As we become better acquainted, I hope to impart to you my love for Indian and Southeast-Asian cooking. I guess the first thing I would tell you is that you need to have a good source for ingredients. Many ethnic markets also carry requisite cooking tools, such as this sticky rice steamer you can pick up at almost any Thai market. Often, they'll even have a selection of mortars and pestles (mortar and pestles?), a tool which comes in handy prepping this type of food. In New York City, I recommend a visit to the Bangkok Center Grocery in Chinatown, on Mosco Street between Mott and Mulberry. First of all they are the nicest people in the whole world and will always greet you with "Sawat dee." And then they have a wicked green papaya salad that you will take home and be unable to stop eating even when your lips are burning off. They also carry hard-to-find fresh produce, like wild lime leaves (also known as kaffir).

Stock up on some cans of curry paste (the Masaman is flawless, served with a cucumber relish—recipe soon, I promise) and of coconut milk, and grab a bottle of fish sauce and you are in business for an easy, quick and delicious meal. You can simply follow the instructions on the can! I have gone to the effort of making my own curry pastes and, though they are quite good, I can't really say they're any better than the Maesri brand. But this post is really to tell you that making your own sticky rice at home is no big deal. All you need is the right steamer and the right rice.

As you've seen, the steamer is a two-part affair: a gourd-shaped metal pot and a conical woven rattan steamer that fits inside. You could probably improvise something, but these work perfectly and are not at all expensive. The rice has to be what is called "long-grain Thai sticky rice." Not jasmine, not Japanese sweet rice, not anything else. You might see it marked pin kao. Thus far, even though I've talked to the nice people at Whole Foods, I've never seen it anywhere but Mosco Street. Sticky rice is delicious (and essential) as an accompaniment to curries. It also makes an incredible dessert when cooked with coconut milk and mango. (If you're in Los Angeles, you probably know many Thai markets, but I can definitely recommend the one at Hollywood and Harvard as having a huge selection of fresh produce and pantry ingredients.)