Granddad i have seen that picture of your longbean trellis extension before. What would happen if you didn't add the extension? Would the beans just start to cascade back down? Would it affect yield? i am very curious! Cyrus gardener please contact me privately through my Gardenweb member page-thanks! zensojourner i do not mean to highjack your thread! So far i think no one has mentioned pumpkin or watercress. Watercress is a classic veggie side dish at Korean restaurants here. Thais enjoy pumpkin which is not like the jack o'lantern Americans are familiar with. More like a winter squash or even more like a Japanese Kabocha. Check out this website i just surfed into yesterday, they sell Thai vegetable seeds although they are adapted more to a tropical climate and i am not sure about your zone. i have not ordered from them so i cannot comment on product or service. Kaffir lime is pretty much a must for Thai food. it is not frost-proof but it should do OK in a pot if you suffer from that affliction ; ) i have heard that this can be ordered from FourWinds if you cannot get it locally. Cilantro, Mint, Thai Basil have all been mentioned but if you'd like to get really authentic try herbs Culantro and Rau Ram. Oh and green papaya salad is pretty much classic Thai food. You can use unripe solo papaya but the real green papaya is large, long and used primarily as a vegetable. i've been looking for a seed source myself. Sawatdi ; ) Here is a link that might be useful: Kilohana farms

Not sure about Kung Pao, but the Chile De Arbol grows very spindly branches but the leaves are pretty narrow compared to Japs and many others. Sort of like a Serrano plant if you've ever grown them. And, unlike Kung Paio, I've seen them as starts at many garden centers. Might be similar to the kung pao. Anybody know? Anyhow, it's a very common pepper in Mexican cuisine and one of my favorites. They're versatile in the amount of dishes/salsa/sauces that they're used in, but they're pretty much a "ripen to red and dry" type pepper. Awesome flavor, pretty damn good heat, and very prolific. Here's a classic pic of one loaded down with ripened pods. Kevin Here is a link that might be useful: Chile De Arbol

how interesting that deborah started this thread today--thank you! there is a very small (and CRAMPED) oriental market not terribly far from us and we stopped there yesterday to look around and pick up a few things just unknown to us. it was fun! i'd never had any thai food until 2 years ago and there was a nice restaurant that had a very small buffet every day. pad thai and tom gai soup were always there and most of the other dishes changed daily. i LOVED that soup and when i spotted fresh lemon grass yesterday, decided i had to attempt making it. there are about a dozen recipes for it on the "food down under" website and they are pretty similar to the one deborah posted. having said that, i simply don't recall the taste of either something like ginger (as a sub for galangel) or chili peppers in it but guess i'd be wrong about that :) in any case, i have dried red pepper flakes, or sweet chili paste with garlic or chipotle peppers in adobe sauce that i can use (VERY sparingly in our household). anyone have any suggestions on which might work best in this recipe? and maureen--ex or no, those sound like really great memories to me! it must have been quite the adventure for all of you! Here is a link that might be useful: tom gai

We had one very small one open up 15 years or so ago. I loved it. The name was Oaxaca ????. It had a fish dish to die for. A white fish fillet, grilled with a spicy green sauce with cilantro? rice? The salsa was fantastic. We also had for a time one called Tia's that was from Texas, that was pretty good. We have one called Rosie's that used to be good, but they have dumbed down their food to match the other ones. We have excellent German, Vietnamese, Thai, etc, because of Redstone Arsenal, but no Mexican or even Tex-Mex that I like.