FINDING FOOD BLOGGERS
My wife and I are food fundis and wish to meet food bloggers in Thailand and Vietnam, with whom to taste regional foods and have cookery lessons. We would like to get off the usual tourist track, and stay in three- or four-star hotels or with locals. Also, do we need injections? — Andrew Bonham
Pretty much everyone who goes to Thailand or Vietnam raves about the food, and it’s no surprise that food experiences for visitors are big business in both countries. Search for cooking lessons or food tours online and you’ll get an infinite number of results — so your interest in food bloggers helps to at least narrow things down a bit.
The main challenge for you is that bloggers are in the business of writing, and not, usually, hosting.
If your first prize is to have a blogger show you around, then your best chance is to identify a few you like, reach out to them directly, and see how they respond.
Then, of course, you can track down bloggers who have developed their business into offering tours or cooking classes too.
One such option I found in Thailand is called Bangkok Bold Kitchen, which grew from chef-founder Nhoi Ouypornchaisakul’s blog.
It offers cooking classes and hosts private dinners at a chef’s-table-style restaurant. Incidentally, the restaurant has a five-star average rating on Tripadvisor. See facebook.com/bangkokboldkitchen.
Another, less touristy way of meeting foodies and possibly food bloggers in your destination cities — once you’re actually there — is to check meetup.com.
This online social-networking site, with users around the world, helps people with similar interests to connect and to schedule events where they can actually “meet up”.
You select the city, and then type in a topic that interests you. In Bangkok, for example, a search for “cooking” throws up several meetups scheduled for the next month, including one titled “Bangkok Thai Dinner & Meeting”.
For this, you get to “cook and dine with a trained chef” and “enjoy dining with local and international people”. These meet-ups take place every Saturday.
You can participate in the cooking — though remember this is a “group event, not a private cooking class” — and then sit down and enjoy your meal with the rest of the group, which is likely to consist of an interesting mix of characters. All you have to pay to participate is 150 baht (about R60) for the organic ingredients.
I also recommend you look at Airbnb’s “Experiences” — “one-of-akind activities designed and hosted by locals”.
Again, you can search by city, and then narrow down your choices by looking in categories, including cooking and eating.
A search in Bangkok under “Food & Drink” has about 45 listings, but a good one for you may be “Street Food 101 in Local Bangkok.”
This is hosted by a food blogger named Dwight (aka Bangkok Fatty,
bkkfatty.com), who has lived in Thailand for 10 years.
He runs a non-profit called Courageous Kitchen, which feeds needy families, and all the proceeds of his tour (R887 per person) go to that.
The tour itself promises to help decode the baffling array of dishes that make up Bangkok’s street-food culture.
“Expect impromptu stops for small bites, and big bites at our favourite places in this off-the-beaten-path neighbourhood,” says the blurb. “In the Picture: 123rf.com/vapadi end you'll have a better understanding why Bangkok is considered one of the top street-food cities in the world.” airbnb.com/experiences/108952.
Since you’re interested in staying with locals, you should also check out the accommodation listings on Airbnb — usually a great way to get a taste of how the locals live.
You are not required to have any injections, though consider a vaccine for the food-borne diseases of Typhoid and Hepatitis A, especially if you intend to eat from markets or street stalls.
We can help with your destination dilemmas, visa puzzles and itinerary ideas. E-mail travelmag@sundaytimes.co.za