Plan the trip around the food.

The formats worth knowing

Night markets. Every Thai town has one, and the big cities have several: the walking streets of Chiang Mai and Phuket Town on weekends, the railway and canal markets, the vast Chatuchak in Bangkok. Eat as you go, in small portions, following the smoke and the queues.

Street stalls and shophouses. The single-dish specialists are the glory of Thai eating: one family, one wok, one dish perfected over decades, sometimes with a Michelin Bib Gourmand on the wall. Lunch is the main event; many famous stalls close by mid afternoon or when they sell out.

Floating markets. Damnoen Saduak is the famous one and the most tourist-shaped; Amphawa, an hour further, is the local favourite, busiest on weekend evenings when the fireflies come out on the river.

Food courts and mall basements. Bangkok's malls run serious food floors where regional dishes from the whole country sit under one roof, air-conditioned: a useful first survey of what to hunt down in its home province.

The regional dishes worth the trip

Bangkok: boat noodles near Victory Monument, pad thai at the old town specialists, and Chinatown (Yaowarat) after dark, when the wok stalls take over the street. Chiang Mai and the north: khao soi, the coconut curry noodle soup that defines the city; sai ua sausage; nam prik with pork crackling. Isan, the north east: som tam, larb, grilled chicken and sticky rice, the country's most imitated regional cooking. The south: the fiery end of the scale: gaeng som, khua kling, and Phuket's Peranakan dishes, mee hokkien and oh tao oyster omelettes. The coasts: seafood at Hua Hin's pier restaurants and the night markets of every island.