Thai Curry: Cooking Advice From A Local
I was given this recipe from a young Thai woman working at a small restaurant in Old Lanta Town in Southern Thailand. I was in Koh Lanta for two days, only passing through. It was the last shop along the only street in town. A small thatched booth was stationed at the entrance displaying an array of dried fruits, small dishes and ground spices. I walked in, leaving my tattered flip-flops on the straw mat by the entrance. At the back of the open-air shop, a patio was built on stilts above the ocean. A few empty tables were set. I slowly perused the offerings as my friend ordered us iced coffee, Thai style. A package of red curry spices on display caught my eye. An interesting way to remember Thailand I thought. I picked it up. “Good choice,” I remembered the woman saying with a smile that almost reached from ear to ear. Through her broken English and my few words of Thai she attempted to teach me how to use the spices to make chicken curry, but much of what she told me got lost in translation.
Luckily, I thought at the time, she included a small note with instruction.
It read: “The process of chicken red curry: Add water to pot. Use medium heat. Bring red curry powder set. Vegetable into pot. Put prepared chicken. Wait three minutes. Lap cup holders. Ready to serve.”
The process seemed simple as I read it, but there were some missing gaps. How much water should I add? Do I use all of the spices? I’ll be the first to admit this dish involved a lot of guesswork but the results were tasty. There is little to go wrong when you’re working with personally ground spices from a local Thai woman’s kitchen.
All it took was a bite to take me back. Sitting in a white plastic chair, sipping Chang beer at a rickety table on a back soi deciding whether to order pad thai or yellow curry. Suddenly the memory feels real again, as though the scene is playing out in front of me. At the time it was just another day, another shop. But now, I often think of the spice lady, smiling back at me with her perfect crooked teeth.
Travel Blogger and Photographer, Kait Labbate, shares her stories at theroadsitravelled.com, a blog inspired by the belief that it is not the road we travel that is unique but the way in which we travel it. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter (@kaitlabbate) and like The Roads I Travelled on Facebook.
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