Kaffir Lime Leaf

While coconut milk, curry paste and fish sauce are readily available at a wide variety of grocery stores and food emporiums, even those of the non-asian variety, other ingredients essential to preparing authentic Thai dishes prove much more elusive. Since migrating to the Eastern seaboard, I have faced particular difficulty in tracking down the wonderfully pungent kaffir lime leaf. It provides critical aromatics for such Thai classics as tom kha gai, a coconut milk soup also flavored with lemon grass and galangal, which seem to be more readily available.

Citrus hystrix, or Bai-ma gkood, as it is sometimes known, is a citrus tree commonly found in the homes of tropical Thailand. Those who want to go deeper into the realm of kaffir may want to check out a book by Kasma Loha-unchit, It Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and the Joys of Thai Cooking, published in 1995 and excerpted on this web site.
All too often I have found myself frantically searching through pandamus, jute, and other less descript foliage in the frozen Philippine section of asian grocers, my hopes inspired by the opaque mystery of frosted doors, only to be foiled yet again. Some retailers have reported a plausible explanation for this paucity: a recent outbreak of citrus canker in Thailand precipitated a ban on importing the leaves. Apparently, kaffir limes are grown also in California but not yet to the extent to make them abundant, and some have resorted to making friendly with restauranteurs for a break-off from their stashes. Dry leaves are pitiful substitutes.
Fortunately, the magic of the Internet Machine has made the leaf available, in fresh form, at a reasonable price. Import Food.com will send you a serious kaffir package for 13 bucks, including expedited shipping. You can freeze them also.