Understanding Thai Ingredients

Thai cooking is all about creating contrasts from the hot and sour to the sweet and pungent to the spicy and fragrant using a combination of core ingredients. When I asked my Minneapolis-based sister, Laura, to test one of the recipes for this book, I was delighted to hear that she could find everything she needed for the recipe at her local grocery store. Times have really changed since the days when we couldn’t even find fresh ginger at our neighborhood supermarket growing up in the Midwest. With the soaring popularity of Asian cooking, many grocery stores or specialty stores carry the basic Thai ingredients you will need to cook everyday Thai food. In some cases, you may need to make a trip your local Asian market (bring the kids because it is always a fun adventure). If you don’t live in an area with an Asian market, there are several on-line ethnic specialty food resources. Once again, simplicity is the key theme in Thai cooking so it isn’t difficult to keep main pantry items on hand with your dishes ultimately coming alive with fresh vegetables, aromatic herbs, and proteins.