chicken curry with lemongrass and taro

A lot of times I don't post about cooking because I tend to go for the less photogenic foods. For example, stew looks like brown blobs with the occasional orange or green blob mixed into an overall brown conglomeration. Attractive. Yesterday I made chicken curry (repeat previous sentence and substitute brown with yellow). This time I tried to be a little adventurous and used this recipe for Vietnamese chicken curry because I wanted to throw in some taro.

I like taro. I also describe taro as tasting like paste. I wasn't one of those kids who would eat paste as a snack or anything, but... well... anyway, they have similar consistencies. I did not like the taro being in my curry. It added a certain slimy element of which I am not fond.

I also learned that lemongrass does not soften up and if you don't pick it out of the pot, you end up feeling like hay flew into your food. It had a nice flavor, though, and was actually pretty when I sliced it, with purple rings around each layer of the stalk.

The verdict: lemongrass and ginger, yes; taro, no.