RESTAURANT REVIEW : Awesome and Authentic : Modest Nopgow in Palmdale serves obscure dishes with fiery flavors. Heaven beef is a garlicky, standout offering.

This is as close to heaven as it’s possible to get in the Antelope Valley, at least for lovers of authentic Thai cooking. Give credit for that to the family-owned Nopgow, which I will unhesitatingly declare to be the best Thai kitchen between Ventura Boulevard and San Francisco.

Nopgow (the name means “jewel” in Thai) dazzles diners with assertive, big-time flavors. The vehicles are a spate of dishes largely unseen outside obscure Bangkok neighborhoods.

I’ve often wondered why more of our Thai restaurants don’t serve fiery, flavorful cooking along these lines. Maybe the reason is as simple as this: Most of them, whatever their charms, are operated by first-time restaurateurs, who simply don’t have the savvy or imagination to challenge our palates on this level. Sam Lertpriyapong, though, had two restaurants in Thailand before winding up in Palmdale, and that could be the key to his success here.

As a restaurant, Nopgow is a modest place, perhaps modest to a fault. Notice the cooked food put out just under the plant by the door. That’s a Thai tradition--restaurant owners hope it will bring them good luck. Nopgow is also modest in the sense of being plain and low-budget. While you feast on spectacular food here, you’re squeezed into a narrow, uncomfortable vinyl booth.

But don’t think for a second that these humble appointments deter the locals. Nopgow is popular here in Palmdale, disproving the old notion that exotic food won’t sell outside a big city.

The supernova of Nopgow’s celestial menu is heaven beef, a fabulous dish that looks unpromisingly like a dusty old brick. It’s a dense, symmetrical chunk of potted beef, about 2 inches by 2 inches by 6 inches, sitting on an unadorned plate in a shallow pool of juice. It has one great textural surprise--the surface is crisp and crunchy, perhaps from having been turned quickly in super-hot oil, but beneath that, the beef is as soft as a baby’s cheek. Inside and out, the meat is irresistibly shot through with the flavors of garlic and cilantro.

There’s one catch. The kitchen only makes heaven beef a couple of times a week.

Nopgow performs more magic with beef in the form of the menu’s No. 23, fried beef with pepper garlic. Imagine a pile of crisp, sizzling shreds of lean meat piled up on a plate with nothing else but clumps of mashed garlic fried to a deep bronze hue. By itself this might be the world’s greatest jerky, but you also get the bonus of a pungent garlic dipping sauce. And don’t overlook the yum nuea , the famous spicy Thai beef salad. Nopgow’s version features tender beef, good greens and a load of chiles with the kick of a Thai boxer.

Don’t look for fancied-up appetizers that aim to please the American palate, such as mee krob or stuffed chicken wings; they’re not on the menu. Nopgow will serve you straight-up little Southeast Asian kebabs ( satay ) with curried peanut sauce, or maybe some fried bean curd with a sweet, sticky Thai sauce, but that’s the extent of the appetizer list. Instead, you should work up to the heavy hitters by ordering a tureen of spicy seafood soup--or better yet, tom yum kai , the well-known chicken in coconut cream.

Noodles, fat and thin, provide more pleasure. “Number 89” is the unprepossessing name of fried noodles with crab, an explosion of hot and sweet flavors. This is thin, flat phad Thai noodles, lightly sauteed with a minced crab and pork mixture, a bit of sugar, some bean sprouts and another devilish sprinkling of those hot Thai chiles. (Whoosh. It’s no wonder that Nopgow has a tissue box on every table.)

Glass noodles, those crystal-clear threads made from mung bean, are generally eaten in soup. Nopgow will fry you a plateful of this slippery, neutral-tasting complex carbo, with enough chopped chicken, ground pork and shredded egg mixed in to please a resolute carnivore.

I should mention that Nopgow is not a place to eat if you are in a hurry. Service can be painstakingly slow, and at peak times there can be a wait at the door.

Mai pen rai , as the Thais say; never mind. When you get this close to heaven, it’s best to simply count your blessings and take flight.

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WHERE AND WHEN:

Location: Nopgow, 2551 E. Ave. S, Unit K, Palmdale.

Suggested Dishes: Spicy seafood soup, $6.95; heaven beef, $5.25; fried beef with pepper garlic, $4.75; fried noodles with crab, $4.50.

Hours: Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday to Thursday; closed Monday.

Price: Dinner for two, $13 to $24. Parking lot. Beer and wine only. MasterCard and Visa.

Call: (805) 538-0590.