Peppers: Our Thai recipes represent the region's real cooking and, as a result, are very spicy. If you don't like hot food, decrease the chiles and peppercorns.

Coconut milk:Although extracting fresh coconut milk is not hard, it is timeconsuming. We tasted the fresh milk side by side with diluted canned coconut milk and found the two almost identical in taste.

Palm sugar: Palm sugar is made from the sap of the sugar palm tree. In Asian markets in the United States, it's sold in small, round crystallized blocks. Light brown sugar is an acceptable substitute.