The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to around 5 p.m. in the square-shaped old city on Ratchamankla Road (Soi 2). Tel: 053-208 203

Getting into the kitchen for breakfast and cooking in the morning could be a challenge for some who have a modern lifestyle. It’s much easier to find a breakfast restaurant to start a new day. The recommended one is Bubbles Live, a restaurant in the square-shaped old city on Ratchamankla Road (Soi 2) where you can have your breakfast freshly-cooked, just how you like it.

Bubbles Live serves Western-style breakfast dishes (all of them healthy and home-made) such as sandwiches, hamburgers, salad, fruit smoothies and fresh coffee. Besides the typical breakfast menu items, special recommended are French Bacon Quiche (Quiche Lorraine) with bacon and Gouda cheese, a tart-like dish of French origin, and Tomato Mozzarella Tartle (with tomato and mozzarella cheese).

The restaurant’s owner acknowledges that she used to be an assistant chef so she knows how to cook professionally.

Moreover, some Thai dishes such as Pad Thai (generally stir-fried rice noodles) are served here. However, Bubbles Live pad thai is cooked with vermicelli (noodles made of green beans) and special sauce. The owner constantly generates new menu items and she has just launched her own experimental dishes, such as Roasted Chicken with Garlic and Pepper and Roasted Duck with Red Curry (Gaeng Phed Ped Yang).

Treat yourself to a cheaper breakfast at Bubbles Live in an airy ambience with decorative plants around. The restaurant is spacious enough so don’t worry that it will be too crowded. WiFi Internet is available free. The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. to around 5 p.m.

Girasole

Adequate parking space available. The restaurant is open from 7.30 a.m.–11 p.m. (Mon-Sat) and 11 a.m.–11 p.m. (Sun). Tel: 081-603 0294, 053-276 388

Delighting its clientele with an array of Italian and international vegetarian dishes, the Italian restaurant, Girasole, has been open four years now at its Kad Klang Wiang location, (on Rachadamnoen Road, within the old city). Its name - how appropriate! - means ‘sunflower’...and since it brings a burst of fresh colour to the Chiang Mai food catering scene, how welcome it is!

Clients can feel sure the dishes they enjoy here are going to be good for their health, weight, disposition and just about everything else. Why? Because the ingredients for their pasta, jam, pastries and even - try it! - their tomato sauce are mostly organic, home-made, and additive-free, the restaurant’s owner wanting her guests to have enhanced health from what she provides. Many of the vegetables come from her own garden, and the meat and freshwater provender so far as possible is locally supplied.

And how about the actually dishes available at Girasole? There’s an abundance of Italian dishes, served impeccably by the friendly staff. Among the recommended items are Ravioli Mushroom in Cream Sauce, an Italian pasta dough stuffed with mushrooms and filled with cream sauce - vegetarian, health-conscious customers should note. Also not to be missed are the Mediterranean Pizza, Black Ink Fettuccine with Shrimp & Scallops in Cream Sauce, and Asparagus Crepe with Almond Cream Gratin. Enhancing the flavour of these delicious dishes are quality wines from France, Italy or Spain, the special teas in many flavors, and the other health beverages - freshly-squeezed fruit and vegetable juice, and soybean milk, among them. And something to round things off? Choose from the home-made desserts - the cakes, crepes, and gelati (Italian-style ice creams). Could anyone ask for more? (Or not ask for more?).

As to surroundings - you can choose to have your meal either in the stylishly-decored room inside Girasole, or out on the covered terrace, where you have the chance to peek at the chefs working their magic at the big pizza oven near the bar. And the prices, did you ask? Just come and savour the healthy contemporary Mediterranean dishes and you’ll agree the prices are entirely reasonable.

So next time you’re looking for a place to really stimulate your tastebuds, remember - Girasole! (and say it in Italian - Jira-solay).