Eat a lot: Lodd Thai Imbiss, Neukölln

Thai restaurants are a dime a dozen here in Berlin. They're usually of a fairly poor standard. Vegetables from a tin, watery curry sauces, touristy dishes (Pad Thai, anyone?) only. That kind of thing. To be fair, once you have eaten Thai food in Thailand, that's it, you've ruined your Thai restaurant experience for ever...

Way back when I still lived in London, I devised a Thai Restaurant Rule: if they ain't servin' cha yen (Thai ice tea, sweet and sticky with its typical rusty brown colour), it ain't worth visitin'. It helped me separate the wheat from the chaff, or so I thought. In reality it meant that there were only two places I could go to in the whole of London town.

Cha yen (or what was left when I remembered to take a picture)

Needless to say I got very excited when I discovered that the Lodd Thai Imbiss, a stone's throw from my house, is worth a visit according to my own rule. When you order, they ask you how hot you like your food which is VERY Thai indeed. So is the inside of the place: tacky, slightly random and crammed full of pictures of colourful cocktails, elephants, flowers and the King. (There will always be a picture of the King. The Thai are extremely royalist.)

I know other people have visited this place and found it average. I liked it because they made the food from scratch (I could see into the kitchen), using fresh ingredients. They did tasty things to my tofu which is always a plus in my book, and the food was exactly the kind of hot I ordered. Oh, and the soup bowls were cute.

I'm sure there are better Thai restaurants in town (there will certainly be posher ones). But at least I won't ever have to go to that horrible Jasmin place on Hermannstraße again.

Lodd Thai Imbiss, Boddinstraße 65, 12053 Berlin

Work a lot: Roast Niyom Coffee, Chiang Mai

The area, on the studenty side of Chiang Mai, is renowned for its good coffee. And with Chiang Mai being the coffee capital of Thailand, that's saying something. But still... Driving there at noon on a sunny October day, through a labyrinth of dusty roads and smelly exhaust fumes breathed out by a thousand fellow mopeds, I couldn't quite find what I was hoping for: coffee heaven. 

(My quest reminded me of driving around Los Angeles, looking for the city centre. I couldn't quite find it then either.) I found a bakery selling the most divine, buttery milk buns. I found a little restaurant with an outdoor kitchen serving blue noodles. But a cute coffee place to linger away a few hours? Not in sight.

The milk bun factory

There were coffee places all right. Big, McDonald's style set-ups, with overhead menu's, meal deals and stark interiors. Places too empty to contemplate actually sitting down in. Who wants to drink their coffee alone, in a vast space, without a buzz or any people watching to be done?

When I was about ready to drive off again, mission unsuccessful apart from the cardboard box full of milky buns I scored, I passed it: the coffee place I was hoping to find. Along a busy road, in the parking lot of a rather awful residential building that also housed the café's toilet (a bit of a trek, admittedly) - it was hardly the ideal location. But inside I found an oasis of air con coolness, Thai quiet busy-ness and free wifi. In the middle of the café, a tree was protruding through the ceiling. 

It's bird! It's a plane! No, it's a massive tree trunk

The coffees were made to perfection, with an eye for detail that only the Asians seem to possess.

The place was filled with young people working on laptops or having informal meetings. I felt a pang of regret at not having my laptop with me nor having any work to do. This would be a wonderful office away from home. (Here I was, on holiday, wishing I was working... What was going on?) It turned out to be my favourite Chiang Mai hangout. I did the only thing I could and wiled away a few consecutive mornings there, slowly sipping my coffee to make it last. With a milky bun on the side.

Roast Niyom Coffee, Siri Mangkalajam Road, Chiang Mai, Thailand, facebook