Quantity Conundrum, Resolved.

“Oh my god this is AWESOME.” Jeremy closed his eyes and chewed for a minute, lost in rhapsody. “Is this the same stuff you’ve always used?”

I’ve been on a quest for the perfect Thai curry paste for a while. The ubiquitous Thai Kitchen stuff you can find at most grocery stores, in the little glass jars or (occasionally) in individual packets, is sometimes okay when you first open the jar but loses potency almost immediately, meaning there’s little point in keeping a half-used jar in the fridge. We’ve never, ever had any luck at all with the green version, which turns coconut milk a muddy brown color and adds exactly zero flavor. This is a bummer, since green Thai curry is Bee’s favorite.

When friends chimed in on social media about their favorite brands, Maesri and Mae Ploy topped the list. I’d never seen either one at any store; off I went to Amazon where after agonizing over the price per unit difference between buying one can as opposed to buying six, I gulped and bought a sample pack of 6 cans of the Maesri, 2 each of yellow, red, and green.

From a practical standpoint, one major plus is that there are no leftovers to deal with. You use an entire can to make your curry, with either one or 2 cans of coconut milk depending on the color. Fewer random open containers in the fridge FTW.

But the key aspect is the flavor. And HOLY MOLY! I licked the plate, not exaggerating. All of us snuck a little extra, not wanting to stop eating even after we were full. Clearly, this is worth stocking on Calypso.

The number of items in the shopping cart bulged. Do I get three more orders of those 6 cans? Four? FIVE?

WAIT A MINUTE.

We eat Thai curry maybe once a month. At most.
We’ll be in the US for close to another year, at least.
We can get Amazon shipments lots of places, if it comes to that.
Once we leave the US, the plan is to come back every year or two anyway.

Back off of that cart, Nica. The six cans shown here are enough to get us through the next six months, with plenty of time to order another batch right before we take off.

When you’re thinking of provisioning and the overwhelming question of HOW MUCH OF THIS SHOULD I REALLY BUY, stop and breathe for a minute. Honestly ask yourself how often you eat a given something, and how long you have to go between shopping. It really helps to think in specific time frames, for example how many times a month (or a week) do you use a given ingredient.

Specialty ingredients like this are often a little harder to find at smaller grocery shops; they’re also not likely to be top of mind each and every trip. They’re also the kind of thing that can spice up (no pun intended) dinner when you’re tired of the same old everything else.

With a dinner like Thai curry, thinking of it as a once-a-month meal also helps me figure out how many cans of coconut milk I need (2 per meal) and the bamboo shoots that add crunch and a little bulk. If I’m provisioning this kind of stuff for 6 months, I know I need 6 cans of paste, 12 cans of coconut milk, and 6 cans of bamboo. Chances are good it’ll last more like 8 months, which feels like a comfortable range to be considering.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have dinner to make.