I liken it to other words of wisdom:

Don't feed the bears
Don't tap the glass
Don't touch a southern man's hat (trust me, if you were from the South you'd know)

It should be a testament to my absolute LOVE for Thai food, that I can sing it's praises today, even while it is making its exit from my digestive system with a flamethrower, and I do love me some Thai food.

So, last night was the much anticipated (since Friday at least), Thai food excursion. Met with friends at Taste of Thailand in Omaha.

Boys and girls, this is the real deal. Chalie takes care of his customers and when you become a regular, will learn your likes and dislikes. He always gives solid recommendations and will explain how each dish should be eaten for maximum enjoyment.

More importantly though, he serves the best Thai food I've ever had.

I'm not a big lover of soups. I have a bowl now and then, and I generally like it. But I don't go out of my way to praise soups. However, from now, until the end of time as I know it, every meal I have at Taste of Thailand will start with Chicken Coconut Hot & Sour Soup. I firmly do NOT believe that there are adequate words to describe this soup, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Visually, it is amazing. A golden yellow color, you see the bits of green, the red from the tomato, the tiny pieces of chili and served in the Lava Pot, it's like a soup moat surrounding a volcano. (Volcano, Lava...get it?)

The broth is thin in consistency, light and not the least bit oily. It has a slight creamy quality that comes from the coconut milk. Inside the broth, there are fresh mushrooms, small wedges of tomato,  pieces of chicken breast, ginger, lemon grass, cilantro, honey, diced thai chilis, green onion, salt, pepper, fresh basil and Kaffir lime leaves. (I'm guessing here)

When you put a tomato, mushroom and chicken laden bite into your mouth, the first thing that hits you is the bit of sweet that contacts your tongue, but as it washes over your tongue, the sweet immediately gives way to a tangy, tart sensation from the kaffir lime leaves. A bit of the heat seeps in now, tempered by the coconut milk and once more the sweet starts to reassert itself as the honey comes out and dances on the palate with the salt.

Now folks, we're just talking FLAVOR at this point. This has all taken place in a fraction of a second. Now, the aroma hits. The fresh basil, ginger, kaffir lime leaves and cilantro make an interesting and potent combination as the aroma sweeps into your sinuses and overtakes whatever it was you may have been smelling before.

Finally, you bite down and your teeth push easily through the perfectly cooked chicken, slice through a tomato then squish delicately into the mushroom as it compresses and finally is cut by your chewing.

Combined with the sound of quiet, content sighs from yourself and your friends while eating this soup, it is the perfect "five sense" assault.

Sidenote, be sure to stir the soup as you are ladling it out, so you can get the goodies on the bottom like the honey and chilis.

Ooh...appetizers. Since, if I devoted as much time to appetizers as I did to soup, this would be a marathon blog entry, I'll keep it short and sweet.

The chicken satay was excellent. Chunks of marinated, grilled chicken on skewers with sweet pickled cucumber and onion dressing on the side and a warm peanut sauce (think melted peanut butter, cut with something to be thinner). The spring rolls were also excellent. Very flaky fried rice paper wrappers, with the divine honey chili dipping sauce.

Chalie served the entrée with his usual flair, noting to everyone at the table...stir from the bottom to add more heat, serve it over the rice just a little bit at a time.

The floral aroma of the jasmine rice was enough to make me sigh in anticipation, but the lid coming off of my Red Beef Curry is what almost brought tears to my eyes. Of course, that could have had something to do with the fact that when I placed my order, I ordered 10+ on the 1-10 how hot do you want your Thai Food scale.

Did I mention, don't taunt the Thai Food Chef?

He placed a very tiny bowl, containing maybe 8 dried red chili peppers next to my plate and explaining that those are something he "smuggled" back from Thailand with him, and that I should grind them between my fingers and sprinkle them over my food.

*gulp*

With a bit of reluctance, I ground one between my fingers and spread it around the dish. Immediately I could taste the extra heat. But it was still a warm, comforting heat. As I worked my way through the excellent slices of beef with the fresh basil and sweet curry making it divine, I added another pepper, then finally with just the broth remaining a third.

That third may have been too much. Have I mentioned, don't taunt the Thai Food Chef?

Seriously though, despite being spicy as hell, it was excellent and I truly loved it.

We finished off the dinner with sweet cool mango over warm sticky rice. The rice was a thick, sweet, sugary mass which would be too much, were it not combined with cool, juicy mango slices.

All of this was enjoyed with a thick, sweet Thai Iced Tea, a lot of cold water and hilarious conversation among friends (oh and a warning from Killer to Kip, that if he doesn't email her, I get to make him my Thai Curried Bitch).