had phat phrik khing, a thick curry-like stir-fry with a spicy/sweet chili paste, fish and long beans, and phat chaa look chin plaa, a stir fry of  herbs and fish dumplings:

Both were rich, spicy, oily and tasty. Highly recommended.

Pa Aew near cnr of Th Maha Rat & Th Pratu Nok Yung (in front of Krung Thai Bank), Bangkok 9am-6pm

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Khao mok @ Thewet

I thought I was done with khao mok (biryani), but recently while in the Thewet area I encountered a couple more places selling the dish.

Suwim is a proper shophouse restaurant that sells a very standard Bangkok-style take on khao mok kai (shown above): rice with very little dried spice flavour served with an exceedingly sweet dipping sauce.

Although inoffensive, it's not really worth seeking out.

Better yet, go around the corner to Ran Khao Mok Kai Lek, which although it's located on the street, serves a more interesting version:

The rice, which they claim to cook using an old recipe, is slightly moist, with a subtle dried spice flavour. I chose to go with deep-fried chicken, which was crispy and tasty, if a bit dry. If you visit at lunch, you can expect a line here; the tart chicken and beef soup are as popular as the khao mok.

Khao Mok Kai Suwim cnr Th Sam Sen & Th Krung Kasem Breakfast & lunch

Ran Khao Mok Kai Lek Th Krung Kasem Breakfast & lunch

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Muslim Restaurant

I first mentioned Muslim Restaurant back in 2006. I recall having enjoyed it at the time, but in the one or two times I'd been back since then, wasn't blown away by the food and eventually neglected the place altogether.

Recently a friend mentioned the restaurant, and I decided to give it another try. I was curious to see if things had changed and ordered quite a few dishes. There was khao mok phae, goat biryani (pictured above), the 'special' version of which served on Mondays and Fridays comes with a side of yogurt and an eggplant curry; sup haang wua, oxtail soup, which although not as tart as elsewhere, was meaty and oniony; a tasty chicken mataba; and a sweet but rich and complex kaeng matsaman kai, Massaman curry with chicken.

In addition to the above, they also do quite a few prepared curries, a couple deep-fried snacks (including good but greasy samosas), tea and coffee served with goat milk, and Indian/Middle-Eastern sweets. If this isn't enough, you can always order extra yellow rice, which for reasons unknown to me is called khao burii ('cigarette rice').

I'm glad I made it back, as I really enjoyed just about everything at Muslim Restaurant, particularly the biryani, which although not as perfect as the version served at nearby Naaz, is worth seeking out.

Muslim Restaurant 1354-56 Th Charoen Krung, Bangkok 02 234 1876 6.30am-5.30pm

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Aisa Rot Dee

Hot on the trail of a better khao mok (biryani), I recently dropped by Aisa Rot Dee, a longstanding restaurant in Bangkok's Banglamphu neighbourhood.  I'd eaten here a couple times previously and was never blown away by the quality of the food, but with khao mok on my mind, felt compelled to return.

Unfortunately, little has changed -- at least from my perspective.

Tucked off the eastern end of Th Tani, Aisa takes the form of a Thai-Muslim food court:

serving the spectrum of classic Thai-Muslim dishes: satay, kuaytiaw kaeng and mataba:

the beef version of which was tasty and well done, and came with an interesting sweet/sour dipping sauce that, unusually, included slivers of ginger.

The khao mok kai (illustrated at the top of this post), though, lacked the dried spice complexity and richness of a truly stellar version. I liked the sweet/vinegary dipping sauce, though.

Aisa Rot Dee Th Tani, Bangkok 9am-11pm

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nahm

Coconut and turmeric curry of blue swimmer crab with southern limes. Image courtesy of nahm.

I've mentioned nahm, David Thompson's new Thai restaurant in the Metropolitan Hotel, here previously, but have yet to go into too much detail about my experiences eating there. This was mostly because being friends with David and having eaten there several times gratis, I wasn't entirely convinced that I'd had an objective dining experience. However, after my most recent meal, I've eaten there at least eight times -- both for free and paying, both when David's been there and when he's been away -- and feel I can express my opinions about the restaurant's food in an unbiased manner.

Not that there are going to be any real surprises -- I've mentioned my fondness for nahm a few times in this blog and this has yet to change. In fact, the restaurant seemingly gets better every time I eat there, and at this point I reckon that Thompson and team are producing what must be some of the best Thai food anywhere.

For starters, I can't imagine another Thai restaurant where one is going to find such an evocative and unusual menu. I arrived early for my most recent dinner and enjoyed simply passing the time by reading the descriptions: Blue swimmer crab, peanuts and pickled garlic on rice cakes; Salad of grilled chicken with chilli jam; Cucumber salad with crunchy minced prawn floss and green mango; Braised lobster with sugar cane.

