Som Tam Nua, Bangkok

Som Tam Nua (392/14 Siam Square Soi 5, Bangkok 10330) ended up being the only eatery on my list that we visited. Conveniently located at Siam Square, it is a casual two-storey restaurant that fills up during peak hours; thankfully, we got in minutes before the regular lunch hour and easily scored ourselves a spacious table - then again, it was just right for the two of us but would have fit four very skinny Thais.

The eatery is CNNGo's winner for Bangkok's best som tam restaurant, thus we most certainly had to place an order for their som tam. It's pretty good - tangy, refreshing and dusty with the novel addition of crunchy pork rinds.

The spicy meatball soup was surprisingly good too, despite my adversion towards tom yum. It might have caused my stomach to backflip a couple of times but I couldn't help lap up that fiery, puckerish broth.

Another mandatory put-your-baby's-name-down-on-preschool-waitlist order is their fried chicken wings. With this much effort gone into preparing the chicken, I'm not surprised this dish is a deep-fried triumph of garlicky proportions.

We wanted phad thai but accidentally ordered this fried mee sua with pork floss and pork rinds. Though it looks like a mess, it was messily and massively tasty. Something new to be had if you are Thai-yeared of pad thai.