Best ticket to Chiang Mai

As anyone who has been to Thailand will tell you, it's never about the atmosphere in the Land of the Smile. It's always about the food. At all hours of day, and usually in the streets, people clamor for noodles, curries, rice dishes, satay, you name it. The Thai can always find an excuse to eat. But there, as here, getting the real stuff can be a battle that's best won with persistence and a little insider know-how. Well, here it is. The best way we know to get the job done in Boston is to go to Bangkok City on Mass Ave and ask (with a smile) for the "Thai menu." You'll know you've succeeded when the glossy, fold-up menu is put away and you're handed a worn plastic sheet with small English print and Thai figures. Here you'll find a host of Northern and Central Thai dishes that would gladden any native of the country's northern capital, Chiang Mai.

The menu is two pages long, and it's filled with the complex, symphonic combinations that have made Thai cooking famous. Laap, for example, is ground duck, chicken, or pork, mixed with toasted rice, lime juice, mint, raw onions, and chilies for four-on-the-floor flavor. Spicy glass-noodle salad (oy yam wun sen) is a northern fave of cold noodles, ground pork, peanuts, fish sauce, chilies, lime juice, garlic, and shrimp. Other must-haves include chili dips, crispy-fried catfish with chili and basil, and wondrous and watery curries (very northern) -- with sticky rice to sop it all up.

Bangkok City, 167 Mass Ave, Boston, (617) 266-8884.