Inthira Thai Market in Woodside, Queens
Until yesterday, I’d never smelled a handful of kaffir lime leaves.
The ones I smelled were frozen, sheathed in a little plastic bag at the Inthira Thai Market in Woodside. Event through plastic the smell was unforgettable: sharp and green and sour like lime juice, with the flowery perfume of a lemon and maybe the grassiness of a curry leaf. I inhaled deeper and actually moaned a little, which might’ve scared my friend Vikas but I think made the Thai lady at the cash register smile.
The market, just a few subway stops from my house, had other goodies. Little cans of curry pastes with colorful labels lay stacked on a shelf, above packages of Mama-brand instant noodles that Vikas, who grew up in Bangkok, swore were loads better than Top Ramen. The freezer case had galangal in both chunks and thin slices, and the back fridge carried a half-dozen varieties of basil with names like “holy” and “Thai lemon.” They’d run out of most of them.
For nearly every item I pointed at, the Thai shopkeeper had an answer about how they’re used in Thai cooking, or what the item tasted like. Very few people have been this friendly to me so far in New York, particularly people in grocery stores. (My representative experience so far has been when I asked the cashier at my local Chinese market about the banana leaf-wrapped bundles near the register. She told me they were not banana leaves, and that was that.)
The shopkeeper chatted with my friend Vikas in Thai and in English, and she even gave me a bag of Thai lemon basil to try, just to see if I liked it. “Make sure you take off the brown leaves,” she advised. “And don’t eat the stems.”
I bought some massaman curry paste (interestingly one of the few Thai curries that does not call for bamboo shoots, she told me) and a few cans of coconut milk, as well as some sweets made with banana, coconut and palm sugar. I also bought Singha beer and chicharrones sealed in a Ziploc bag. The market’s open late every night — I’m sure I’ll be back.
Inthira Thai Market
64-04 39th Avenue (a few blocks from the 69th Street 7 Train Stop)
Open Mon-Thurs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Fri-Sun 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
(718) 606-2523
Curry pastes at Inthira Market in Woodside, Queens
Dried Mama-brand noodles
Kaokneaw ping with taro, one of the prepared foods available for sale at Inthira Thai Market in Queens.
Two of the favorite places we have visited have been Mexico & Thailand – and they are two of our favorite cuisines.
One of the least known stunning meals are Thai salads. Garlic, ginger (if you can’t get fresh galangal), chilli, pounded in a pestle & mortar, fish sauce & lime juice. Mix plenty of finely sliced salad ingredients (the more the better), add chopped coriander and peanuts or cashews, & pour over the dressing.
As refreshingly different as ceviche.
Mark: That sounds amazing. Will have to try it this weekend! Is there a brand of fish sauce you recommend, or are they all pretty much the same?
Chicharrones at a Thai store? 🙂
Lili: That was my thought, but I guess they’re appealing to Latinos in the neighborhood? It was odd, because the chicharrones seemed very fresh, wrapped in Ziploc bags and all. I’m used to them being a little saltier, but they were great!
Chicharron or pork rind is common in Thailand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork_rind
Lesley,
We are lucky to have a importers factory shop we visit and can Thai ingredients very cheaply – the fish sauce we buy is CA-LINH from Thailand in a 725ml bottle – but I’m sure if you ask for the best one you will be fine – it is not expensive.
I forgot to add one important ingredient for the salad dressing – a little sugar. Thai’s use Palm sugar, we usually just use a dark brown sugar. As I’m sure you know, Thai food is all about the balance of sweet, sour, hot & salty – you play with the amounts to get the balance right.
Enjoy.
We are trying long slow cooked pork in our Weber tomorrow with wood chips for a smoky taste – we will make tacos with slaw & some hot salsa my wife made in abundance from our good chilli crop this year.