Where do you look for inspiration in the kitchen?

I find that it’s all around — in reading cookbooks, in talking with the boyfriend, even in learning new Thai words and phrases.  But the inspiration for this dish came from another, somewhat less likely source – - a Taiwanese restaurant. [click to continue…]

Signs of Spring are all around, and I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t be more thrilled!  Spring is a time of new life and new beginnings.  It’s a time to refresh, renew, and simplify.  In the kitchen, for me, this translates to an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables and lots of quick and easy ways to cook them. [click to continue…]

You may be wondering what I was planning on doing with that enormous 20-pound jackfruit I found at the market last week.  As I hefted him into the house and rested him on my patio chair, I was wondering the same thing…

My initial plan was to try to make dtam kanun (ตำขนุน), a salad of sorts made of pounded and pan fried jackfruit, chilis, and herbs.  It’s a dish that the boyfriend has told me about, but I’ve never tried to make myself.  After doing a little research, though, I quickly discovered that you are actually supposed to use young unripe jackfruit for this dish, not the extremely ripe fruit I had hanging out on my patio.

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Last year, I wrote about the great lengths the boyfriend and I will go to to find fresh tropical fruits like the ones he grew up eating in Thailand.  This may or may not have involved a trip to Maui, intense questioning of the locals about their fruits, and exhaustive searches of any and all farmer’s markets on the island.

Yes, we really love our tropical fruits…

Fortunately for all the Hawaiians out there, these extreme measures weren’t necessary this year as we were lucky enough to find a more local source of these precious fruits!

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In the fall of last year, I introduced a little sidebar poll where you can vote for which recipe you’d like to see featured on this blog next.  You guys made a great choice in voting for Thai-style chicken and rice (khao man gai) on the inaugural poll.  And I have to say, you did it again with another fantastic choice of Northern Thai curry noodles (khao soi) this time!

Khao soi is a dish that both the boyfriend and I get super excited about. [click to continue…]

If you’ve been following along for the last few posts, you might be wary of seeing yet another shrimp recipe.  After recipes for hot and sour shrimp soup (tom yum goong), shrimp and glass noodles in a clay pot (goong ob woonsen), and a spicy Thai shrimp salad (pla goong), I wouldn’t blame you if you were.  But I really hope that you’re not, because these grilled prawns with kaffir lime dressing are amazing!

I’ve been on the lookout for recipes that call for fresh kaffir lime juice ever since my little kaffir lime tree started producing limes.  This recipe was one of the first that I came across and just from reading the ingredients list, I knew it would be good.  So I’ve been patiently waiting, crossing my fingers that my kaffir limes would grow and develop well, just so I could try out this dish. [click to continue…]

When I was growing up, I was always given the task of preparing our green salads for dinner.  I loved doing this, but it certainly brought out the perfectionist in me.  I would dice the carrots into tiny perfectly-squared cubes, slice the cucumber into itsy-bitsy triangles, and chop the olives until they resembled a tapanade more than a salad ingredient.

I’d spend so much time making sure that everything was flawlessly bite-sized that my mom would inevitably break down and tell me that the salad looks good enough and could I please now set the table!? [click to continue…]

The boyfriend has been telling me about this clay pot dish for a while now.  It’s something that his parents make for him when he’s visiting home and he absolutely loves it.  It’s a simple dish with layers upon layers of flavor – fatty pork, ginger and black pepper laced noodles, plump shrimp, and crisp vegetables — what’s not to love?

Since I had heard such rave reviews about it, we decided to head to Chinatown to pick up a clay pot of our own.

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Did I ever tell you how excited I was to find my kaffir lime tree a few years ago?

I wasn’t actually looking for it — it just happened to be at my local nursery at the same time I was.  Funny how that works — with kaffir lime trees and relationships too — they have a way of finding you when you’re least expecting them  Needless to say, when I spotted this kaffir lime tree, I was overcome with happiness, thinking about all of the many ways I could use its leaves!  Tom yum goong, tom kha gai, and all sorts of Thai curries were now suddenly possible by simply walking outside to my little balcony garden! [click to continue…]