Sawadee ka! Let’s jump straight in.

You’re here because I promised to take you on a trip to Thailand (or perhaps because I promised to share my Jewish-Asian chicken soup recipe). Leave your passport in the sock drawer – you don’t need it to order like a Bangkok local from the comfort of your couch, learn about lesser-known Thai dishes from people who know them best, cook coconut and pandan sorghum porridge or watch me make a fool of myself unboxing Thai snacks (hello, crepe cake!).So, why start in Thailand? It’s the last place I visited before lockdown. I travelled there with Palisa Anderson from Sydney’s Chat Thai in late February and was in my #EatCuriously element alongside other bottomless stomachs, question askers and open-minded eaters. We were fed like family at Palisa’s mum’s farm in Hua Hin, ate our way through Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown, explored markets and more. The juicy details will be covered when the Seasoned Traveller website launches, but for now, consider this newsletter a primer. Words can’t communicate how much more there is to this exhilarating cuisine than pad thai.Over to you: did you cancel a trip this year? Hit this link to email me where you were heading – I’ll do my best to find something from there that you can eat at home. Your destination could even be my next newsletter.

VIDEO » Eat Curiously at Home: Jinda Thai

Determined to relive my travels, I picked up three off-menu dishes from Jinda Thai in Abbotsford, including bright pink yen ta fo noodle soup.

CHAT » Food + Family with Prem, Jinda Thai

Off-menu nam prik kapi from Jinda Thai, a chilli dipping sauce made with with fermented shrimp paste.

When Jinda opened in 2013, it introduced me to authentic Thai food – as in the kind you eat in Thailand. It was here I first slurped boat noodles thickened with blood and marvelled at pla rad prik fried tamarind fish, curled as if it were mid-leap when rigor mortis hit.

Before returning from Thailand in March, my last trip was at least 15 years ago. Only now have I realised how deserving Jinda is of its authenticity label. To Prem Tanpapat, one of the second-generation owners, the most authentic thing about Thai food is how it’s eaten. “I think the tradition of having dinner at home is the best in Thai culture,” she tells me. “You don’t eat different courses, you eat everything together at the same time. You have to have fried food, soup, nam prik – something for dipping on the side – you have to have rice. That’s the full menu.”Prem moved to Melbourne from Nonthaburi in 2004 when she was 14 years old. Up until then, she’d lived with her grandparents. Her grandmother, Jinda, sold fruit and vegetables and her grandfather was a respected chef on a train line. “He was amazing,” says Prem, “normally he cooked with the royal family, so his crew was specialised. Because he travelled, he’d get different produce from everywhere.”Prem’s grandparents sold street-style boat noodles, now one of Jinda’s signature dishes. Once they stopped working, they made Prem more traditional food like nam prik gapi and gaeng som, available off-menu at Jinda (watch the video here). These dishes are served in Bangkok’s khao gaeng shops, where customers pick simple dishes from bain-maries to eat over rice. “My father moved from Bangkok to work for the government. Now, when I go visit him in the northeast, there is no khao gaeng shop, you can only get that in Bangkok,” says Prem. “To me, that reflects Bangkok lifestyle.”During Jinda’s first two years, 60 per cent of its customers were Thai, but as it became popular they dropped off; according to Prem, Thais don’t like to wait. When the COVID-19 government restrictions hit, Jinda’s customers jumped back up to 80 per cent Thai as people craved a taste of home. Prem and her family are using this time as an opportunity to cook dishes that make them feel nostalgic. “The kitchen doesn’t have to operate at the same pace. My family is gathered at the restaurant instead of home... It’s a good time to develop what you already have and put it out there,” she says.

Call the restaurant to order off-menu dishes, or order takeaway/delivery here.1-7 Ferguson St, Abbotsford, 9419 5899 or 0430 931 881

In Melbourne? Eat better Thai food in iso. Try:

- Nana Thai for mookata (Thai BBQ) & hand-cut som tam (green papaya salad)

- Jing Jai Thai for guay chub (rolled rice noodles) & grilled chicken with house-made purple noodles- Soi 38 for Isaan food & boat noodles

RECIPE » 3-Step Thai Roadside Dessert Porridge

On the road from Bangkok to Hua Hin in Phetchaburi, you’ll drive right by a khanom wan dessert store called Nok Noi. An extremely elegant lady with her hair slicked back in a ballerina bun commands a display of more than 40 traditional desserts, the recipes passed down from her grandmother. This recipe is inspired by the flavours of that store. You can find the ingredients in any Asian grocer.

