Karuna's Thai Plate Tones Down The Red Hot Stuff For American Consumption. By Rebecca Cook I'LL NEVER FORGET my first taste of Thai food. Having no idea just what to expect, but assuming it would be only a slight variation on the Chinese cuisine I was familiar with, I was completely unprepared for the flavors and sensations that assailed my palate. An incredible fusion of herbs and spices left me reeling with newfound delight. I tasted fresh coriander, mint and basil. I detected a gentle suffusion of coconut milk, lime and lemongrass. And, man, was this stuff hot! Dancing on the edges of my middle American tolerance for spiciness, I found myself looking forward to each new bite, even though I would empty a pitcher of water before the meal was over and had to pause periodically to dab beads of perspiration from my upper lip. Truly, this was a remarkable feast, one that I would find difficult to duplicate in the years ahead. The latest addition to Tucson's Thai restaurant scene is Karuna's Thai Plate on the northeast corner of Grant Road and Campbell Avenue. There's much to like at Karuna's with many of the Thai specialties I've come to know and love represented on the menu. However, I couldn't help but feel Thailand's dynamic cuisine had been toned down to placate more timid taste buds. The brilliance and vibrancy in Thai cuisine emerges from an effort to balance the flavors of sweet, sour, salty and bitter in every meal. Believed to heighten the ability of the palate to appreciate these tastes is the ubiquitous chile, which provides varying degrees of heat to several Thai dishes. It's impossible to mellow Thai food without losing some of the distinctiveness and savoriness of this cuisine. Not that Karuna's doesn't have plenty to recommend it. The daily lunch buffet, an array of dishes that changes subtly from one day to the next, is a great way to sample several Thai dishes for only $4.95. The buffet consists of about six each of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. On the day I visited, the offerings included spring rolls, a chicken soup with mushrooms, chicken and lemongrass, pad thai, Thai fried rice served with or without chicken, a vegetable stir fry, Chinese broccoli and beef in oyster sauce and chicken stir-fried with red curry paste and vegetables. Particularly notable was the pad thai, probably the best known dish from the former republic of Siam. Made with rice noodles, lime juice, bean sprouts, a pinch of sugar, garlic, fish sauce and red chile paste, this dish aptly balanced the flavors of sweet, sour and salty, as well as the textures of soft and crunchy. Thai fried rice differs from its Chinese counterpart primarily because of the addition of a few chopped tomatoes, which makes the dish slightly sweet. Chicken, beef or pork may be added when ordering this item off the menu ($4.50). Thai spring rolls ($3.95) are envelopes of fried or steamed rice paper stuffed with mixed vegetables, bean threads and an option of ground chicken served with a garlic-tinged sweet-and-sour sauce. The wrapping was slightly chewy, but the filling was fresh and greatly enhanced by a dip in the sweet-and-sour sauce. Influenced by the cuisines of both India and China, no trip to a Thai restaurant would be complete without delving into a wide choice of curry dishes. Ranging in hue from yellow to red, Thai curries employ various chile pastes, with the odds-on favorite for most heated being the green version. At Karuna's, however, the green curry ($5.50), while its tastes of fresh basil and coconut milk satisfy, barely registers a thermostatic increase. Again, this goes to individual taste, but it just doesn't seem like Thai curry if you're not sweating. More successful was the pad ka praow ($4.95), a combination of beef, fresh basil, mint, red chile and coconut milk served with steamed rice. Marked as "hot & spicy" on the menu, this dish, again, was barely warm in terms of spice, but nevertheless thoroughly rich and delicious. Perhaps the high point at Karuna's was their green papaya salad ($4.50), a dish that is for

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