I must admit, had you said to me, back when “pepper is a little too spicy” for me, that someday I’d apprehensively take a seat next to a bowl of Thai Red Curry, I would have scoffed, wept, and then complained formally, I think. Spicy was not part of my brand image. I was the kid who ate only beige foods. The flavor purist.
But according to my editor, it appears that writing this column somehow made me “take action.” Someone who would order foods which are… colored, even labeled as “bold,” “fragrant,” or, heaven help us, “medium heat.”
That’s how I ended up looking at a bowl of Thai Red Curry, made with shrimp, zucchini, and squash served on rice—ingredients that seemed right out of a travel blog I wasn’t the intended audience of.
Thai Red Curry was the color of a caution light. The shrimp lay atop, sunbathing in all their glory. The vegetables swam around in an attempt to appear innocent. Below it all lay rice, an old standby that played Swiss neutrality in the food world.
I drew in a deep breath. The kind of breath one takes before sitting down for a final exam or reading a text that begins, “We need to talk.” Then I took a bite—all of it, shrimp, vegetables, sauce, and rice—and braced for the explosion of flavor.
The very first thing I noticed was warmth. It wasn’t the “fire department” type of warmth; rather, it was a slow-burning sensation, something like adjusting a dimmer switch to turn up the heat in my mouth. After that came the flavors, coconut that was rich in taste, a little lime for zest, some sweetness, and just enough spiciness, something that was hard to identify but nevertheless, I chose to believe.
I waited for panic. I waited for regret. I expected my inner self to go on an alarm frenzy with warnings like, “There is too much taste here for just one person.” However, that didn’t happen.
I enjoyed myself.
Not the “this is my all-time favorite food” kind of enjoyment. Not in the way where I want to run off and travel around Thailand right now. No, what happened was much more subtle and surprising. It was like, “Oh… this really does taste good,” which made me want to have another bite just to make sure I was not imagining it.
Was it strong? Yes. Was my tongue tingling? Yes. Did I momentarily wonder if I should have ordered some milk along with my meal? Yes, indeed. But I continued eating. And, as usual, the world did not come to an end.
Cooking with Thai Red Curry did not make me a spice lover or a curry expert. However, it did slightly open the door. It taught me that flavor need not necessarily be scary, that vegetables can have more to offer than just being fillers, and that perhaps I have been selling myself short all this time.
And if red curry happened to be the next chapter in my life, then I wonder what lies ahead in the future.
