Besides Pok Pok on Division Street, there is very little in the way of true Thai food here in Portland. I have my sources, and there is an actual conspiracy that controls the menus of Thai restaurants nationwide to the "Thai Twelve"- pad thai, red, yellow and green curry, and tom yum soup to name a few.

Thanks to a busy year thus far, J and I have barely cracked a cook book in the last few months, so it was a pleasure to devote a day to food shopping and cooking. Thai seemed just the ticket, especially having just discovered that our friends B & W, find it one of their favorite cuisines and lucky us, B was sharing his "leftover" wine from the shop for our evening.

I had no idea what I was getting into. Our recipes required a few new ingredients- palm sugar and shrimp paste, these and others which of course were easily found at Uwajimaya. I just love the colorful packaging and the mystery of how these ingredients will come together. Another stop to New Seasons and we had several bags of provisions.

We made a fresh green curry paste- probably ten ingredients that took an hour and a half to prepare. Surprise ingredients here were romaine leaves and coriander stems for color and liquid. This was to go into the beef with eggplant dish. Our other main dish was fresh grilled shrimp, dressed, over a bed of cucumbers and fresh greens.

We remembered a lovely gift of an ice cream maker that we had yet to use, so we thought a cooling vanilla ice cream with a apple- apricot tart sounded like a nice finish. After looking at the time involved in these dishes, we found a simple recipe for spiced boiled peanuts for a little nibble before dinner.

I love the process of cooking, and the eating was just as delightful. See the rest of the pictures including the actual green curry dish.