Situated in a former Chinese restaurant in the remotest, most-suburban city in the county, unsuspecting diners might expect a menu that panders to Real Housewives and white-bread, meat-and-potatoes families. Dive into a bowl of Rice and Spice's beef panang curry, however, and fireworks will start going off in your mouth—though you have to visit a couple of times before the kind owners will really turn on the capsaicin spigot. The pad kee mao (drunken noodles) are the finest example in our fair acres, and the crying tiger beef will turn your cheeks inside-out (in a good way, naturally). For appetizers, forsake the fried competition and order the healthy, crunchy fresh summer rolls, a Thai take on Vietnamese salad rolls. Mango and sticky rice with coconut cream provide a smooth, sweet finish, after which you'll walk outside and realize you're not in Garden Grove, but rather way at the end of the 241 toll road.
