This is my first column for year 2003. I hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe 5-day holiday. I spent most of my time in the last few remaining days of year 2002 travelling back and forth from Bangkok to Chiang Rai. At the end of year 2001 I had asked my cousin M.L. Sudavadee Kriangkrai after visiting her resort, Phu Jai Sai in Chiang Rai, to build me a house as a retreat from all the madness in Bangkok. Building started in January of last year and it was finally finished just before New Year. I thought she would build me a small house but it turned out to be a fairly spacious. The architecture is typical of Pe Dah’s concept of her resort at Phu Jai Sai, which uses bamboo as the predominant material for building the house.

               Needless to say that I am very proud of my new home and plan to come up to Chiang Rai more often to get away from it all. I had wanted to write my last column for last year by reviewing some of my favorite restaurants from all four regions of Thailand but I did not get to it. So without further ado I will use my first column for year 2003 to go over some of my favorite restaurants in Thailand’s four regions. I was asked by Daily News to write my column in Thai and choose only one restaurant for each region and I found it very difficult to choose because there were so many criteria’s that I had to use in choose.

               There is also the problem of pricing and the type of cuisine and since I am going to do this review in English I will choose more than one restaurant per region. Lets start with Bangkok as the central region I particularly like the Guay Jup, which is a thick flat rice noodle stew topped with various slices of stewed offal meats and star Anise scented Chinese broth. It is sold at an unpretentious shop house on Udom Sook road. This restaurant is called Udonsook Pojana. They serve their specialty Guay Jup in the evening but during the day they have braised pork legs over rice, which is delicious. Their fish ball green curry with gourd is also remarkably good and you should not miss their lightly battered fried pork slices which are marinated in garlic, peppercorns and coriander roots.

               The food here is very good and what I particularly like about this place is that the owner is very kindhearted and very personable. The price is also very cheap although if you expect air-conditioned comfort and tablecloth you will have to go elsewhere because this is truly a local place.

               For Italian restaurant that I really enjoyed and since I have written about it I have not been able to get a table for myself once, I really liked that homey atmosphere of La Piola. It’s very friendly and it felt like going to eat at your Italian grand mother’s home.

               For a more upscale Italian restaurant you will have to go to Zanotti on Soi Saladaeng. The food is always good and I particularly like to go when the chef has just come back from a visit home because he will always bring back wonderful goodies from his homeland. For Chinese I liked Gai Tong or golden chicken in

               Muang Tong Thani or the pricey but excellent Chinese cuisine at Lee Kitchen on 4^th floor Thaniya Plaza. Going North, if you were in Chiang Rai you should try the Yunan Chinese food at the boarder town of Mae Sai, called Ying Ping Yunan. For a quick lunch in the city of Chiang Rai you should try the noodle soup at Guay Tiew Nua Rote Yiem which translated means delicious tasting beef noodle soup.

               As you leave the north and turn left towards the eastern region of Thailand the food becomes spicier with very pronounced taste. In Khon Kaen you can enjoy warm ground duck salad called Larb Ped at Tui Larb Ped which serve this wonderful local food in a restaurant by the railway tracks.

               For those of you who has a very delicate stomach it is not advisable for you to try this local specialty because the food here is very local and they prepare the food with only taste in mind not hygiene.

               And if you were in Ubonrachathani you should go try Som Tum or Papaya salad at Som Tum Pornthip. They have been famous for their grilled free ranging chicken and som tum for years.

               Going south, the food here ranges from fresh seafood to very hot and spicy local dishes like Kua Gling which is stirfry ground beef or pork with ground fresh chili peppers and other herbs and spices.

               There is also a large muslim population in the south where you can find Muslim food and Malaysian style cuisine as Nasi Dagaer, coconut scented rice served with curried tuna.

               This particular dish is eaten for breakfast and can be found in Pattani at the CS Pattani hotel or at the market where they start selling it very early in the morning.

               In Surathani you can get very good fresh seafood including fish balls slightly poached and served with garlic oil and a spicy fermented soybean sauce. It is at the Wang Tai Hotel where you can also savor fresh Pompano fish in a steamboat.

               There are so many places I have written about and there is not enough space in my column to fit them all in so I have published a McDang Guide book in a form of a pocket book with maps and all details of the restaurants and the recommended dishes. This book is now on sale and is available at most bookstores.