I find it laughable that of the ten Michelin star-rated restaurants in Bangkok, four are French, one Italian, one Indian, one Danish, and so it goes. (The Thai government is said to have paid a great deal of money for Michelin to do a guide.)  Good as some of those might be, no traveler to Bangkok should even consider straying from the path of finding great Thai food everywhere. Indeed, on a five-day foray into the city’s food culture I don’t think I have ever had more exciting and delicious food, meal after meal, day after day.
    Of course, I was the luckiest American in Bangkok during my stay because I was happily led around by Thailand’s leading food authority, Mom Luang Sirichalerm Svasti, who goes by the nickname Chef McDang (right). Born into Thai royalty and studied at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, then at the  Culinary Institute of America, he is an author and TV personality and easily the most ebullient and candid fellow one could ever hope to meet.
    When you go out on the town with Chef McDang, you find that he seems to know everyone and everyone’s business, so I had a rollicking good time.  From the start McDang sought to dispel the belief that all Thai food is blistering hot; instead the heat and taste of the chilies are but two aspects of the blend of seasonings that are never meant to overpower the flavor of the fish, meat or vegetables they enhance.

SIRIWAN HOI TOD
120 Prachathipatai Road
02-282-9651

    A storefront eatery it may be, with several branches, but here is where I had some of the best traditional Thai food, lovingly prepared and served by owner Khun Ludda, who opens her restaurant at ten in the morning and shutters it at seven p.m.
     There are plastic stools and shiny bare tables and the room is suffused with aromas that make the appetite race.  The staff prides itself on the cleanliness of the restaurant, which is not a given in many other places, and the menu focuses on street food. We asked the owner to just keep sending out dishes till we said stop; so we began with a spicy papaya salad, followed by the noodle dish pad thai, which McDang vociferously defended as being a true classic, despite what some ignorant western authors contend is its commercial image. This one was definitely the best I’ve had, where every ingredient from the noodles to the herbs and the shrimp revealed layers of taste.
    There was a  juicy pork satay with a velvety peanut sauce; mussel fritters were addictive and spring rolls were packed with pork and taro. Then came a seafood omelet with rice and holy basil, and steamed fish with crispy fried garlic.
    What most impressed me beyond the levels of flavor and heat was that, unlike Thai restaurants in America, where so many dishes simply serve meat or seafood in the same six sauces, each dish at Siriwan Hoi Tod was wholly different from the next, in texture, aroma, complexity and style—fried, wok-seared, or steamed, all in just minutes.

SANEH JAAN
130-132 Wireless Road
02-650-9880.

    The explosion in Bangkok of new office buildings anchored by restaurants has afforded the year-old Saneh Jaan, named after a golden apple dessert, prime real estate in the beautiful Glasshouse near the U.S. Embassy. The dining room is sleek, sophisticated, done in soft earth colors, with widely separated tables and very comfortable banquettes.  The walls are hung with photos of Bangkok. Nothing about it seems corporate.      
     Saneh Jaan serves the traditional food of Central Asia as it was fifty years ago, according to Chef McDang: “There are no extremes of flavor.” Yet the flavors were myriad in a wide array of dishes I enjoyed, which included fried fish balls with sweet and sour sauce; a quickly sautéed fish cake called pla krai; an egg roll stuffed with minced pork and spices; a massaman-style curry; a curried fish mousse, and a shrimp and crispy pork rind omelet. I was delighted to find that a dish so often made outside of Thailand as a treacly sweet mess—mee krob—was rendered with subtlety and real crunch.
    Even the desserts were way beyond the ordinary, from sweet sticky rice to an egg custard with coconut milk.  Of particular interest was the restaurant’s first-rate wine and spirits list, including a wide range of single malt Scotches.  
     The best way to appreciate dinner there is with the 8-course menu at $50 (U.S.); a la carte, main course dishes run between $13 and $15.

