The Kitchen Chronicles

Adventures in City Cooking

Tag: Thai (page 1 of 2)

Curry Noodles with Chicken (kuai-tiao kaeng sai kai)

The concept of “soup-y noodles” is one that’s very underrepresented in Europe and America, but ubiquitous in nearly every Asian cuisine I can think of: Vietnamese pho, Japanese ramen, Tibetan shyakpa, Malaysian laksa, the list goes on. Some are brothier- more of a traditional soup- and some are thicker, like a curry. Most have lots of goodies floating in them. The beauty of eating these dishes is that they take some commitment and a willingness to really get down and dirty in the bowl. You’ve got to tie your hair back and get ready to break a sweat while noodles slip through your chopsticks and broth drips down your chin (just me?).

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Thai Grilled Prawn Curry (Ngob Gung)

On a Thursday a few weeks ago, I met a friend for an after-work cocktail in a Nolita bar. With the weekend just around the figurative corner and Chinatown around the literal one,  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay a visit to Bangkok Center Grocery, the place for just about all your Thai cooking needs, to pick up some ingredients for a  project I’d dog-eared a really long time ago in David Thompson’s tome on Thai cuisine. When I arrived at Mother’s Ruin, my friend took one look at me, raised her eyebrows and said, “Uh, what have you got there?” I looked down at the giant pack of banana leaves and the wispy end of a lemongrass stalk poking out of my tote bag and told her I had stopped in Chinatown for some key ingredients before our meet-up. “Of course you did,” she replied. If I showed up to an after-work function with a 3-foot burdock root sticking out of my bag, no one would be surprised.

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Thai Fried Egg Salad (Yam Khai Dao)

Salad (sans carrots)

I’ve made this treasure of a recipe no less than three times for dinner parties, and it’s always a hit. Each time I make it, I take all the photos of the prep, but by the time it’s ready to go on the table the kitchen looks like a crime scene, I’ve had more cocktails than I’d planned and I’m running an hour late. The final photo never, ever gets taken.

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Sweet Potato Fritters with Peanut-Sweet Chile Sauce

Ready to party

There are certain things I promised myself I would not compromise on in looking for a new place to live. A doorman I could continue to do without, but I could not give up my elevator. A small bedroom would be okay, but definitely not the kitchen. The kitchen would have a deep sink, a dishwasher and counter space. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how this story ends – that my duplex penthouse is four flights up, that there’s no dishwasher in sight in the little kitchen. But the first time I visited the apartment in the pouring rain on a Sunday morning in April, I fell in love with characteristics I didn’t know I cared about at all – the abundance of storage space, the adorable living room balcony and the sprawling upstairs terrace that would accommodate a charcoal grill which to date I do not know how to use.

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