Best Dining Bets

Street Food (Bangkok, Thailand): On every street, down every alley, you'll find someone setting up a cart with an umbrella. Noodles, salads, and satay are favorites, and some hawkers set up tables and stools on the sidewalk for you to take a load off. This is Thai cafe life!

Kua Lao (Vientiane, Laos): Kua Lao serves traditional Lao cuisine in a restored colonial -- it's the premier Lao restaurant in the country. The extensive menu goes on for pages. There is an entire page of vegetarian entrees and another entire page of something you don't see often: traditional Lao desserts.

Pho (Vietnam): Don't leave the country without sampling one, if not many, bowls of this delicate noodle soup, made with vermicelli (thin rice noodles), chicken (ga) or beef (bo), and several fresh accompaniments, according to the chef's whim or local flavor: basil, mint, chile peppers, and bean sprouts.

Ngon Restaurant (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam): It may be a restaurant, but it's really like the classroom for Vietnam Cuisine 101. It's loud and busy, but diners have their choice of food from the many authentic street stalls that line the central courtyard. Locals eat here; and though there is an English menu, go with a Vietnamese friend or ask for a recommendation from the friendly (but always busy) staff.

Hawker Centers (Singapore): Think of them as shopping malls for food -- great food! For local cuisine, who needs a menu with pictures when you can walk around and select anything you want as it's prepared right before your eyes?

Gurney Drive Food Stalls (Penang, Malaysia): Penang is king for offering a variety of Asian cuisines, from Chinese to Malay, Indian, and everything else in between. Visiting this large hawker center by the sea is like taking "Intro to Penang 101."

Warungs (Bali): Like a local cafe, the Balinese equivalent of the greasy-spoon diner in America, warungs can be found on every street corner. If you're not put off by a bit of grime, you'll discover the food can be authentic, delicious, and cheap.