One way to tell how true a restaurant is to its ethnic roots is to see how many of its cultural natives eat there. By this measure, anyone can understand that SukhoThai is a truly special place for Thai food and culture. Nantana Thepboriruk-or just Nan (pronounced "nahn") to all who know her-is the owner of SukhoThai, and she lives in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood with her husband, Hyde Slatter. Before opening the restaurant in 1994, she spent several years as a doctoral student at the UW School of Education and as a cook at Bahn Thai (where she met Hyde), before she opened SukhoThai in June 1994. Having been a professor of education at Chulalonghorn University in Bangkok, she often found herself acting as the head of the Thai Student Association on campus here. Many other Thai students would come and go for a year or two at a time, and they found they could always count on Nan to be a friend and sometimes surrogate mother during their stay. She would help them get acclimated and organize gatherings and field trips, so that the Thai students would not feel alone and could keep in touch with their cultural roots. One of her chief motivations in opening the restaurant was to provide a sort of community center for Thai students and others seeking a place to feel a touch of their Thai homeland. She keeps in close touch with the Thai communities in Milwaukee and Chicago and has hosted visiting groups from there and abroad, including Buddhist monks and Thai dancers. SukhoThai (named after the ancient capital of Thailand) also offers a good taste of Thai culture to anyone curious enough to try it. Many of the dishes on the menu are ones that Nan grew up eating and cooking at home. The range of items offered is quite impressive, and you are sure to find many things not offered by the other Thai restaurants in town. Some people get scared away from trying Thai food because they have heard that it is extremely spicy. This is not necessarily true. Even though it is traditionally spicier than Americans are used to-much like authentic Mexican food-many dishes are not spicy (noted on the menu), and you can always ask for your own preference on any item. Once you have gotten hooked on the unique flavors of Thai food, you may be inspired to try cooking it yourself at home. SukhoThai can help you out there, too, since it also acts as a Thai grocery store and cooking school. Nan started teaching cooking classes as Union Mini-Courses well before she started SukhoThai. (Many of her students urged her to open her own restaurant after sampling her work.) Further evidence of Nan's cultural outreach effort is the appearance of the SukhoThai food booth at almost every possible outdoor festival in Madison, including Concerts on the Square (via their competitive selection process). Most recently, Nan and her old friend and new business partner, Jiraporn Nam-Arsa, have designed and set up a SukhoThai food cart on the UW Library Mall. You may find Nan's daughters, Khanjana and Weerawanna (or Wendy), both UW students themselves now, either staffing the food cart or waiting tables in the restaurant. As you might gather from all these various activities, Nan and her family do not get to spend much time just hanging out around their Tenney-Lapham home, so your chances of seeing them are much better if you come down and try some real Thai home-cooking at SukhoThai-or you can have them cater the next party at your house!