Do try this at home: Night + Market’s Panang beef curry

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Kris Yenbamroong grew up a restaurant brat in Talési, the Thai spot his parents ran on the Sunset strip. At age 13, Yenbamroong moved from Los Angeles to Thailand, where he got hooked on street food and socializing at meals. But to date, his grandmother, Vilai, has been the biggest influence on Yenbamroong’s cuisine. (Try it at his wildly successful restaurants, Night + Market in West Hollywood and Night + Market Song in Silver Lake.) Although she frequently calls Kris’s food meun nak , which means “heavy-handed”  in Thai, Vilai also jokes that her grandson is an alcoholic who makes food for drunkards.

Not surprisingly, Yenbamroog’s script for Panang beef curry, a stand-out in his new Night + Market cookbook, is based on his grandmother’s recipe. The dish is made with uncomplicated methods but packs complex flavors, like the food on the Night + Market menus. “I believe in working smarter, not harder,” he says. “Every dish at Night + Market is streamlined with a simple question: How minimal can we go and still come up with the best product?”