LE DU
399/3 Silom 7 Alley
92-919-9969

    The word le du is Thai for “season,” the driving force for Chef Thitid Tassanakajohn (known as Chef Ton), so his set four-course ($54) and six-course ($95) menus are always changing, depending on the day’s market.
    The room itself, with an open kitchen, is modest and not easy to find, but every taxi driver knows Le Du, which has won its share of international awards.
    Chef Ton actually graduated—first in his class—from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., then worked at Eleven Madison Park, The Modern and Jean Georges; along the way receiving the Certified Sommelier recognition from the Court of Master Sommeliers.
    There is a great deal of innovation and presentation in Ton’s cooking, every dish showing precision of technique and color, from cold appetizers like khoa-chae shrimp, and tender pork balls with radish, salted fish and jasmine ice cream, to blue swimming crab cooked in prawn fat and coconut milk. Sustainable fish is used and Ton adds pungent durian curry and pickled vegetables to one species or another. Short rib of beef comes with egg noodle, cabbage and a Northern curry called khao soi, and he puts banana blossom together with egg, curry and river prawn. You may get a tot of tomato water with cream and yogurt or a cup of pineapple jelly with peanuts.
     The desserts are lovely and very refreshing, like mango panna cotta with smoked coconut ice cream.
     Le Du is well known for all the right reasons, not least by showing that Bangkok cuisine is as modern as anywhere else in Asia, buoyed by a good culinary education back in the States.

Should you tip in Bangkok restaurants?  According to Chef McDang, most restaurants include a service charge in the bill; otherwise leave ten to twenty per

NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

CIBO & VINO
2418 Broadway (at 89th Street)
212-362-0096 

    I once read that New York City has more Italian restaurants than Florence, which I find not impossible to believe, though doubtful. There’s no question Italian restaurants dwarf the number of any other kind in NYC, and whenever I’m asked a suggestion on where to dine in the city, very few ask about a French, Indian, Thai or Mexican restaurant.  No one at all has ever asked for a good Nordic spot.
    The variety of Italian restaurants in NYC is better than ever, though true regional menus are barely represented; instead, a kind of generalized Italian/Italian-American standard exists, whereby now just about every place serves pizza, carpaccio, meatballs, and tiramisu.  These places may be said to be the “neighborhood dependables.”
    The Upper West Side is not exactly rife with good Italian restaurants ,but once through the door of Cibo e Vino, you’ll be able to tell this is one of the neighborhood’s favorites. It’s good looking, cozy, with pleasing colors, hanging and potted plants, a sturdy bar up front and an outdoor patio come spring.
    The menu is of a size so as not to overtax the kitchen, whose best dishes—unusual in an Italian restaurant—are the entrees, about which more in a moment. Of the appetizers, the Portuguese octopus is an admirable staple, seared and served with fingerling potatoes, plump Kalamata olives, capers and grape tomatoes ($14), and a house specialty is the crispy, seasoned cauliflower with a rich truffled béchamel ($14), which never leaves the menu.
    The four pastas I sampled were good, if not outstanding.  Spinach and ricotta-stuffed ravioli had a pleasant sun-dried tomato sauce ($20), but a “traditional” tagliatelle Bolognese ($19) lacked the requisite complexity of vegetables, instead incorporating too much tomato to be traditional.  Spaghetti carbonara ($19) correctly used guanciale bacon and cracked black pepper, but adding heavy cream and parmigiano instead of pecorino was ill advised.  Cavatelli (all pastas are home made) was very good, with wild mushrooms and a truffle porcini emulsion ($19), while squid ink taglioni with shrimp, calamari, prosciutto, chili flakes and tomato ($22) was a fairly standard rendering.
    I really liked the impeccably cooked Mediterranean branzino fillet ($25) with rainbow cauliflower, sweet eggplant, capers, grape tomatoes and Kalamata olives to give it a wide range of flavorings, and a very juicy roasted Amish chicken ($26) had plenty of inherent taste, appended with wild mushrooms and spinach.  Hefty short ribs braised for a long while in red wine were succulent to the bone, served with tender green beans and creamy polenta ($29). A Milanese-style pounded chicken breast with avocado and baby arugula was just bland ($24) and needed seasoning.  The PB&J with a chocolate glaze is the dessert to finish with (right).
    I don't know why but Cibo e Vino’s website doesn’t cite its owners Marjanne Motamedi and Dragam Ristovski, who is the executive chef, and while lively the place lacks a discernible personality. Still the staff is friendly, the wine list fine, and, if you put yourself in an Upper West Side state of mind, you'll have a good time at C&V.