Thailand is something of a meat-laden obstacle course for vegetarians and vegans -- vegetable dishes are flavoured with meat, vats of pork broth bring meaty savouriness to otherwise vegetarian noodles, and everything is salted with a lashing of fish sauce. You've got to know your enemy to defeat it. Here in the kingdom "vegetarian eating" often means "well, there's not that much meat in it, so it's vegetarian". Purism is rejected in all its forms in Thailand, be it gender identity or governance, so why would food be any different?

Vegetarian Thai food: EAT ALL THE (NON-MEAT) THINGS.

So how to stick to the ideological purity of eating choices when street eating in Bangkok? Enter a great guide written by Mark Wiens: The Vegetarian Thai Food Guide. Mark has been living in Thailand for three years and runs eatingthaifood.com, a website devoted to Thai street food.

This is the second e-book published by Mark about Thai street food (the first one was reviewed here last year), but this one focuses solely on eating Thai street food as a vegetarian. Born out of a commitment to try and eat vegetarian for a month, the book became a guide to eating normal street food adapted for vegetarians and vegans.

It's a liberating work for people who are tired of seeking out specific "vegetarian" cafes or restaurants and instead just want some fried noodles on a street corner. Available in pdf format, the 81-page book is easy to print off or reference from a smart phone while travelling -- it costs US$7.

Vegetarian Thai Food Guide: what it says on the can.

Our quick Q&A with the author, Mark Wiens:

TF: What surprised you most about trying to eat only vegetarian in Thailand?

MW: I was pleasantly surprised that I could eat vegetarian and still enjoy quite a few of the signature flavours of Thai cuisine. As a lover of vibrant tastes, I was still able to take full advantage or sour limes, spicy chillies, and the host of fragrant spices and herbs available in Thailand.

Also, throughout the month I was surprised that I didn't miss meat, I honestly didn't even crave it because so many of the vegetarian dishes I ate were superbly flavourful.

TF: Can you summarise the difference between the "vegetarian" mindset in Thailand and the one in North America, Europe or Australia?

MW: In Thailand, there are two distinguishable vegetarian oriented terms. Mangsawirat (มังสวิรัติ) can be compared to an easygoing vegetarian (similar to an ovo-lacto vegetarian to get technical) -- a person who eats eggs, dairy products, meat-based soups and sauce, but just refrains from eating visible chunks of meat.

Jay (เจ) refers to someone who eats no meat, no seafood, no animal products, no garlic, and not even a few herbs or vegetables that have too pungent of a flavor -- more similar to veganism, but even a bit more strict.

Each of these terms have a Thai set of norms and rules associated with it. For instance, if you say you eat "mangsawirat," to a Thai cook it would for sure mean you can eat fish sauce (even if you don't). Likewise, if you tell a chef you eat "jay," it means that you can't eat any sort of meat or even garlic (again, regardless of whether you want it or not).

TF: When your month was over, what was the vegetarian dish that you discovered during the month that you keep going back to?

MW: Two dishes come to mind. The first is pad pak ruam prik gaeng (ผัดผักรวมพริกแกง), a mixture of vegetables stir fried in red chilli curry sauce. The second is pad gra pao het (ผัดกระเพราเห็ด), stir-fried mushrooms with holy basil.

Tags: mark wiens, street food, vegetarian food, Vegetarian Thai Food Guide

I love reading about a place that I am travelling through, and all-the-better if the book makes me squirm with horrible recognition:

This is how we count the days. June: the Germans come to the islands -- football cleats, big T-shirts, thick tongues -- speaking like spitting. July: the Italians, the French, the British, the Americans. The Italians like pad thai, its affinity with spaghetti. They like fabrics, sun glasses, leather sandals. The French like plump girls, rambutans, disco music, baring their breasts. The British are here to work on their pasty complexions, their penchant for hashish. Americans are the fattest, the stingiest of the bunch. They may pretend to like pad thai or grilled prawns or the occasional curry, but twice a week they need their culinary comforts, their hamburgers and their pizzas. They're also the worst drunks. Never get too close to a drunk American. August brings the Japanese. Stay close to them. Never underestimate the power of the yen.

Cover of Sightseeing, by Rattawut Lapcharoensap

So starts the first story in Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, a series of short stories (and one novella) first published in 2004. The stories aren't all about stereotypes of foreigners, but some of them do touch on the tricky relationship between the tourist and the touristed. There's a delicate story about first love between a young Thai boy and a Burmese immigrant who lives illegally in a shack next to his apartment building, which ends in xenophobic tears, and a lengthy piece of beauty titled "At the Cafe Lovely" which deals with loss, nihilism, drug use, and fast food. It's not all weepy tears, but these are not stories that are easily discounted.

The final piece in the collection is a novella proper that explores a small town ruled by a strong man. The young protagonist learns the roles that she was unknowingly born into, and watches as her father powerlessly struggles against his artificially-created fate.

Rattawut was born in Chicago and grew up in Thailand -- his prose is tight and fast moving, and it's an illuminating view behind the curtain in a country that strains to put its best foot forward for visiting foreigners. I loved this book, as much for its vibrant characters as for the fact that they are damaged people in a damaged world. While the stories are not about pleasant subjects (fickle love, losing what's important, xenophobia, the hopelessness of despair, despotism), they are not depressing. They are heartbreaking. And the writing is sharp.

So much written about the Kingdom is happy advertising copy; it's refreshing to consider that there is a darker side to all of those smiles.

"Thailand is only a paradise for fools and farangs, for criminals and foreigners," says the mother of one of the characters -- get to the bookshop and read this right now, and see if she's right.

Also available from Kinokuniya Books, located in Siam Paragon, Emporium, and CentralWorld shopping centres. You can see another review here.

