About Us

The Temple of Thai, online grocery for Thai food, is the expression of a real passion for Thai cuisine, beginning business online in 1999. Our name, the Temple of Thai, came about because we admire the Thai sala, which is part of the Thai Buddhist temple. This is a place where Thai people meet to socialize and even eat - bringing together the spiritual and the daily. A 'temple' can be a place dedicated to some special purpose, which here at www.TempleofThai.com is Thai cuisine.

Karla Baumhover Pengsagun started cooking at age 10, reading every international cookbook in the local library. Graduating with a degree in Finance, from the University of Iowa, in 1986, she went on to Wall Street to become completely disillusioned working as a Eurodollar broker.

She then followed her love for good food, working professionally in the wholesale produce industry for 7 years in New York City. Her clientele included Danielle, The Essex House, Dean and Delucca, Le Cirque, and many other influential hotels and restaurants of Manhattan.

Traveling on holiday to South-East Asia in 1993 she met Mayo. Mayo Pengsagun, introduced Karla to home-style Thai cooking, which is an important part of the Temple of Thai. Mayo and Karla have a daughter, Isa, age 14. They enjoy cooking and eating Thai food together at the end of the day.

Sam Wernimont, who designs t-shirts by day in Iowa, is our web site graphics designer. Temple of Thai is one of the first web sites he ever worked on. He was surprised to find out that Thai curry is amazingly delicious and easy to make, if you have the right ingredients!

Rob Barty, from London, continues to work on our web site and shopping cart, which had been designed, by generous-of-spirit Texan Don Ketelle. Rob, has been living on a daily diet of steamed jasmine rice, spicy Thai curries, and 'nam chook' (Southern dialect for nam prik, the National dish of Thailand) to fuel his cycling escapades for more years then he ever thought possible.

We all hope that our love for good Thai food and culture shows in our day to day work.

We can be contacted via:

E-mail Form (this is the quickest and most efficient way to contact us, being an internet company; we reply to most emails within 24 hours)

Fax: (877) 811-8773

Toll free: (877) 811-8773 (please leave a voice message if no one is available to take your call and we will email or call you back)

Mail: 14525 SW Millikan Way RCM#10102, Beaverton, OR 97005-2342 (DO NOT SEND RETURNS HERE)

For wholesale orders please read: Wholesale Orders