If you really want to learn how to cook the very best Thai food possible in the USA (and for that matter anywhere) take a cooking class from Kasma Loha-unchit; based in the Bay area of San Francisco. She is a native of Bangkok who not only teaches across the USA (see her site for schedules) but she also takes tour groups to Thailand twice a year (and has done so for the past umpteen years).
Her now out of print Dancing Shrimp cookbook is fetching well over $100 a copy on some internet sites; I cherish my signed copy, which just for the introduction on Thai food ingredients is well worth purchasing. Her recipes are the equivalent of Julia Child's detailed coverage of French cuisine. In fact Kasma's first cookbook, It Rains Fishes (still in print) captured her a Julia Child Cookbook Award in the international category in 1995.