Five to try: Chilly Heat

WAHACA
66 Chandos Place, WC2
(020 7240 1883) £26
Queueing in the cold, as sometimes you must, makes the warmth of Thomasina Miers's Mexican market food especially welcome. Chilli plants are part of the decoration and their fruits an important element in enchiladas, burritos, tacos, tostadas, taquitos and quesadillas. Mojitos
and margaritas lend a hand in counteracting chilly winds.

MANDALAY
444 Edgware Road, W2
(020 7258 3696) £25
Indian, Chinese and Thai food all have an influence on Burmese or, as I suppose we are now supposed to say, Myanmar-ish cooking. Gary and
Dwight Ally have been running this simple establishment, more of a café than a restaurant, since 1994, pleasing customers with their seriousness and serenity and the delicate, spicy food. Start with spring rolls, samosas or fritters and move on to curries or coconut-based noodle dishes and a salad such as raw papaya with cucumber.

HAN KANG
16 Hanway Street, W1 (020 7637 1985) £40
Kim chee, a dish of fermented vegetables — often Chinese cabbage, laced with chilli — is champion against cold weather. This small restaurant in an agreeably ramshackle alley attracts Korean students and other followers of a cuisine that remains something of an unwritten pleasure. Raw beef with egg yolk and crisp nashi pear is a superior take on steak tartare; bindaedok refers to a lovely mung bean pancake, and bimimbap in a stone bowl is fried rice gone to heaven. Let the amiable staff advise.

ESARN KHEAW
314 Uxbridge Road, W12
(020 8743 8930) £25
Esarn (Issan Isarn), a province of north-east Thailand, has a distinctive cuisine where chillies play best supporting ingredient and offal is treated with ingenuity. Prices printed in Thai currency point to a following among compatriots and the most fun is at busiest times towards the end of the week. Try tom kha kai soup, son-in-law's eggs, homemade garlic infused sausages, sweet ox liver and the pugnacious green papaya salad.

Prices estimate a meal with wine for one.