The expatriate crowd is leavened by plenty of locals, who come to sample items like chips with curry sauce, and fried Mars bars, a delicacy unknown outside Scotland and out of fashion even there.

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In a city brimming with great Thai restaurants, one of the best is another former warehouse space in the neighborhood, Longrain, known for authentic, vivid dishes such as whole red snapper in red curry sauce.

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Another time it was arctic char with carrot-curry reduction sauce, coconut rice and wilted rainbow chard, eaten in a secret enclave lit by dozens of candles near the pond.

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My meatballs are transformed by curry powder and a glug of soy sauce.

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Try the Calabash fritters, a type of vegetable served with dipping sauce, and the hearty, country-style lamb curry, seit-tha nat.

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Fortunately four to five meals per day of char kwey tiaw (fried noodles in soy sauce with egg and various additions), asam laksa (Penang's famous, indescribably good curry noodle soup), rojak (fruit and veggie salad in a sweet dark shrimp paste) and much, much more, goes down a lot easier than heavier Western foods.

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