TravelDay buddy

Nayeli Cruz

@plasticstool · she/her · Mexico City, Mexico

The best seat in any city is a plastic stool.

  • Street food
  • Markets
  • Late nights
  • Fast pace
  • Budget

Nayeli Cruz is a drawn, fictional companion written by TravelDay. The places below are real entries in our catalogue, and each one names the guide it came from.

How Nayeli Cruz travels

I eat standing up more often than I sit down. I am twenty nine and I have never once booked a restaurant for the first night of a trip, because the first night is for walking until something smells right.

The rule I travel by is simple. One stall, one dish, then move. If I stay for a second dish I stop being hungry for the next four, and the next four are the whole point.

I do sit down sometimes. Usually it is a kitchen that took a street dish seriously and did not sand the edges off it. Those are worth a booking and a clean shirt.

  • Street food
  • Markets
  • Budget

Cities Nayeli Cruz keeps going back to

  • Mexico City

    Mexico

    Home, and the only city where I can eat five different dinners between eight and midnight.

  • Bangkok

    Thailand

    The street cooks here work with the confidence of chefs and charge like market traders.

  • Istanbul

    Turkey

    Grills, fish sandwiches and sweet shops, and a ferry ride between two of them.

  • Kuala Lumpur

    Malaysia

    Malay, Chinese and Indian cooking on one street, and the street stays open late.

  • Hanoi

    Vietnam

    Breakfast on a kerb, on a stool six inches off the ground. Nothing beats it.

What Nayeli Cruz recommends

Bangkok

  • Raan Jay Fai · Restaurant

    The most expensive street food in Bangkok and still street food. Go on a weekday and bring cash.

    • Seen in Michelin Guide. One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand
    • Seen in Time Out. Profiled as the shophouse kitchen of Supinya Junsuta, who has cooked behind the wok there for about forty years

  • Bo.lan · Restaurant

    A sit down meal that tastes like the market rather than a hotel. Proof you can take street flavours seriously.

    • Seen in Michelin Guide. One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand
    • Seen in Time Out. Reopened after three years closed, serving Thai samrub-style set meals

  • Le Du · Restaurant

    Worth one splurge night. The chef came up cooking these ingredients on this street.

    • Seen in Michelin Guide. One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand
    • Seen in Time Out. Chef Thitid Tassanakajohn cooks Thai produce in a modern style after training in New York kitchens

  • Eat Me Restaurant · Restaurant

    Where I go when the stalls have closed and I am still hungry at eleven.

    • Seen in Time Out. A Silom restaurant open more than twenty five years, serving contemporary European cooking late into the night

  • Vesper · Bar

    One drink after a night of eating, sitting at the bar rather than a table.

    • Seen in Time Out. Reviewed as one of Asia's ranked cocktail bars, with a new bar manager and menu

Istanbul

  • Neolokal · Restaurant

    Old Turkish recipes taken apart carefully. Ask the sommelier to pour you something Turkish.

    • Seen in Michelin Guide. Holds One MICHELIN Star and a Green Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Turkiye
    • Seen in Michelin Guide. Maksut Askar reworks Turkish recipes at Salt Galata, with a list of Turkish wines

  • beyti lokanta · Restaurant

    It started as four tables by a road in 1945. Order lamb and let them bring bread.

    • Seen in Time Out. Opened by Beyti Guler and his father in 1945 as a four table roadside eatery, later a two hundred seat restaurant

  • Ismet Baba · Restaurant

    Cross to Kuzguncuk on the ferry and eat fish with the water under the window.

    • Seen in Time Out. A Kuzguncuk fish restaurant on the Asian shore, its walls hung with old photographs

Kuala Lumpur

  • Jalan Alor - Night Market · Market

    Arrive at nine, walk the whole street once, then start eating from the busiest end.

    • Seen in Time Out. Listed as a Bukit Bintang eating street in Time Out's Kuala Lumpur restaurant guide

  • Dewakan · Restaurant

    One tasting menu built on Malaysian ingredients most restaurants will not touch. Book it far ahead.

    • Seen in Time Out. Darren Teoh cooks one tasting menu built on indigenous Malaysian ingredients such as buah keluak and kulim

Mexico City

  • Taqueri El Califa del León · Restaurant

    Four things on the menu and room for about six people standing. Order the gaonera and do not ask for anything else.

