I love a good laksa. I had my first laksa about 30 years ago, but in Singapore. I was travelling for work, and my team took me out to laksa for dinner. I have had a love affair with the dish ever since. I went back home to Chicago and bought Sri Owen’s cookbook, just for the laksa recipe. It was a dish that I loved so much that I decided to learn how to cook it. I would grind the pastes, gently fry them, and make the soup. My family, at that time, knew when laksa was being ma

Let's start with some history of this dish. It arrived via Yunnanese Chinese Muslim traders, the Chin Haw, through Myanmar and Laos. They settled in Northern Thailand, specifically in the Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai regions. As it travelled through Myanmar, it picked up strong Burmese characteristics, particularly from the dish Ohn No Khao Swe, which translates to "coconut milk noodles". The name Khao soi means "cut noodles", and the origins of this name are still disputed. One

Sweet potatoes are an important crop on the islands of Comoros and Mayotte. There are native varieties that are essential to the cuisine, Ktuna with red skin and yellow flesh and Zora with yellow skin and white flesh. These are cooked in a number of ways, including boiling, mashing, frying, and grinding into flour, all of which are then used to make unique dishes. I love sweet potatoes, and will get them every instance I can. There is the sweetness, especially when they are b