Imagine you’re hitting Bangkok for the first time, and want to know where to eat. How will you research?

Guidebooks can be helpful, but they go out of date faster than a bowl of noodles turns cold. You can, of course, spend hours scrolling through the Internet, but by now we all know that crowd-sourced sites are a race to the lowest common denominator and can be manipulated.

FFS, how do you find the good stuff?

How about from locally-based writers and photographers, people who speak the language and know the food. We’ve culled from nearly 40 years of living, working and eating in Southeast Asia to compile our favorite places. We don’t care about lists or Michelin stars; we want to share the restaurants and stalls that are emblematic of their cities, and the foreign cuisines that truly stand out. And our recommendations are totally independent: we pay for our meals, we take our own photos and we write all reviews ourselves.