    • Seen in Michelin Guide. Listed in the MICHELIN Guide for its gaonera taco of thinly sliced beef fillet, seared to order

Plans you can copy

Four nights eating standing up in Bangkok

4 nights · November to February · Fast pace · Budget

Markets in the morning, stalls at night, and two sit down meals that earned it.

  1. Day 1

    Straight into Chinatown

    • Talat Kao · Afternoon · Market

      The old market lanes. Walk them before dinner so you know where to come back to.

    • Raan Jay Fai · Evening · Meal

      One crab omelette between two people. It is enough and it is expensive.

      • Seen in Michelin Guide. One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand
      • Seen in Time Out. Profiled as the shophouse kitchen of Supinya Junsuta, who has cooked behind the wok there for about forty years

  2. Day 2

    Weekend market, then a proper dinner

    • Chatuchak Market · Morning · Market

      Weekends only. Eat as you go and do not sit down for a full meal.

    • Museum of Siam · Afternoon · Museum

      Air conditioning and an hour off your feet.

    • Bo.lan · Evening · Meal

      The samrub spread. This is the sit down meal that still tastes like the street.

      • Seen in Michelin Guide. One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand
      • Seen in Time Out. Reopened after three years closed, serving Thai samrub-style set meals

  3. Day 3

    River, then the long night

    • Wat Arun · Morning · Sight

      Take the ferry across, look for ten minutes, come back.

    • Sampeng Lane Market · Afternoon · Market

      Narrow, crowded, cheap. Go slowly and keep your bag in front of you.

    • Le Du · Evening · Meal

      The splurge. Book it the week you book the flight.

      • Seen in Michelin Guide. One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Thailand
      • Seen in Time Out. Chef Thitid Tassanakajohn cooks Thai produce in a modern style after training in New York kitchens

    • Vesper · Night · Meal

      One drink at the bar to finish, not three.

      • Seen in Time Out. Reviewed as one of Asia's ranked cocktail bars, with a new bar manager and menu

  4. Day 4

    Palace, then a late table

    • Grand Palace · Morning · Sight

      Cover your shoulders and knees or they will turn you away at the gate.

    • Eat Me Restaurant · Evening · Meal

      A calm last dinner after four loud nights.

      • Seen in Time Out. A Silom restaurant open more than twenty five years, serving contemporary European cooking late into the night

    • Khao San Road · Night · Walk

      Walk it for twenty minutes and then go to bed.

  • Seen in Time Out. Time Out Bangkok profiles Supinya Junsuta and her shophouse kitchen in Rattanakosin

Three nights of grills and ferries

3 nights · April to June · Fast pace · Budget

One side of the water each day, and a boat between them every time.

  1. Day 1

    Bazaar, then lamb

    • Grand Bazaar · Afternoon · Market

      Go in, get lost on purpose, and buy nothing on the first pass.

    • beyti lokanta · Evening · Meal

      Order lamb and let them keep bringing bread until you stop them.

      • Seen in Time Out. Opened by Beyti Guler and his father in 1945 as a four table roadside eatery, later a two hundred seat restaurant

  2. Day 2

    The old city, then across the water

    • Hagia Sophia · Morning · Sight

      Dress modestly, go at opening and do not queue at midday.

    • Basilica Cistern (Exit) · Midday · Sight

      Twenty cool minutes underground in the middle of a hot day.

    • Ismet Baba · Evening · Meal

      Take the ferry to the Asian side. Fish, raki, and the water right below you.

      • Seen in Time Out. A Kuzguncuk fish restaurant on the Asian shore, its walls hung with old photographs

  3. Day 3

    Palace, tower, one good table

    • Topkapı Palace · Morning · Sight

      Buy the harem ticket as well. Three hours, minimum.

    • Galata Tower · Afternoon · Sight

      The queue is long. Go for the walk around the tower rather than up it.

    • Neolokal · Evening · Meal

      Book a window table and ask for Turkish wine with it.

      • Seen in Michelin Guide. Holds One MICHELIN Star and a Green Star in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Turkiye
      • Seen in Michelin Guide. Maksut Askar reworks Turkish recipes at Salt Galata, with a list of Turkish wines
  • Seen in Michelin Guide. The 2026 MICHELIN Guide Turkiye covers Istanbul, Izmir, Mugla and Cappadocia and gave its Sommelier Award to Neolokal in Istanbul

Nayeli Cruz is a TravelDay buddy: drawn, fictional, and not an account in the network. Research edition 2026-09-17.