Bangkok is a true food lover's paradise. One hour you might be perched on a plastic stool beside a street cart eating a bowl of noodles prepared from a decades-old family recipe. The next, you're settling into an elegant dining room where those same flavors have been refined into some of the most sophisticated cooking anywhere on the planet. During my visit I explored both worlds. I wandered markets, learned to cook Thai classics including green curry, pad thai, tom kha, and

This third installment of my Bangkok, Thailand series will cover the best street foods I tasted while in the city. The street food scene in Thailand is vibrant, affordable and delicious. Like all Thai food, street food dishes combine a harmonious blend of sweet, spicy, sour, salty and bitter. For purposes of this post, I divided the foods I tasted into either a generally savory or sweet category and then included a final section for those items that incorporated both elemen

My trip to Thailand gave Japanese food a run for its money as my favorite cuisine. Though Japanese still remains my favorite, Thai cuisine is now a very, very, very close second. I'm not speaking only about the ubiquitous pad thai or green curry you've had at every Thai restaurant in the United States (though I am going to cover those dishes in this post). I am talking about both Thai dishes I had never heard of before, as well as staples I just mentioned, that were so good

Did you know that the full ceremonial name of Bangkok, Thailand is the longest name of any city in the world? I didn't, until my visit to Thailand's, beautiful, capital city. Inscribed on the monument pictured above, you can see the full name of Bangkok, which translates to Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. Our tour guide