“There's a big boom in Thai food globally, and we aim to be at the vanguard of that boom,” says Pitaya Phanphenonsophon, CEO of Bangkok-based Mango Tree, already considered the world’s biggest Thai restaurant brand. What Pitaya started in 1994 has grown into 70 locations in 16 countries worldwide, with expectations to double its existing annual turnover to reach US$100million within two years as it sets it sights on expanding to 100 restaurants by 2015 with further expansion throughout Asia Pacific, and the Middle East, but also China, Australia and, in the United States

It has been months since Le Thi Nu has had breakfast. A street vendor who travels around Hanoi on a bicycle selling plastic slippers, high prices have forced her to cut spending on eating, even though a baguette would cost 15 cents. Standing outside a crowded restaurant on Quan Su Street, where a bowl of soup would cost more than half her monthly income, she finds it difficult to come to terms with the spending of the rich.