Thai food is excellent at turning a perfectly ordinary Maryland dinner into a table full of decisions nobody regrets making.
Across the state, restaurants are serving fragrant curries, spicy basil dishes, pad see ew, papaya salad, larb, tom yum, and noodle plates that go well beyond ordering the same pad Thai every single time.
Some kitchens lean into regional specialties and serious heat, while others make it easy for newcomers to work their way from mild coconut curries toward dishes that require a very confident relationship with chili peppers…