Today I had planned to have a Korean New Year Lunch.

However, when I arrived at the restaurant it was closed. I looked at the Business Hours and found out that it is closed on Tuesdays.

Well all was not lost in having a Lunar New Year lunch. Most of the Chinese restaurants were packed, so I decided to have my lunch at Thai Basil Express. Especially after I looked at the menu and found one of my favorite dishes.

My meal started with a bowl of soup and a nice cup of hot tea. The soup was really nice with some vegetables and tofu in a nice broth.

Here is the dish that I ordered. You can see the nice rich curry in this dish. This is Massaman Beef Curry.

Massaman curry is made from a very complex paste of spices that usually includes cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, cumin, bay leaves, lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste and garlic.  Of course other spices are also added. There are different variants of the spice paste as many cooks will have their own secret blends.

Here you can see some of the beef on top of a plate of rice. The beef was nice and tender and had a wonderful taste from the curry.

After eating the beef, vegetables and peanuts I dumped the rest of the rice into the bowl with the curry sauce that was left. The curry and rice together was wonderful.

I enjoyed my lunch while reading a book about the discovery of the structure of DNA.

For all my readers who observe the Lunar New Year I wish you a wonderful year.

Steven