There are excellent times to run around the bustling, temple-lined streets of Bangkok. And then there are the not so good ones.
Like in the summertime, when the weather goes from rainy but incredibly humid to pure, brick-oven oppressive.
Yet, in some ways, it might also be the best time to go. There are fewer tourists, ergo cheaper hotels and flights. Plus, there's nothing like walking around a city in intense heat to stir up your appetite.
Appetite is exactly what you need when you're in a place like Thailand.
Fresh off (yet hardly fresh faced) my 15-hour flight aboard EVA Air's Hello Kitty Shining Star's maiden service from Chicago, I headed straight to shredded pork appetizers and bowls of seafood smothered in fish sauce or curry.
It made perfect sense that the first stop on my Thai cuisine tour was the Sathorn district outpost of the famed Suppaniga Eating Room. The Laorauvirodge family-owned restaurant specializes in the regional cuisine of Eastern and Northeastern Thailand, which is improved upon by the family matriarch's own flourishes.
I sat down, grateful for the air conditioning and cozy booths plush with colorful pillows. Before I could say Sawadee ka, heaps of vibrant dishes on custom-made plates landed on the table.
There was minced pork stir-fried with garlic and peanuts served on tangerine as well as crispy leaf fish in lemongrass alongside pork stew with Thai herbs and cha muang leaves, onion and chili dressing, medium-boiled eggs fried then skinny-dipped in sweet sauce, crab meat and roe swimming in curry and massive prawns sautéed in sweet and spicy sauce. And of course, Thai iced tea.
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It was a feast, sent from epicurean heaven and a great introduction to the infinitely imaginative Thai cuisine. (Sadly, when most Westerners think of Thai food, they still only think pad thai, tom yum, curry and mango sticky rice.)
If one is really interested in understanding Thai cuisine, however, one must start at its most basic: the ingredients.
There's no better place to do that in the city than at the Oriental Thai Cooking School.
Housed in a charming wooden house across the river from the historic Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, this small yet formidable institution has enlightened many curious travelers on the artistry that is Thai cuisine.
At its heart is the incredible Chef Narain Kiattiyocharoen. His mastery of the form is evident in how he makes such complex dishes turn out simple and remarkably easy to make. He is also a fountain of glorious information and tips-skip the oil if you're using coconut cream; use only the purple part of lemongrass; wash your hands with kaffir lime.
Among many other things, he teaches us how to make delicious green curry with grilled pork and betel leaves (press, stir, splash and scrape), summoning our inner Martha Stewart with the intricacies of khanom phuang chomphooa-Thai dessert originally made exclusively for the Royal family.
The whole experience left us with a better appreciation of Thai food and the world's obsession with it.
If you're a better eater than you are a cook, however, it's best to head to Savoey Restaurant. It may be a popular chain that serves more familiar fare-pineapple fried rice, tom yum soup and deep-fried fish bathed in spicy coconut sauce. But everything is undeniably luscious that one cannot leave this joint without a couple of its refreshing cocktails and oh-so-divine deserts.
Or make a beeline for Sala Rim Naam, right next door to the cooking school. In this typical Northern Thai-style pavilion, the prix fixe dinner menu-carefully curated as the perfect primer to traditional Thai dishes for newbies-is surpassed only by its accompanying Thai dance show.
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Of course, if you're going to be dining along the banks of Chao Phraya, you better do it right and dine al fresco.
Before jetting off to my next destination, I grabbed a tiki-torch lit table at Thiptara-the Peninsula Bangkok's ode to Thai cuisine. The setting is lovely and exotic, blending old-fashioned Thai architecture with Polynesian horticulture.
And the food is unforgettable with its entertaining flairs: Their green papaya salad is served in sculpted ripe papaya, their laab gai is delicious but fortunately not spicy, the tom yam is served in a young coconut shell while the Thai iced tea is served with ice cubes made of tea.
It's the view, however, that's the real winner. Summer nights in Bangkok may sizzle almost as much as the summer days. But the sparkling river, bedecked with illuminated temples and passing ships, is worth the beads of sweat.
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