Drying Chillies in Phuket Town

Another beauty of wandering around Phuket Town is you see things which you did not expect.

This lady was drying her large red chilies and there were quite a lot of them. This was on the Ranong Road and adjacent to the market.

There is a market for the fresh chilli and also for the dried chilli - in any good Thai cook book they will indicate which chilli to use - I love the dried ones in the Tom Ka Gai (Chicken in coconut milk soup).

On investigating this tradition of air-drying the chilli I actually found that there is a term called 'mouse shit chilies' - an odd term; 

Of all spicy flavors used in Thai cooking, the most popular comes from the smallest of chillies,

 prik kee noo. Literally translated, the name means "mouse shit chillies."

So now you know.