Of all the intoxicating smells that drift through the air at a Thai restaurant, the scent of a just-cooked curry might be the most alluring. These curries are the perfect balance of salty, sweet, funky, and creamy, packing wild amounts of well-balanced flavor into every spoonful. So why is it so hard to get the same result at home? On paper, these curries look easy: All they need is a paste (which you can find pretty easily in most stores these days), some coconut milk, and a couple of extra ingredients, right? As with many things that look simple, there's a bit more to making Thai curry than that.
These dishes may come together quickly, but they require a level of understanding about the flavors that go into the dish and how they interplay with each other to get it just right. "Thai curry is the storytelling about our culture and life from different regions of Thailand," Kalaya Thai Kitchen Chef Nok Suntararon explained to Food & Wine , and knowing the difference between distinct regional styles of curry and their ingredients will prevent your dish from turning into an anonymous-tasting mess. It will also help you track down the best ingredients for your homemade Thai curries — and trust us, doing this will make all the difference.
Restaurants often make their curry pastes from scratch -- or buy the best stuff Thai curry pastes can vary enormously in flavor, quality, and freshness, and figuring out which one to use is often a number one priority for restaurant chefs. It's .