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A Culinary Nomad

From time to time, as I wander around, I eat things worth telling people about. So, here’s a taste!

16/05/2026

Sometimes you just need a little breakfast . . . but a big breakfast will do.

15/05/2026

That feeling when one of your favorite baristas (and people!) in Thailand asks you to bring some of his favorite coffee beans to one of your favorite baristas (and people!) in Vietnam . . .

Funnily enough, I first found both baristas at the recommendation of other cafes, and then recommended them to one another. In Bangkok, .nsch at (before she co-founded -- which is in this year's Michelin guide!) brought me to Pui's . In Saigon, a barista at (which is in Hanoi now, too!) told me Thi's would be an especially great place to drink phin coffee. (It would be another year before , doing a cafe takeover while he was in town, would point out that Thi was also Vietnam's first ever national aeropress champion.)

House of Supha is actually named for Pui's grandmother, so I told him Grandmum Cafe was like his sister cafe. (Thi, for her part, decided to call her cafe Grandmum Cafe because she wanted it to be like when you go visit your grandmother, and she brings out all the nicest things to share with you.)

A few months later, Pui happened to be in Saigon, and made a point of visiting Grandmum Cafe. And this week, before I left Bangkok, he gave me a bag of beans from one of his favorite roasters, Surfbean, to bring to her. ❤️

Some people like their coffee with ice, some people like it with foam. I like mine with ripples.

15/05/2026

Coffee in Vietnam can present certain questions that especially appeal to my inner hobbit, like "You've had one coffee, yes, but what about second coffee?"

Side note: ViDa cafe’s fine robusta is extraordinarily smooth, and is actually roasted by the cafe itself. To misquote some more Lord of the Rings: "One does not simply walk to robusta of this level. Fly, you fools!"

But, seriously, if you're not already in Saigon, get your sleepy butt on a plane. I can't drink all this coffee alone.

15/05/2026

Sometimes, happiness is that first salt coffee when you get back to Vietnam.

14/05/2026

Today’s adventures in packing hacks, fashion, and non-confession:

I’m not saying I had so much coffee from my wanderings in Hanoi and Ubud and Chiang Mai and Bangkok and last week’s World of Coffee Asia events that I wasn’t sure I could fit it all in my bags and pockets without running over the weight limits for an economy class flight to Saigon.

I’m just saying sometimes I look really good if I wear a second pair of pants under my pants instead of squeezing them into my checked bag. And I'm just suggesting that maybe carrying a laptop in a little backpack that I can wear under a jacket instead of lugging it in my carry-on might add a couple kilos of structured buff to how my upper torso can look from behind. Seriously, I’m like the Harrison Ford of coffee smugglers, Han Solo scruffy meets Indiana Jones weighing.

I’d like to thank the check-in staff for pretending they didn’t notice, and pretty much everyone in airport security for not arresting me. And I’d like to thank a whole lot of coffee peeps for sharing so many stories and smiles and samples with me. I’m really looking forward to sharing them forward.

Side note: those beans from were grown by a young farmer in the Philippines who brings them to the cafe for roasting by ziplining down from a mountain (possibly a volcano?) to deliver them in person. So, they’ve seen some pretty adventurous travel hacks.

14/05/2026

A few last tastes of Bangkok . . . . . until my next few tastes of Bangkok. ❤️

See you in a few hours, Saigon. 😊

03/05/2026

Sometimes, you just need to eat a New York style pizza topped with Korean style fried chicken made by a couple guys from Canada on the main street of Chinatown in Bangkok.

I don't make the rules. I just digest them. Joyously.

21/04/2026

One of my favorite Monday morning rituals is to stop by Old Town Cafe Bangkok for a roast pork sandwich and an iced americano or an Old Town Muddy (matcha latte with a shot of espresso), snap a naughty photo of their "no photo" sign, wonder at their own giant camera, and then get their enthusiastic advice about where to go to lunch, sometimes with a hand written note, in Thai, to let the restaurant know what they think I should get.

Maybe later that day, maybe later that week, some unsuspecting chef a few blocks away will start to hand me a menu, or point to pictures on the wall, and I'll slip them a little piece of paper and they'll just start smiling, sometimes giggling. And I get to eat something amazing I might never have found on my own, and, an experience on its own, I get to be the bridge between businesses and neighbors, passing a note that immediately lets a chef know their neighbors appreciate them, and recognize their craft, and want to support them. They could have taken my order in English just fine, but sneaking them a note from Old Town lets me say so much more.

Funnily enough, I only know about Old Town because the owner of my favorite chocolate cafe in Chiang Mai, .chocolatierhouse , looked over my shoulder one day and said "Bagel!" to introduce me to the founders of my favorite bagel shop in Thailand, (try the crispy onion!), who introduced me to Old Town Cafe in Bangkok a month or two later.

Sitting around the corner from today's amazing lunch, a recommendation from one friend introduced to me by another introduced to me by another, as I eat one of the best mangoes in the world at Kor Panich for dessert, the whole neighborhood tastes like love.

Thanks, everybody. ❤️

19/04/2026

Today's adventures in fusion and kindness: my favorite NY slice in Asia, Cowabunga Pizzeria Bangkok, is experimenting with a krapao pizza, but I didn't see it on the menu yesterday, so I didn't realize I could actually already order one. So, just to be nice at both a "We make pizza" and a "We're Canadian" *and* a "This is Thailand" level, they decided to send a surprise pie to my favorite weekend-only cafe on Earth, House of Supha 春娥之家 , because they knew I'd be hanging out there today.

And it definitely made an impression.

Have I mentioned I love this city?

Side note: everyone I shared the pizza with was actually Thai, and everyone agreed the krapao was excellent. Cowabunga actually does a fresh stir fry for each pie, so you can let them know how much spice you can handle. (If, like me, you take a monster bite all at once because it's just so good, you can tame the fire a bit by eating the crust.)

Side side note: pause for a moment to consider how awesome a cafe must be if I'm excited to share a pizza with everybody in it. Funnily enough, someone else had already decided to share some yummy snacks, and another regular dropped off a cheesecake. Seriously, have I mentioned I love this city?

18/04/2026

Don't worry, Mom. I'm not just eating coffee.

Side note: if you're in The Big Mango, you're allowed to put a pineapple on it. 🍍 🍕

17/04/2026

Sometimes, home is where you find your treasures. Sometimes, home is where you share them. Sometimes, both.

Bringing a little love and a *lot* of caffeine from Ubud to Bangkok.

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