An aromatic, rich brown sugar, a vital ingredient in many Southeast Asian dishes. It can be replaced with a good-quality dark sugar, but it is usually available in Asian stores and will keep for months, so do stock up on it.

Roasted peanuts enrich many Asian sauces, and in Thailand you'll find them floating in sauces or scattered over dishes as a garnish. Shell the nuts, roast in a hot oven to loosen their pink or red inner skin, then rub in a kitchen cloth to remove it. Nuts roast well in the microwave.

It is made from the flour which comes from the trunks of sago palm. Commonly shaped into pellets, wet sago flour is pressed through a sieve and dried on a hot surface. These white pellets will turn transparent when cooked.

This comes in cans and is obtainable from various emporia stocking Chinese and other oriental supplies. If it is difficult to obtain, once can make one's own by blending the syrup from Indian chutney with plum ham to produce a fairly thick sauce and then sieving it. The chutney syrup supplies the necessary condiments.

Known in Thai as cha plu and daun kaduk in Malay, this creeper has aromatic, glossy, dark green leaves. It can be omitted if unavailable.

A yellowish colored root sold in dried slices. They are brewed for their medicinal value and taken for the treatment of the pancreas, lungs and throat.

These thin, narrow pointed leaves are about 4cm long and 1cm wide. They are commonly used to flavor laksa gravy and also eaten raw in Thai salads.