For some years now, one of my guilty pleasures has been The New York Times Style Magazine, otherwise known as “T.” It’s the Gray Lady’s decidedly glossier offspring, deliciously glazed with page after page of eye-candy, alongside adverts for overpriced shoes and faintly ludicrous watches. Amidst its many affectations and indulgences, my favourite is the T 25 series. This haute bucket list is an addictive barometer of what’s best and brightest in design, literature, fashion, architecture, and—most crucially—food. Gorgeously executed, the writing is both informed and intoxicatingly aspirational. You finish reading, imbued with insider knowledge, ready to dazzle in the game of “of course, I’ve been there, read that, bought this, eaten that,” freshly fluent in the language of competitive, vicarious living.

When it comes to food, T 25 has covered hotspots like Paris, Mexico City, and, naturally, New York. Most recently, it was “The 25 Essential Pasta Dishes to Eat in Italy,” a daring culinary throw-down if ever there was one. Picture the editorial meetings—intense roundtable debates in the style of the Algonquin Hotel’s Vicious Circle, with a coterie of industry heavyweights—food writers, novelists, chefs, restaurateurs, and food historians—arguing the merits of fusilli versus farfalle with the fervour of medieval theologians, zeroing in on the morsels that define the culinary Zeitgeist of an entire country. Little wonder the latest pasta piece involved no fewer than 14 contributing writers. I would have loved to be a fly on that wall—the back-and-forth would make for brilliant podcast material.

Perhaps one day, T Magazine’s Editor, Hanya Yanagihara, and her team will cast their T 25 gaze towards Bangkok. Until then, it got me pondering—what are the essential dishes to eat in Thailand’s capital? Why wait for The New York Times?

First, I had to contemplate the enormity of the task. How do you narrow it down in a city where eateries spring up as often as monsoon rain showers? Sure, the exercise is bonkers, but Bangkok has always attracted those willing to be challenged, for whom a ‘comfort zone’ isn’t essential and who yearn for more than a fleeting dalliance with absurdity. If you wanted sanity, you’d have opted for Singapore.

If you come to Bangkok solely to eat your way through its disparate districts, well done. Beyond sheer deliciosity, the eating here is a smorgasbord of social history and culture, enthusiastically prepared and finished with freshly cracked chaos. The air, perpetually thick with humidity, is the perfect conduit for food scents from street stalls and beyond, where the sacred and the profane collide over a plate that might be rapturous or, just as likely, a challenge to all rationale. Here, the food is as complex as it is contradictory—much like the city itself.

To tackle this Herculean endeavour, I’m embarking on a long-form writing series. Over the next month (or two), I’ll unveil my 25 essential dishes to eat in Bangkok. This is not a ranking; I’ll leave that to you. I’m eschewing photos—yes, how quaintly retro—since we are already drowning in a deluge of them. Instead, I’ll rely on the good old-fashioned written word and your imagination to conjure the flavours and aromas. Old school, perhaps, but if you’ve made it this far down the rabbit hole of my writing, then indulge me in this nostalgic exercise.

Armed with nothing but an empty stomach and an irrepressible urge to put pen to paper (or, more realistically, fingers to keyboard), I’m diving headfirst into Bangkok’s congested food scene. Follow me as I dig in fork-first and wax lyrical about my epicurean escapades for your reading pleasure. A bit of wit, wonder, and more than a dash of irreverence—what could possibly go wrong?

Sounds like a recipe for some delicious writing.

Read Part One:

SOM TAM: Knowing How You Like Yours Pounded