With my head stuck all the way into the refrigerator, I am reciting a desperate mantra: "Yogurt! Yogurt!" But I can't find it. I end up swigging a dose of half and half directly from the carton.

Dairy foods, particularly yogurt, are said to be good at taming the tongue-fire of peppers. And I had just bitten off a Towering Inferno.

So what did I do once I could breathe normally again? I went back to my plate (well, my Styrofoam clamshell; we were doing takeout). Because spicy though it was, this first experience of Kookie's Thai Kitchen was delicious.

The restaurant in question is a new (and one fears, struggling) little cafe in an obscure corner of mauka-side Kalihi, at the corner of Middle and Rose streets.

Though both of us are fearless diners, I'd been surprised to hear my husband, a man who will eat jalapenos whole, say, "Medium? This is medium?" Then all I heard were swift inhalations of breath as he tried to cool his mouth. That, and chewing, because he kept eating even through the conflagration, as I had done.

Welcome to Thai world.

Chef-owner Garong "Kookie" Rivera, 50, who has managed Thai kitchens in Honolulu for some years, including New Bangkok and New Club Pattaya, knows how to make the flavors do the macarena in your mouth and if she forgets to turn down the burner in the process, well, be sure to ask for MILD.

Take the green curry. Doesn't look like much: chunks of eggplant, abbreviated bits of long bean, some spinach and slivers of bamboo shoot and the meat of your choice (we chose chicken; $7.99) in a milky broth. We've all had it a million times. Dump it over the rice and call it dinner.

Except in this case, the stew isn't just coconut blah. It's a sit-up-and-take-notice, full-brass-band experience singing of far-away places where, as they say, "the air is full of spices." Such as Kookie's hometown of Pattaya City, from which she recently returned.

All the dishes we've sampled from Kookie's have had similar zing. You can see why The Advertiser got several calls from folks who said, "You have to try this place." And also why her past customers kept asking her to open a restaurant of her own.

"One day, I just decide to do it," she says now, having discovered the renovated storefront in Kalihi. The place is a little out of the way, on Middle Street a couple of blocks mauka of the freeway. There are just a couple of parking spaces in the back. But the restaurant is spacious and bright and, once you've tasted her food, you'll want Kookie to stay in business so you can again have larb kai (chicken with Thai spicy herbs and green salad; $7.99), Crying Tiger (grilled beef with hot and spicy sauce, $7.99) or kai tord (fried chicken, Thai style; $6.99).

Navigating a Thai menu can be a bit of a daunting experience when you have no deep knowledge of the cuisine, as most Americans do not. The menu descriptions may be sketchy, or just a list of ingredients offering no sense of whether the dish will be a stew or a saute. But I've always found it a risk worth taking, rarely regretting my choices.

My first at Kookie's was a longtime favorite of mine: phad ka prao, a stir-fried melange of ground or chopped meats (pork, beef or chicken), Thai basil and spices ($7.99) that Kookie told me is a popular street food in Thailand. I've had a dozen versions, and Kookie's was more than a memorable; I ordered it twice even though when I'm reviewing I try to order different dishes every time.

Then we ventured further afield, checking out yum ma keau yao, grilled eggplant with hot peppers and lemon juice ($7.99), a dish that intrigued me because I love eggplant, I love lemon and I wasn't at all sure what it would be.

It proved to be a sort of salad of chunks of Japanese eggplant and crisp romaine, with a dipping sauce, everything separate and not mingled together. Grab a romaine leaf, pile on the eggplant, drizzle sauce — you choose how to eat it. While I prefer a melding of flavors and don't understand why Kookie so often offers mounds of miniature carrots with various dishes, I thought the eggplant was seductive in its smoky creaminess. I ended up dumping it, and the spicy sauce, over leftover rice. (And you will have leftover rice, because every entree comes with an order of jasmine rice so you get LOTS.)

We had a number of other adventures at Kookie's: fried rice garnished with dried shrimp ($8.99), odd but good; phad Thai (fried noodles with peanut sauce; $7.99), pretty standard (but why is it pink?); chicken satay with peanut sauce ($7.99), who couldn't like this dish? The aforementioned Crying Tiger was a standout — sauteed slivers of tender spicy beef in a salad of herbs and greens. It was, indeed, spicy, but I certainly wasn't crying about it.