SA-WAD-DEE

I enjoy going out for dinner on the weekend. After a long week of trying to come up with nutritious, economical meals that my family will actually eat, and then shopping for, preparing and cleaning them up--I look forward to going out. However, I despise waiting for well over an hour to be poorly served an overpriced, mediocre meal. For some reason this is often the story at the big chain restaurants. I like finding the local places where the food is good, the silverware is clean, and the wait is short. The drawback is, this is kind of hard to find.
Every day I drive by Sa-wad-dee, a Thai restaurant in a strip mall near my house. I always wonder if this place is good or if I will be seeing an Available For Lease sign in the window any day. I have taken note that the parking lot is frequently full and the decor looks pretty good through the windows. So, tonight I gave it a try. Larry, not much of an Asian food fan, ate at home with the kids and then came along with me to try some dessert. He ordered the coconut ice cream with bananas fried in wonton papers and drizzled in chocolate and caramel. He liked it. I went for the Panang Curry with chicken. It was so delicious! When I was a nanny in Florida we would frequently go out for Thai; also, the dad liked to prepare exotic gourmet meals at home, often featuring a variation of Thai curry. Since living there, I have never tasted any curry like what I had there, until tonight. This stuff was awesome! We ran into some friends there (also their 1st time) who highly recommended the coconut seafood rice and the pineapple fried rice. I decided to go for the curry, but will be back to try their suggestions.