Malee Missel surprises first-time visitors with how authentic her Thai cuisine is at her Siam Cuisine restaurant in Bellevue.

And how spicy it is.

Thai restaurants typically allow patrons to order dishes on a spiciness scale of one to 10. Patrons accustomed to ordering a six or an eight at other places quickly learn to dial it down at Siam Cuisine.

Missel, 66, is a native of Thailand who married an American in 1973 and soon moved with him to Minot, N.D. His military career took them to Peru, Ind., and later to the Omaha area. She opened Siam Cuisine in 1999 and does all the cooking herself.

Q. Did you have lots of customers during the holidays?

A. Sometimes. Sometimes when you are ready for them, they are not ready for you. Then. Boom! Boom! Boom! They want to eat Thai food.

Q. Your menu is packed with fresh, colorful items. What do people seem to order the most?

A. Pad Thai (a sweet rice noodle dish with bean sprouts, green onion and your choice of meat); basil chicken (a colorful stir-fried chicken dish with onions and basil); red curry (your choice of meat and bamboo shoots in a coconut-based sauce seasoned with red chili pepper); and beef salad (a steak marinated in lemon and lime juices, grilled and served over a salad with red onion and cilantro).

Q. Do you still have the fruit-based desserts?

A. Right now we have the golden (fried) banana with ice cream and the sweet rice with custard. In mango season — June and July — we have the sweet rice with mango.

Q. Do you change your menu with the seasons?

A. The menu stays the same. Sometimes we add an item, but it stays the same.

Q. How did you start your professional cooking career?

A. I worked in my sister's restaurant in Thailand. Then I cooked in a Chinese restaurant in Minot, N.D., for a long time. When I moved with my husband to Indiana I cooked at the noncommissioned officers' club. I came here and cooked at the airport. A friend asked me to open a Thai restaurant and I had three partners at first. After a while they all left me.

Q. Is there any piece of kitchen equipment that you consider the most important?

A. Everything is important in the kitchen. If you don't have the knife to cut, the wok to fry and the spoon to stir, you can't cook.

Q. If you aren't cooking where do you like to go out to eat?

A. It depends upon what I want. Texas Roadhouse, if I'm hungry for a steak. If I'm hungry for seafood, I eat at Red Lobster.

Q. You had quite a shock, weather-wise, moving from Thailand to Minot, N.D.

A. Oh my! I was so excited to see snow. Then I caught a cold. All of a sudden I was stuck in snow: from North Dakota to Indiana to here. But we plan to retire someplace warm.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com