Spend any amount of time with the irrepressibly gleeful and curious Kay Plunkett-Hogge and you will find yourself wanting to go to Thailand, but then settling for eating any kind of Thai food you can get your hands on.
The food writer and recipe creator's latest cookbook, Baan, features the food she grew up eating at home in Thailand, and is suitably vibrant.
This is what happened when we grilled her on her eating habits...
Your death row meal would be... My Western side says a rare steak and a baked potato, creamed spinach with a martini; my Thai side says basil stir-fried pork on top of jasmine rice with a deep-fried egg on top, and a beer.
The thing you still can't make is... What I've never tried, and I'm frightened of - souffle, never done it.
Your favourite store-cupboard essential has to be... Fish sauce.
The kitchen utensil you couldn't live without has to be... Pestle and mortar - the medium one [her kitchen is full of pestles and mortars in all sizes].
If you get hungry late at night, the snack you'll reach for is... Smoked oysters on Ritz crackers with green Tabasco - weird right? But it's so delicious. I've always got a tin of smoked oysters in the cupboard, you see, they're £1.99 for a can.
Your signature dish is... When I'm cooking Thai food, it's never normally one dish, it's a selection, my green curry is amazing.
You like your eggs... Deep fried, and crispy on the edges.
Your favourite childhood dinner was... Rice and fish sauce, just that. I'd have that a lot of the time, just sitting in the kitchen with a bowl of rice with fish sauce on. It's really comforting - I still do it.
If you're ordering takeout, it has to be... Indian - from Kashmir in Putney, London [where Plunkett-Hogge lives]. Their food is stunning. I tend to always go for the spinach, and they do a thing called a galouti kebab, which is flat, a minced patty, and it's got lots of cumin and pepper in, and it's soft, so people with no teeth can eat it, [plus] tandoori chicken, and meatballs cooked in yoghurt.
Your ultimate hangover cure is... Alka-Seltzer and a Zantac combined - terrible, isn't it? Food doesn't do it. Spice is really good. A lot of grease is not so good, bacon and eggs makes you feel a bit sick - and no coffee.
You cannot stomach... I'm not the biggest fan of tripe, I've tried it in lots of different guises, it's not a squeamish thing, it's the texture. The only time I thought it was delicious was at St John and Fergus [Henderson, the owner] had somehow made it crispy.
Baan: Recipes And Stories From My Thai Home by Kay Plunkett-Hogge, photography by Louise Hagger, is published by Pavilion Books, priced £20. Available now.
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