It can be somewhat overwhelming, even if you are familiar with Thai food. But after so many meals at nahm, I've been able to round it down to a handful of personal faves: Cured 'hiramasa' kingfish salad with chillies, lime and mint is a deliciously spicy and tart yam-like dish -- my mouth puckers in thinking about it now; Green peppercorn relish with shrimp paste, chillies and pork with salted prawns and fresh vegetables is rich and oily and packs a slow, satisfying burn; and possibly my all-time nahm favourite, Thompson's twist on an old kaeng tai plaa recipe, Smoked fish curry with prawns, chicken livers, cockles and black pepper. The latter is intense, but with the heat of black pepper, not the burn of chilies, and comes with a plate of cooling (and beautifully arranged) fruit and vegetables and ajaat, a Thai/Muslim sweet/sour dressing. In the same genre, the Mussaman curry of 'royal project' chicken with onions and golden yams is one of best versions of this dish I've encountered; it's sweet -- as it should be -- but is given additional depth by the presence of more dried spices than most Thai cooks would use, in particular, a fragrant cardamom. The stir-fries at nahm are wonderfully smokey, and I really enjoy the Spicy stir-fried frog with chillies, turmeric, holy basil and cumin leaves, a dish that, according to Thompson, employs three kinds of fresh chilies. As my dining companion last night pointed out, it's amazing how the dishes at nahm combine so many ingredients but come together as a seamless whole. This, I believe, is one of the unwritten aspirations of Thai cuisine, but one that's rarely met.

Another thing I appreciate about the menu at nahm is that, unlike a lot of fine dining, the emphasis is not on exotic cuts of meat, but rather, most dishes revolve around herbs, veggies and seafood. I always end up eating far more than I should at nahm, but it still feels like a healthy and balanced dining experience.

Admittedly, the food is expensive, particularly by Thai standards. But 1500B (approximately US$50) is not a great deal to pay for a set meal at a fine dining restaurant. And knowing firsthand the amount of research, trial and error and effort that goes into these dishes, I don't find it particularly exorbitant. Regardless, there's no real alternative to nahm, and if you're not willing to or can't afford to pay, you're simply not going to find dishes like this anywhere else.

So in the wake of all the controversy surrounding Thompson and nahm, much of which seems to have been forgotten by now, we're left with an excellent restaurant. This is welcome news, because now we can simply focus on the food.

Metropolitan Hotel 27 Th Sathon Tai, Bangkok 02 625 3333 Dinner only

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Sara

I love Thai-Muslim food and am always on the lookout for a better khao mok (biryani). This dish isn't too hard to find in Bangkok, but most of the time it's little more than rice made yellow by the addition of turmeric, and accompanied by a joint of stringy chicken and stock-cube broth. The versions of the dish that I do like - namely those served at Naaz and Yusup - involve a dried spice mixture that goes much deeper than simply turmeric, alternative meats (beef, goat, fish, mutton) and even surprises such as raisins and nuts.

I became aware of Sara about a year ago, via a review in the Bangkok Post.  Since this review, the restaurant has moved into the adjacent Nouvo City Hotel, but still continues to serve a short but interesting menu spanning a couple appetizer, main and dessert courses for each of the restaurant's three cuisines: Thai, Indian and European. Sara once won a prize for the city's best phat Thai - despite the fact that the kitchen is halal and most of the staff are Muslim.

But I was here for the khao mok.

At 280B (about $9) it's expensive, at least as far as khao mok is concerned, but is one of the better versions I've encountered lately. The rice was perfectly cooked and fragrant, although I thought it lacked the richness of my two fave biryanis. I ordered khao mok phae, goat biryani, and the meat was fall-apart tender and quite rich. Unusually, at least compared to Thai-style khao mok, the dish wasn't served with the usual sweet/sour dipping sauce or a bowl of stock, but rather, was accompanied by a tart but delicious and seemingly homemade mango pickle and raita, cucumber and yogurt salad.

Not bad, but I'm still on the lookout...

Sara Ground fl, Nouvo City Hotel 2 Soi 2, Th Samsen, Bangkok 02 282 7500 6am-10pm

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Whole porker ancient sutra

There are so many examples of wacky English here in Thailand that I generally don't even notice them any more. But occasionally one stumbles upon a gem.

What's actually being advertised here is old-fashioned grilled pork. To us, the Sanskrit-origin word sutra - in Thai สูตร - may have connotations of Hindu literature, but to the Thais it has come to mean recipe or more broadly, formula.

Porker, on the other hand, is universal.

