London's Thai Cottage put the pow in nam prik pao on Wednesday when fumes from a huge pot of dry cooking bird's eye chilies sparked a terror alert that led police to break down the restaurant's door. Firefighters emerged from the eatery with a pot containing nine pounds of smoking peppers.

Soho residents had complained of a chemical burning their throats and the London Fire Brigade quickly dispatched a chemical response team. When I was a kid my chilihead father had the brilliant idea of making his own hot oil in the house by frying peppers in oil. So I can attest to the fact that vapors from smoking chilies do indeed take one's breath away. Thank god dear old Dad didn't use anywhere near nine pounds.

I will say however that smoking peppers do not smell at all like a chemical. Chef Chalemchai Tangjariyapoon agrees, "I was making a spicy dip with extra-hot chillies that are deliberately burnt. To us, it smells like burnt chili and it is slightly unusual."

Pim, of Chez Pim, is not exaggerating when she says that Pad Thai is one of the most popular and well-know Thai dishes out there. But despite its popularity, the noodle dish is often simply eaten in restaurants, picked up from takeout places or even cooked from a mix instead of being cooked from scratch at home. Pim has generously provided her readers with a complete and detailed how-to guide for making Pad Thai at home. She guarantees that it is just about foolproof if you follow her specific directions, and since she has a photo to go along with every step in the recipe, doing so should not be difficult in the least.

Pim also mentions several common Pad Thai mistakes that you should avoid, just to ensure you get perfect results, and reassures readers that the sauce can be made in advance, which provides a shortcut for later preparations of the dish.

The new trend in frozen foods is pushing our taste bud frontiers with exotic and unusual ethnic dishes. Supermarket surveys have shown that customers want to see more ethnic cuisines on the market shelves and that we aren't afraid to taste a few spices.

For some time brands like Ethnic Gourmet have been producing frozen entrees and sides with Asian dishes from China, Thailand, and India; now they have added other cuisines like American Southwest and Italian, amped up with a bit more spice and flair than we are used to. Many other brands are stretching the culinary envelope into areas like Morocco, with Fairfield Farm Kitchens making refrigerated soups like Moroccan Stew, Tibetan Curried Soup, and Hungarian Vegetable Noodle Soup, all based on a recipes from the well known Moosewood Restaurant. They also have other offerings like Jamaican Style Jerk Chicken with Wehani rice and Thai Style Chicken Curry. Paani Foods Inc. is exploring other areas of African cuisine with Jollof Rice with Chicken and Peas, a mainstream Nigerian dish, and a West African Meat Pie. Two frozen entrees I can't wait to try.

Expect to see Latin cuisine defined by national dishes and regional recipes from places like the Yucatan showing up in your grocers freezer. Indian food has had a strong showing lately and now we can expect to see the tastes and spices amped up so that if the box says spicy, it will be. Also you can expect many of these frozen ethnic foods to be organic and from humanely raised livestock. I love that we are going to be exposed to more varied offerings in the freezer aisle. For many this will be first tastes of new cuisines, with the opportunity to explore safely from our home. I can't think of a better way to get exposed to the varied food of our global society as we eat our way deeper into the 21st century.

For anyone new to Thai cooking, pad Thai seems like a good dish to start with. There are many variations of the dish and even an inexperienced cook can throw together a simple peanut sauce to toss with some noodles, which provides a great starting point to expand on later. After all, doing some seriously "authentic" cooking is all well and good, but it's nice to know how to make a relatively quick dinner, too. This pad Thai, from What do I know? was described as an "on the fly" recipe, so it seems to fall into that latter category. The recipe is actually quite easy and it sounds delicious. It has sauteed tofu, garlic, broccoli, onions and carrots mixed in with noodles, bean sprouts, cilantro and peanuts. The whole thing is tossed with a very easy peanut sauce before serving and, from start to finish, it probably takes a lot less time than ordering takeout.

I noticed that Trader Joe's recently started stocking the type of noodles used for making pad Thai, and even though I now have a bunch stocked away in my kitchen, I can't get motivated to make anything with them. Thai cooking is time intensive and, while worth it in the end, you can't always dedicate a lot of time to cooking during the week. Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes delivers recipes that you can make even when you are relatively short on time that still have all the great thai flavors you are hoping for. The recipes are easy to understand, so it is also a good starting point for someone who wants to get a feel for the basics of Thai food and flavors. One of the best features of the book is that the author provides lots of substitutions, so you will be able to work with most of the recipes even if you don't have access to a well-stocked Asian market, though some staples (like fish sauce and sriracha) will definitely have to be added to the pantry. Recipes include Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, Green Curry Chicken with Zucchini, Spicy Cashew Salad with Chilies, Cilantro and Lime and Sticky Rice with Mangos.

