It happened few years back. It was a family dinner in a Thai restaurant at San Diego .We sat for dinner and were in the process of ordering food. One of us turned to be vegetarian. We searched food of her choice and it came down to red Thai curry with vegetables. On the verge of ordering, it struck us that it will be containing fish sauce and shrimp paste. Big discussion happened and as last resort, restaurant manager’s help was sought. We asked which dish they can give to a vegetarian minus fish sauce and shrimp paste. The manager solved our problem saying he can give yellow Thai curry with vegetables. It was great relief.
The food came on table. Yellow Thai curry was very attractive with green, red, white and yellow vegetables strewn in yellow gravy. I also tasted the curry. The flavours sang on my palate. The vegetables were cooked perfectly and not mushy. We had small competition of identifying the cubed vegetables. Amongst the vegetables I could feel the crunch of water chestnut also. It was immense joy sharing the yellow Thai curry. From that day I was hooked on this curry.
Afterwards I started searching the recipe for yellow that curry. I was not getting recipe with proper flavour pattern. My attempts of trying to get proper recipe were unsuccessful for many days.
Then one day, on a food channel I saw a grand old Thai lady preparing paste for the yellow curry. She roasted the spices and some aromatics on live coals. Pounded everything to smooth paste with generous amount of turmeric powder. I copied her method and got almost the same taste as the one I had tasted first time. This recipe I am going to save for my future use and may share with somebody yearning for yellow Thai curry.