Khao phat Amerikan

No, the above certainly doesn't look like Thai food, so let me begin with a bit of background info. from the current edition of Lonely Planet's Thailand guide:

(Con)fusion Cuisine A popular dish at restaurants across Thailand is khao phat Amerikan, 'American fried rice'. Taking the form of rice fried with ketchup, raisins and peas, sides of ham and deep-fried hot dogs, and topped with a fried egg, the dish is, well, every bit as revolting as it sounds. But at least there's an interesting history behind it: American fried rice dates back to the Vietnam War era, when thousands of US troops were based in northeastern Thailand. A local cook allegedly decided to take the ubiquitous 'American Breakfast' (also known as ABF: fried eggs with ham and/or hot dogs, and white bread, typically eaten with ketchup) and make it 'Thai' by frying the various elements with rice.

This culinary cross-pollination is only a recent example of the tendency of Thai cooks to pick and choose from the variety of cuisines at their disposal. Other (significantly more palatable) examples include kaeng matsaman, 'Muslim curry', a now classic blend of Thai and Middle Eastern cooking styles, and the famous phat Thai, essentially a blend of Chinese cooking methods and ingredients (frying, rice noodles, tofu) with Thai flavours (fish sauce, chilli, tamarind).

Despite having committed these rather derogatory opinions to print, I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the khao phat American (illustrated above) as served at New Light Coffee House, a vintage diner in central Bangkok. Yes, the rice had been fried in ketchup and was indeed served with a side of raisins (hidden under the egg), but the entire package wasn't overwhelmingly sweet, and unusually, also came served with a generous piece of roasted chicken (also partially concealed). I liked the sunny-side-up egg but didn't touch the ham, and in an effort to keep it as Thai as possible given the circumstances, opted to season it with Maggi, not ketchup.

New Light Coffee House 426/1-4 Siam Sq, Bangkok 02 251 9592 11am-2pm & 6-10pm

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Help me!

My day job is doing guidebooks for Lonely Planet. I've contributed text and/or photos to more than 15 books at this point and am currently at work updating Thailand, Bangkok Encounter and Thailand's Islands & Beaches.

Recently, after spending some time on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree travel forum, I got the impression that some people perceive the process of writing guidebooks as something of a solitary endeavour, done with little input from readers or locals. I sympathise with this to a certain extent and began to wonder how I could go about getting more of readers' opinions on their favourite sights, restaurants, hotels, etc., for the destinations I'm writing about. It was at about this same time that I started using Twitter, and it struck me that the application has immense potential as a tool to uncover exactly this sort of information. So, starting today, I'll be Tweeting travel- and destination-related questions and queries on a daily basis and would really appreciate your help. If you'd like to pitch in, follow me on Twitter (@austinbushphoto), where my Lonely Planet-related posts will bear the official Lonely Planet hashtag, #lp, supplemented with the name of the destination I'm working on (e.g. #lpbkk, #lpchiangrai).

Thanks!

Guides

I recently came across two new food-centric guides to Bangkok that are worth sharing.

The most recent release, Bangkok's Top 50 Street Food Stalls, is written by Chawadee Nualkhair, who also authors the blog Bangkok Glutton (an interview with the author can be seen here). The book's name is something of a misnomer, as more than half the places mentioned aren't stalls at all, but rather are shophouse-bound restaurants. The guide generally appears to be directed toward first-time visitors to Bangkok and/or cautious eaters, as many of the restaurants and stalls mentioned are the sort of 'safe' places that have long been profiled in the English-language media, and perhaps more tellingly, each entry includes a line on restrooms (sample: "squat toilet. bring your own toilet paper."). Correspondingly, the book has some good background information on Thai food for those not necessarily familiar with the cuisine (there's a particularly helpful illustrated section on Thai noodles), and I quite like the general aesthetic of the book, which emphasises lots of photos and illustrations. If you're a first-time visitor to Bangkok and are wary about eating off the beaten track (or of finding yourself in a restaurant without a bathroom), this is the guide for you. Available online or at Orchid Books.

Rather than a book, Famuluous Eateries Bangkok takes the form of 52 cards profiling everything from street stalls to restaurants. The English can be pretty bizarre (sample: "You will forget about the waiter's attitude, once you put the chicken your watering mouth..."), but the authors seemingly made an effort to go past the usual foreigner-frequented suspects, delving into many lesser-known stalls and restaurants, many located in Bangkok's suburbs. There's lots of Thai, accurate map and transport information, and I like the idea of sticking a single card in one's wallet, as opposed to lugging around an entire guidebook. If you've lived in Bangkok for a while and want to expand your culinary horizons, this is the guide for you. Available at Kinokuniya.