Nakhon

3354 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 971-279-5395. Lunch and dinner daily.

In a ramshackle house that most recently hosted the Hawthorne Street Cafe, Nakhon is staffed with a lot of the old crew from the original Tarad Thai and is devoted to the pungent, famously searing food of Thailand's deep south. Skip the front-page entrees in favor of appetizers and southern specialties, including Hat Yai chicken ($12), light-battered bird cuts marinated beneath the skin and served with sweet-hot dipping sauce, or the all-meat kua kling ($12), essentially a curry that uses pork rather than coconut milk as its base. It's a riot of heat and funk, like a sweaty James Brown back in the day. To soothe yourself, get the tom kha soup ($6). While many Thai spots use a mix, Nakhon's is fresh and milky and rich as any foie gras.

Check out Willamette Week's 2016 Cheap Eats guide here.

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