Food truck brings taste of Thailand to tiny Petrolia

PETROLIA — A food truck serving delicious Thai dishes and American favorites in Petrolia is hard to miss, and it's a pity if you do. 

How did it come to be parked here? That's a story about the sweet, spicy and sour of life. 

Kantakan's Thai Kitchen is parked right off State Highway 79 on the right side of the road if you're coming from Wichita Falls.

It should be reassuring to know husband and wife Keith and Kantakan "Ray" Spearman have worked the kinks out of the spiciness of the food since the truck opened in January 2020. 

There's Texas hot, and then way up higher on the Scoville scale for chili peppers, there's Thai hot. 

"Thai chili is very, very spicy," Ray said. “They come back and say, 'I don’t want Thai hot anymore.' "

A one-to-five scale from "No Spice " up to "Thai Hot" is on the food truck's menu for reference. Just before Thai Hot comes "Hot!! Are you sure?"

Thai food is a balance of sweet, spicy and sour that varies by region, according to the Spearmans. 

Whatever your preference, it is worth the 18-mile drive for Ray's peanutty pad Thai, crispy spring rolls, red curry with shrimp, pork or chicken, a cup full of the sweetness of iced Thai tea or Thai coffee — and more. 

To add to their authentic dishes, the Spearmans grow vegetables, lemongrass, Thai basil and have a kaffir lime tree in their home garden. 

The kaffir lime supplies leaves for panang, which is red curry. 

The couple is semi-retired, and the food truck is conveniently close to their home just up 79, Keith said. 

“If she gets real busy, she'll call me, and I'll come in and help her for a while," he said. 

Kantakan's Thai Kitchen is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

Local folks and people just passing through stop to order from a menu with plenty of variety.

It features specialties such as chicken satay, fried rice pork wontons, hot ginger and honey tea,  and stir-fried vegetables over rice with a refreshing cucumber side.

Also available are American mainstays such as hot dogs, French fries, pulled pork sandwiches and shrimp baskets. 

During one of Ray's recent breaks, she sat down with her husband and served bold Vietnamese coffee with sweetness at the bottom, ready to be stirred up in little glass cups. 

She came from Bangkok, population 10.7 million, to live in Petrolia, population 540, about seven years ago.

But their story starts before that.

He is a native Wichitan, and has had a career managing dry docks for ship repairs that took him all over the world.

She is a three-time small business owner. First she sold clothing but found owning a café worked much better in Bangkok.

During a project there, Keith met Ray and fell in love with her beautiful smile at the restaurant.

Neither one was a spring chicken, but they knew what they wanted: each other. That didn't happen overnight.

The Spearmans tried for three years to get Ray a U.S. visa. They filled out countless documents and battled red tape.

They are still puzzled about as to why the U.S. government stood in the way of love for so long. 

“She owned her own home. She had a small restaurant. She was financially secure," Keith said. "I think they're worried about people that were not financially secure coming in and staying illegally.”

When the battle was won, Ray left Thailand with its beaches, beautiful scenery and renowned cuisine and hospitality.

She made her new home on the prairie among the bluebonnets and big blue skies of friendly small-town Texas. 

A highlight of her move has been being a "yai" or grandmother to stepdaughter Gayle Edwards' kids. 

“Ray didn't have children and to be able to get the grandkids . . . has been really good for her," Keith said. 

But Ray was not done with the U.S. government. 

She studied for two years to become an American citizen and was on the verge of doing so when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. 

Keith said it took about six months for officials to figure out how to get new citizens sworn in. 

"We ended up driving to Dallas. We turned our car radio to a certain station," he said. "They did the swearing in, in the car over the radio station. A guy at the window gave us our documents and off we went." 

The couple usually returns to Thailand once a year to see her family, but they haven't been able to since the pandemic.

It might be some consolation for Ray that she has managed to find a community of Thai people also making a home on the Rolling Plains. 

 "A lot of Thai people are here in Wichita Falls," she said.

When Ray saw kaffir lime trees for sale at Lowe's, she got on the phone and spread the word. 

“The next thing you know, these Thai ladies were there . . . just loading the trees up," Keith said.

They cleaned them out because sometimes a kaffir lime tree is just the thing for a home on the prairie. 

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news, politics and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.