Loot from Graham Street, Central

Wandered over to Central this morning and over to the Graham Street open-air wet market. Had a grand time ogling the luscious fruit and vegetables on display. It was past noon so I guess the vendors were kind of mellow and the whole place had a postprandial air. Despite having lived in HK for eight years I've seldom shopped at the local wet markets since few of the shopkeepers speak English (and I've just been too damned lazy to learn Cantonese) and signlanguage has always struck me as a bit of a hassle! But my love for food--and the total bareness of my fridge--drove me to pick up, very quickly, the ingredients for this evening's Thai shrimp curry supper: a bunch of cilantro, limes, about 2 pounds of jumbo prawn, a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes (the recipe said plum tomatoes but for some reason I always mistake cherry tomatoes for the plum toms). All for HK$55 (about US$7). I already had the curry mix and coconut milk at home. Also picked up a juicy, fragrant yellow Philippine mango for dessert--NOT a steal at HK$9, but what can you do?

You can find a basic recipe for Thai shrimp curry here.