Feeds 41 cup sorghum3 pandan leaves, defrosted100g palm sugar*1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp paste)1 can tropical fruit (I chose jackfruit and toddy palm)2 cans coconut milkGenerous pinch saltKaffir lime rind to garnish (regular lime, if you must) *If you don’t like it sweet, use 50g. You can always make palm sugar syrup (or use the syrup from the canned fruit) on top.1. Slow simmer the sorghum, pandan leaves, palm sugar and vanilla in water, adding more liquid until it’s your preferred texture. I like it soft and nubbly, about seven cups added gradually. Remove the vanilla and leaves. Set aside.2. Mix the coconut milk with a pinch of salt, until you can taste it clearly.3. Spoon some porridge into a bowl (hot or cold), pour over coconut milk and arrange with fruit. This is technically a dessert, but is totally acceptable for breakfast!

Well-known people, lesser-known dishes

Palisa Anderson, Chat Thai group and Boonluck Organic Farm, Sydney

Thai tip: In Sydney, Palisa’s restaurants are delivering, Jarern Chai Thai grocer is taking orders through Facebook messenger and those in Byron Bay and Sydney can pick up immaculate, organic produce from Boonluck Farm.

Palisa and Andy preparing a feast at Palisa Farm in Hua Hin. Image: @kittigould

Andy Ricker, cookbook author and chef-owner Pok Pok, PortlandYou might have heard of laap, a spicy northeastern Thai dish made from mince, but laap meuang, hailing from the north, is its less popular cousin. It's made with one of several proteins, but Andy says the most common version in the north is laap khwai dip, or raw buffalo with blood, bile and chopped offal. “Though the Isaan version which involves minced meat and offal, herbs, rice powder, salt, chilli and lime juice is more well known, even ubiquitous, outside of the Land Of Smiles, laap meuang is far more interesting and flavourful, IMO,” he says.Thai tip: there's a recipe for laap meunang in Andy’s cookbook, Pok Pok, Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand.Vherachid “Top” Kijthavee, Soi 38, MelbourneOriginally from Bangkok, when Top travelled south to Nakhon Si Thammarat last year to visit his girlfriend’s hometown, the first thing on his agenda was to eat regional cuisine. The province is famed for kanom jeen nam prik, fresh rice vermicelli noodles, sometimes mildly fermented, served with minced prawn curry perfumed with kaffir lime, seasonal vegetables and a soft boiled egg. “On the first day, we went to a place around 11am and they had already run out, even though it opened at 9am. Must be good, I thought, so the day after we went very early,” says Top. What he didn’t realise was that you order by the half or full kilogram. “The curry and the veggies were unlimited. It was a brilliant experience eating the dish.”Thai tip: Soi 38 has traditional noodles and Isaan food available to takeaway. Delivery via Uber Eats and EASI.

SPOTLIGHT » Lamaro’s Thai New Year feast supports international staff

From Thursday to Saturday, Geoff Lindsay, executive chef and co-owner of Lamaro’s Hotel in South Melbourne (and Dandelion in Elwood), is handing over the kitchen to international staff. That means those ineligible for government support get to keep their jobs, and we get to taste their homelands. It kicks off tomorrow with chef Khim Tharnchai’s Songkran banquet, six courses for $60pp, including pla yang grilled tamarind fish in banana leaf and red curry brisket made with galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime and coconut cream (“it’s very signature,” says Khim). Khim has a degree in filmmaking from Thailand, has lived in Australia for five years and worked at Lamaro’s for nearly two.“Songkran brings all the people back to the family, and now it’s a very good time to stay home and have a meal together, try the different tastes and the fantastic aromatic herbs,” says Khim. “People can enjoy a lot from other cultures that are different.”Call to order on 9690 3737 (give them 24 hours’ notice). Pick up from Lamaro’s, 273-279 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, noon-6pm or $20 delivery within 8km.

Spread curiosity, not coronvirus

If this newsletter transported you somewhere, even just for a moment, please forward it to someone who might like it.And should you find yourself cooking or ordering Thai food off the back of it, remember to share your #EatCuriously snaps and tag @SeasonedTravellerHQ (socials linked below) so I can repost them.

Khop khun kha to Palisa Anderson, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Thai Airways.