My mom took me out to lunch today! We went to True Thai, which is currently my favorite Thai restaurant in the Twin Cities (well, it's between that one and Tum Rup).
What I like about Thai food:
1) frequent use of lime
2) frequent use of coconut
3) frequent use of peanuts
Seems like Thai restaurants are sprouting up all over. Fifteen years ago or so, I think the only ones in the Twin Cities were "King and I," "Royal Orchid," and "Sawatdee." Now there are loads. I guess it's the same with most ethnic restaurants around here. Minnesotans have broadened their culinary horizons. Back in the 1970s and 80s, when I was a kid, my family were quite strange because we ate food with -- get this -- vegetables and spices in it. I quickly learned I needed to vet and propoerly prepare my friends before inviting them over for dinner, because more than likely we'd be eating something they'd find quite strange and exotic, like spaghetti with mushrooms and bell peppers in the sauce. Minnesota in those days was strictly Ragu territory. Spaghetti sauce was supposed to be red sauce with no discernable green things in it.
My parents, being a) from California rather than the MIdwest and b) adventurous eaters, were always cooking Mexican, Chinese, and other ethnic foods and there was (gasp) liberal use of spices and herbs as well as the twin gods of good cooking: onions and garlic. Besides that, we ate almost exclusively fresh vegetables, many of which my mother grew herself in the garden. I never actually tasted a canned green bean until I encountered one in a school lunch, and I actually didn't recognize it as a green bean, it tasted so (disgustingly) different.
Anyway, it's nice when your mom takes you out to lunch. Tasty, too.