Tags: fiction

Bangkok is one of the best cities in the world for street food (I would argue the best, but proof is not actually in the pudding as the pudding quality is unfortunately subjective). There are noodles and rice and fish and pork and, uh that green looking thing and that mushroom that looks like a rock, and that other thing that looks like pudding but it's maybe made from blood?

Drooling on the digital pages.

If the variety is both fascinating and astounding, the breadth of such a movable feast can prove an obstacle to making a decision. And it's such a pity (although, arguably a fairly delicious pity) to spend a two week holiday in Thailand only eating pad thai and green curry simply because you don't know what else there is to try.

Enter a newly published guide to Thai food written by Mark Wiens, author of the blog Migration Mark and co-curator of www.eatingthaifood.com. In Eating Thai Food Guide, Mark has broken down Thai food into three categories, including seafood, Isaan food, and everything else, and lays out some good ground rules for ordering a Thai meal.

Whether eating from a cart in a back alley in Bangkok, trekking through Northern Thailand, or ordering at your local Thai restaurant at home, this guide categorises and makes easy to understand the essentials of Thai cuisine.

Helpful for travellers, there are tips for dining alone, for vegetarians and vegans, and a language guide so you order exactly what you want. For travellers to their local Thai restaurant at home, there are plenty of descriptions and information about other dishes you may want to give a shot.

The lay out of the guide isn't as clear as it could be, but it's a definite must for the adventurous Thai food eater. The author has lived in Thailand for over two years, and this work really shows his love of eating, and his willingness to go anywhere and eat anything.

Referenced in the book (and available free on his blog) are maps and guides to street food areas and specific restaurants in Bangkok. Copies of Eating Thai Food Guide are available here for US$7 -- print it out and get ready to get it greasy!

In 1951, the West was introduced to a fictional version of Siam (Thailand's name until 1939) through the mega-success of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. Based on the 1944 Magaret Landon novel Anna and the King of Siam, the story follows Anna, an English teacher from London, as she makes her way through her new life at the Siamese court, finding time for a little royal lust along the way. In Thailand, the story is considered to be completely offensive, in large part due to its disrespectful portrayal of the King.

Less intense than it looks.

Nearly 100 years before the musical, the real life Anna was living and working in Bangkok's Royal Palace. The English Governess at the Siamese Court is an autobiographical memoir by Anna Hariette Leonowens describing her six years spent in the Siamese capital.

Originally published in 1870, The English Governess at the Siamese Court traces Leonowens' years as an English instructor at the palace. The memoir is a fascinating read for many reasons, including seeing firsthand what sparked the now famous, and largely fictional, romance between Anna and the King. Her records may not be textbook factual, but the opportunity to glimpse Bangkok through the eyes of a Westerner in the early 1860s is captivating.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the memoir is the complete and total time travel it affords. Through Anna's descriptions of royal ceremonies such as the cutting of the heir to the throne's hair, or the symbolism of white elephants, the complexities of life in the court come into focus. Through details of palace gossip, daily routines and daily struggles comes the picture of a wild yet beautiful life, almost completely foreign to the West.

I found the most memorable and compelling passages to be descriptions of the actual city of Bangkok. These days as you travel by Skytrain and subway, zipping past (or underneath) skyscrapers and through traffic, it is nearly impossible to imagine Bangkok as a city at the whim of nature. At the time Anna was living here, Bangkok was still struggling to tame the forests around it, with houses and shops being seldom more than rafts on the Chao Phraya river.

"At night the city is hung with thousands of covered lights, that illuminate the wide river from shore to shore. Lamps and lanterns of all imaginable shapes, colours, and sizes combine to form a fairy spectacle of enchanting brilliancy and beauty. The floating tenements and shops, the masts of vessels, the tall, fantastic pagodas with minarets, and, crowning all, the walls and towers of the Grand Palace, flash with countless charming tricks of light, and compose a scene of more than magic novelty and beauty."

While so much of the city has changed with time, what is perhaps even more remarkable is how so many of the observations and sentiments noted by Anna are things still palpable here today.

It might not be a conventional page turner but the memoir is a fascinating look at the Bangkok of 150 years ago. The book's passages and illustrations make for a great then-and-now comparison while exploring the city.

Tags: Anna and the King, history, royalty, The King and I

Thailand is easy to put on a postcard. Find some palm trees in front of the Andaman sea, or an elephant holding a mango, or a bunch of smiling eight-year old novices in orange robes and you can go to press. Trying to understand what those kids are smiling about requires a bit more searching. Letters from Thailand goes some way toward helping.

Terrible cover art, amazing story inside

The novel is full of interesting characters. I found myself alternatively rooting for, and dismayed by, the main character, Tan Suang U, a Chinese immigrant who comes to Thailand immediately after World War II. The story follows him and his family as this wave of Chinese immigration slowly integrates into broader Thai culture.

It's an interesting look into an issue that Thailand still wrestles with today: who, exactly, are Thais? The official government definition of all who believe in "Country, Religion, King" is contested in this story, as the children desperately try to integrate while the father clings to his pride of being Chinese.

When first published in Thai in 1969, the work was criticised by Thais as painting them as lazy and distracted, while the Chinese community denounced it for making them look greedy, inward looking, and unwilling to assimilate. All of these complaints are true, but that's where the tension of the novel comes from: everyone sees each other in an untrue light. Controversy aside, it was hungrily devoured, and with in a few years became part of the Thai standard curriculum for high school students.

This book is a great read, allowing a peek through the keyhole into Thai culture and helping non-Thai speakers understand how Thailand imagines itself into being. It also serves as a fun guide to Yaowarat Road in Bangkok's Chinatown so you too can pretend that you are an ageing Chinese immigrant while slurping up a bowl of steaming noodles.