Hometown

Q: What is it known for? A: Mostly for its food, if you ask anyone from there — there's a particular street-food dish people travel across the country for, and locals are almost proud to the point of being a bit annoying about it. Beyond that it's fairly unremarkable, a mid-sized town that doesn't show up in guidebooks, which honestly I find kind of comforting. Q: Has it changed much since you were a child? A: Enormously, yes. When I was small it was mostly rice fields and a couple of main roads, and now there's a proper commercial centre with the same coffee chains you'd find anywhere else. Part of me is glad it's more convenient, and part of me misses being able to recognise every corner of it without thinking. Q: What do you miss most about it? A: Probably the pace, more than anything specific. Things happened slower there — conversations lasted longer, nobody was rushing between places — and I didn't appreciate that until I moved somewhere busier and realised how much I'd taken it for granted.