A huge part of traveling for us is experiencing different countries’ and cultures’ food. And while Vikram may always be loyal to Malaysian food, Thai food tops my list of favorite cuisines. I would have said this before the trip, and now after going to Thailand I believe it more definitively. (Though currently, Vietnamese food is giving it a run for its money.)

Spicy, sweet, salty, sour—Thai food is all of the above. Everything tastes so rich and flavorful, but it’s also not so heavy that it’s impossible to eat every day.

And over our 24 days, I did enjoy Thailand’s food every day. Specifically, we indulged in it in three ways…

First Way: Street Food Tour in Bangkok

One of our first introductions to Thai cuisine was through a street food tour with Bangkok Food Tours. Our guide TK took our group across the city by tuk tuk at night, hopping from joint to joint and sampling a huge assortment of traditional Thai dishes, from fried noodles to mango sticky rice and everything in between.

A great part of the tour was learning from TK how to eat the different dishes properly—specifically, how to mix in different flavorings. Any Thai dining table will have little containers of sugar, chili, vinegar, soy sauce, and pepper. At first I was nervous to try too many different condiments at once, but I soon learned that my noodles tasted best when there was a mix of everything!

The tour also included built-in eating breaks during which we visited the Wat Pho temple at night (sans tourists), enjoyed beers on a riverside rooftop, and wandered around a bustling flower market.

Second Way: Cooking Class in Chiang Mai

The second way we enjoyed Thai food was by cooking it ourselves. While in Chiang Mai, a bustling but laid-back city in northern Thailand, we signed up for a cooking class with Sammy’s Organic Thai Cooking School. Our six-person group first toured a local market with Sammy, during which he picked out fresh ingredients that we’d used later in the day.

Then we drove into the countryside to his organic farm—a peaceful and luscious green oasis.

In the class, Vikram and I cooked green and red curries (including preparing the curry paste), tom yum soup, chicken with cashews, pad thai, fried spring rolls, papaya salad, and mango sticky rice. We’re hopeful that we can replicate our Thai cooking prowess once we’re home and not under Sammy’s thoughtful instruction!

(And, brilliantly, Sammy included nap time into his cooking class. Before we made the spring rolls and dessert, we all took naps in hammocks around his house. Seriously!)

Three: Just Eating Anything We Could!

The third and final way we experienced Thai food was simply eating it anywhere and everywhere we could. We pulled up stools on street corners, sat in air-conditioned restaurants, and just grabbed food to go while wandering around town.

I think the best food I ate was massaman curry at a restaurant called Papaya on Ko Phi Phi. One reviewer on TripAdvisor said that her husband would fly back from England, just for the massaman curry. Upon reading this, I was somewhat skeptical, partly because massaman curry in the states has never impressed me much (I’m much more of a panang curry girl). But we also knew we had to try it—and I totally understand the British couple now. The curry looks pretty bland in pictures, but it was oh so delicious, and I’ll never look at massaman curry the same way again.

The other contender for best food was actually some roasted noodles with pork at a random, nondescript restaurant in Chiang Mai. We picked it simply because it was cheap and close to our hostel. Sometimes the best food comes from the most unexpected places!