Make Your Pantry Your Own

The evolution of your pantry is like the evolution of a country. Basic ingredients like jasmine rice, fish sauce, lemongrass, and others listed in these pages mark a starting point. But as you expand your repertoire, you bring in new ingredients learned from the people you meet, the places you travel, and the foods given to you as gifts. That special mustard, chili sauce, or spice blend found in a town you visited becomes a new part of your larder. Then, as you mature and move on through life, you adopt more new ingredients. The flavors of your travels become the flavors of your kitchen. Your home-cooked food goes through a metamorphosis and takes on a new identity that reflects who you are and where you’ve been.