[Sca-cooks] Must be tired tonight...

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Phlip wrote:
>Been looking at a website
>http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa022202a.htm
>
>reading about curries, not only recipes for the foods, but recipes for the
>pastes and powders. Got down to the Thai pastes, which come in red, green,
>and yellow, basrd on what color the chilies are. The last used ghee as a
>base, was called Madras

While it is convenient for Americans to call Thai spice blends 
"curry", it's inaccurate. It would be like calling Medieval foods 
"curry" because they contain unusual spice blends (you know, "Fine 
Curry", "Sweet Curry", "Strong Curry"....).

The name for these particular spice blends is "Kaeng" or "Gaeng" 
(various other Romanizations). While it is true that red and green 
ones take their color in large measure from the chilis used, the 
yellow one often has much less chili and takes its color from 
turmeric - in fact, it often includes commercial curry powder. Its 
name is "Kaeng kari" - the only one that is actually called "curry" 
and reflects some rather specific outside influence. It doesn't even 
show up in some of the Thai cookbooks i have.

I think some Americans like "Kaeng Kari" because it is milder and has 
a familiar character (like "curry powder" you can buy in the 
supermarket) whereas Kaeng Ped (red paste) and Kaeng Kieu Warn (green 
paste - various Romanizations) are more "alien" to those unfamiliar 
with Thai food.

Anahita
who in the mid-1970s ate at just about every Thai restaurant in Los 
Angeles (close to 100) - there are no doubt many more now.