One clear instruction
for each home
The whole method, cooked as one pot of Tom Yam Goong
Ingredients
Rainfall · canal and river levels · tides · forecasts · official warnings
from several market stalls, each labelling and measuring in its own way
Method
- 1
Read the labels. What is it, which stall is it from, and may we use it?
Registries - 2
Prep. Wash, peel and slice; use one measuring spoon; note when each was picked, and when it reached you.
Readings - 3
Sort. Two of the same? Keep one. The leaf nobody can name is set aside, not risked in the pot.
Reconciling - 4
Taste. Not “78 grams of something”, but too sour, too salty, or just right?
Indicators - 5
Head chef decides. The sous-chef says “needs lime” and shows the spoon. Only the head chef sends the bowl out.
Trigger points - 6
Write it down. Who was served, who finished, who sent it back.
Outcomes
Follow one prawn
Arrives: whole, unwashed, “a handful, bought Tuesday”.
After prep: peeled, 12 grams, labelled and timed.
Same prawn. Now it can go in the pot with everything else.
Chef’s note
A sink overflows in two different ways.
Tip a whole pot in at once: the drain can’t keep up. Intensity.
A gentle tap with the drain half-plugged: it fills slowly over hours. Volume and tide.
Every stall prepares its ingredients in its own way, for its own customers. Agreeing one recipe card needs the whole market at one table.