It’s true…the NKRH can’t live without Thai food. The following two dishes promise to make a better drinking companion than just about any God-given war buddy. Sure, this food won’t slug it out in the sh%! with you quite like a fellow combatant would…actually, in a way, this food kind of will, if you really think about it.

Anyway, keep a couple of cold lagers on hand when you eat, because when prepared to Thai specs, these plates are smoking hot.

This liquor store image comes from a site called bangkokbob.net…kids, stay away from that one

Drunken Noodles
The modifier in the name refers to the dish’s most famed use…as a post-drinking nightcap. Most people may know the dish as Pad Kee Mao. Others may order it as simply flat noodles with spicy mint leaves or basil. And that’s basically it: flat rice noodles, garlic, onion, chili peppers (in the best versions, this dish contains full chilies intact, for the occasional red-alert mouthful), and mint or basil. Commonly, the dish is lightly seasoned with nothing more than a light soy and a little kaffir lime zest. The farther one travels from Thailand, the darker and more sugary the soy sauce. Find a restaurant that veers lighter in this regard if you can. Hands down, aside from a taco/burrito stand and (for meat eaters) a doner kebab truck, there are few things in this world that cap a night of drinking better than drunken noodles.

Jungle Curry
Less well known than Drunken Noodles, the Jungle Curry (Kaeng Paa Moo) is so named for its everything-but-the-kitchen-sink ingredients. A good jungle curry should sit comfortably to the right of the east west divide, with such distinctly Asian pleasures as pea eggplants, green peppercorn sprigs, bean curd skins, white radishes, straw mushrooms, and yams. This curry differs from most Thai curries in that it doesn’t use coconut milk. Referred to as a “country” curry (suggesting that no two jungle curry recipes will be exactly the same), this delicacy of northern origin can, but will often not, contain shrimp paste—as with all Thai curries, it’s best to ask before ordering. While the dish is light, certain elements (the sweet potatoes in particular) give the Jungle Curry a heartening, comfort-food backbone, making it the rare dish that can stand up well to both warm summer afternoons and cold winter evenings. For all the debauchery and beer swilling jackassery that a dish of Drunken Noodles complements, the Jungle Curry makes a perfect panacea for the quiet, heartbroken wine drunk.