I'm a total creature of habit. Every time I go there, I order a Japanese salad (the kind with the ginger dressing - I could eat that stuff by itself, it's so good) and a dish called Panang Goong:
panang goong
Originally uploaded by Kit Pollard.
Panang Goong is a deceptive curry with shrimp and sugar snap peas and basil. I say deceptive because, on first taste, it doesn't seem super complicated. But I have tried to make it (without a recipe) five or six times, and have failed miserably five or six times. It's sweet with coconut milk, but has a spiciness that creeps up, but never overpowers, the sweet flavor. I could eat the sauce all day long, with nothing but white rice to sop it up. But I can't make it to save my life.
Hopefully, though, all that incompetence is about to change. When we got home from the restaurant, I went on an Internet-searching rampage to find the recipe. The Internet isn't exactly crawling with the recipe, that's for sure.
But I did find this recipe, for panang curry made with chicken. I can adapt that. Naturally, the recipe requires a bunch of fancy Thai ingredients, like kaffir lime leaves. Can't find those at Giant, which is probably why I've never been successful imitating the recipe by taste (that...and that I'm not exactly there yet as a chef).
Fortunately, the web site that publishes the recipe is none other than importfood.com, which looks to be a fantastic (and quite efficiently organized) online purveyor of hard to find Thai foods. I love the site, and definitely plan on using it, even though ordering ingredients online will require a meal planning ethic that I haven't yet developed. I'll get there, though.
In the meantime, I'm just enjoying looking at all the cool stuff I could make, if only I had more patience.
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