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Tonight I am having one of those dishes that you crave for a week but you are out of an ingredient, or there is a special ingredient that you have to go to a special store to get… and the store isn’t on the way to, or even remotely close to, anything in your world… so you remember it only when you are at the regular grocery store, and then mutter ‘Damn’ under your breath.

This particular dish required me to go to the ‘Asian’ store, where, I don’t know why but, many a white people are afraid to go. Me? If there’s food in there, especially foods that can’t be found elsewhere, I’m shopping.

Up in Seattle, there was an Asian store on every corner in some neighborhoods, but my favorite one was Viet Wah down in Ranier Valley. It was Managed by a big African American guy named Larry (go figure). Here in Phoenix there are only two that I have found. Lee Lee and Ranch Market. If you know of more, let me know…

God, I love ‘the Asian Store’. I call it that because every product sold there in a can, bag or box is Asian. I have no idea what ‘kind’ of Asian it is… Like it could be Thai, or Vietnamese, or Japanese… but it’s Asian!

OK - maybe not everything because they have Bud Light too, which, to me, quite frankly, is a huge bonus, but you get my drift… It’s Asian from the minute you step into the place. All the people are Asian… except the Hispanics of course (Phoneix… remember). It smells Asian, and I don’t even know what that smells like… but it’s the same smell in every Asian grocery store I have ever been in.

The isles are littered with strange, crazy looking jars and cans of stuff, and the labels are all in a foreign language. I mean really - they don’t have any English on them at all; and if they do, it will be something like ‘eyes’ but they don’t say if they are really eyes… or some reference to eyes and because most of the people who work there don’t speak English, I will never know what the heck to do with most of it.

Um, shrug... Really?

Every one of these stores also has has some kind of deli adding to their unique scent. It could be a little deli serving up Vietnamese sandwiches, or the full blown deli with duck hanging from their necks, swinging right in front for all to see… which, by the way, I want to try, but I can’t communicate with anyone there so I would have to buy the whole thing and just wing it… yikes!

The best part to me about these places is their Meat and fish Department. This is the busiest part of every store. There are whole fish of every kind. There are types of fish I have never even heard of, and the ‘butchers’ will cut ‘em up and clean them for you any way you want. They will fillet them, steak them, and even coat them and fry them for you right there on the spot.

In this same department I have seen turtles, frogs, baby octopus, as well as live crab, clams and lobster. I would try them all if I could find out what to do with them!

Tonight the recipe involves clams, which you can get from the regular grocery store on a hit or miss basis, which I wasn’t willing to risk because I know the ‘Asian Market’ always has them… but there was one ingredient that I can’t usually get and that’s the curry paste.

I don’t even know how I ran into this particular paste. Perhaps luck of the draw the first time I bought it? I can’t remember… but if you like Thai food, if you like a red curry coconut sauce, this is the one to get.

May Ploy Curry Paste

Ok - so finally, what’s for dinner?

Clams in a Red Curry Coconut Sauce

1.5 lbs Clams
1 Can Coconut Milk
Red Curry Paste - to Taste
1/4 cup Basil Leaves, Torn
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Tblsn Ginger, Minced
1 Tspn Sugar

This is so easy, and yet sooo good.

Put the last 6 ingredients into a pot big enough to fit the clams as well. Heat to a boil on med-high. The Red Curry Paste has no measurement because this is a taste thing, or a heat thing. Unfortunately, because plants are all different, just like with Horseradish, the heat index of each batch of curry can be different. The one I have in my fridge is much more mild than the last one. I even add curry powder to mine sometimes. I like spicy food. You? Maybe not so much.

The sauce is going to be infused with the juice from the clams, so don’t worry if it seems a little overpowering. The clam juice will sweeten and thin down the sauce.

Once the mixture is boiling simply add the clams and cover for 5 minutes or so. You can take each clam out as it opens or just wait till all of them open and pour into a bowl… Doesn’t matter. Throw away any that don’t open within about 7 minutes. They were dead. They make you sick.

I like this with white sticky (Japanese) rice on the side to soak up some of the juice.

Um… Yum.