Peppers and Jicama

While my parents were finishing up eating at Sizzler (our weekly family dinner), I wandered over to WinCo to see if they still had Jicama. Yup. They do. Huge ones, in fact. It took me a while to find a small one. Since I was there, I checked out their selection of peppers. They have Thai chili peppers!!!! :-D Since I'm planning to make a Thai curry stew this afternoon, this was quite fortuitous. Also, WinCo's bell peppers are a third the price of Fred Meyer's. Smaller, but it's still cheaper to buy two to make up the difference than to get a big one at FM. I still need to get the meat, some Thai curry sauce (not sure if I'll use red or green; the Thai peppers are red, though), and any other vegetables that look interesting. It's classically made with eggplant, but I've tried it and I don't care for eggplant. It reminds me of a line from Crocodile Dundee: "You can live on it, but it tastes like sh**."

From previous experience, I think the key to Thai curry is the coconut milk. You need to simmer the meat in it for a good long while to get it to the appropriate texture. Hmmm... I need to remember to get some fresh basil as well. The difference in taste between fresh and dried basil is quite vast, and Thai food definitely needs the fresh.

One more item... At Sizzler, I had gone to use the restroom. When I got back, my dad had taken my seat, apparently thinking I'd gone out to the car or something. This wouldn't have been a problem...except he'd been having soup and crackers. Crackers are made from wheat; there were crumbs all over (As a point of reference for the non-gluten-intolerant: This would be the equivalent of returning to the table to find that someone had sprinkled arsenic all over where you planned to eat.). Thankfully, I was done eating, but I had planned to sit down for a little while longer. Even though Dad had moved over, I wasn't sitting there until someone gave the place a thorough washing. So that's when I wandered over to WinCo.

Anyway, 'tis time to hunt down the rest of the ingredients.