For a less "quick and easy" look at Thai cuisine, try author Nancie McDermott's Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking, which offers a few more techniques, more curries and some more exotic/less common recipes.

We know that the big trends are the ones that really shape the food industry and impact us over the long term, but the littler trends that make up those overarching categories are interesting to watch, too. And at the moment, consumers are watching two words: "fresh" and "global".

Research into all areas of food consumption, including stores, restaurants and homes, showed that customers valued freshness over convenience and predictability/reliability. This does not mean that consumers are turning away from packaged goods, just that they are being more discerning and looking for products that can assure them of their freshness, through innovative packaging or marketing.

The "global" aspect comes into play when you look at range of foods available to consumers. Plain potato chips are not the only option. Going out for sushi, or some carnitas, is about as normal as going out for a burger and fries. This is not to mention the fact that those same burger-and-fry places have expanded their offerings with Asian and Mexican inspired dishes, helping to bring previously unfamiliar flavors into the mainstream.

On a vacation trip from Guam to Los Angeles, Santos of The Scent of Green Bananas made a mini-tour of Thai restaurants around the LA area, based upon recommendation made by others on their food blogs. One place Santos stopped is Yai in Hollywood off the 101 freeway. Her high-contrast photo of the barbecued duck noodles is fantastic, is especially with the red chopsticks across the bowl. Yai is located at 5757 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90028. (323) 466-0153.

No, I didn't actually eat dinner with Rachael Ray, but I did use a version of one of her dishes. I wanted to make something Thai-inspired that involved a peanut sauce and so I started hunting around for recipes. I actually settled on this one from Rachael Ray because it seemed straightforward and along the lines of what I had in mind: an easy chicken dish with a peanut sauce. "Authentic"? Perhaps not, but the finished dish tasted great and I would guess that it is something even Rachael's detractors could enjoy.

There's no doubt that a lot of people love Kettle Chips (the brand), with their thick cut, crunchy texture and interesting flavors. I am one of those people. However, I have always been a fan of the simpler flavors - salt and pepper, salt and vinegar, and plain.

Recently, I tried the Spicy Thai flavor as an accompaniment to an Asian-flavored burger, which was strange for me because I am not a huge fan of typical Thai flavorings and ingredients (lemongrass, cilantro). The chips were slightly sour, but were also sweet. I didn't mind the tangy-ness, but it was the sweetness that turned me off. Don't get me wrong, I have a huge sweet tooth, but I like my sweets as candies, pastries, and desserts, not potato chips.

This simple combination of skirt steak and cucumber salad is easily the steak dish I make most often. For the salad, combine two cucumbers, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced; one medium tomato, cored, seeded and thinly sliced, minced Thai chili to taste; a good palmful of fresh mint, finely chopped; 3-4 tablespoons of lime juice; and a splash of fish sauce (start with around a tablespoon if you're not a huge fan of the stuff, yet). Toss all ingredients to combine.

As we all know, steak lovers can be pretty particular about how they like their steak cooked. Having said that, I'm not going to insist on any specific method or level of doneness. Most recently, I grilled a 1.5 pound skirt steak, trimmed of excess fat and cut into three pieces, over a very hot (three seconds max with the hand test) fire of hardwood charcoal. If grilling is out of the question, broiling the same skirt steak works just fine. After resting the steak, cut it across the grain into thin strips. This shortens the muscle fibers and yields a more tender cut.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]

Last fall, I posted about a Thai art student named Kittiwat Unarrom who used bread to depict the human form. Comments on that post ranged from "Ick," to "this guy... is my new hero." Well, those of you that were grossed out can continue to be grossed out and you admirers can continue to admire. This morning I came across four more photos of work from the Unarrom bakery (it's a family business, I believe) on Ezprezzo.com. An AP story has some more background on Kittiwat.

If you're going to Thailand anytime in the near future, or if you just want to seem like less of a jackass the next time you go out to a Thai restaurant, have a look at this "talking menu" of Thai food. Just what it sounds like, this is a list of popular Thai dishes accompanied by audio clips of their names. The guide is part of EnjoyThaiFood.com, an extensive blog and recipe resource for Thai cooking and foodways. The recipes look authentic and simple and the Thai food forum seems pretty active.

One of the things I look forward to the most when eating at a Thai or Laotian restaurant is the green papaya salad. This pungent mix of fish sauce, lime, chilis, dried shrimp, and green papaya strips never fails to make a bright burst on my palate along with some sticky rice. Plus, the papayas strips are very refreshing, and makes a nice starter dish, or a side dish to accompany the main entree. The recipe itself is quite simple, and would make a great addition to any Asian influenced meal at home.