CurrySimple = Flashy Thai in a Snap

Northern Virginia Magazine
August 2006
By Warren Rojas

Craving Thai but tired of take-out? D.C.-area native Michael Moran (pictured below) has cooked up a quick fix with his CurrySimple (www.currysimple.com) line of gourmet curries.

The CurrySimple catalog currently includes green (spicy), red (medium spicy), yellow (mild) and masaman (sweet) curry blends, a curry sampler bundle, stir fry sauces and a powerful Thai tea concentrate (needs to be cut with about three parts water per serving of tea before drinking).

The fragrant curries emerge from their vacum-sealed pouches as a chunky paste-spices are clearly visible-but stand ready to envelop the ingredients of your choice in less than three minutes of stovetop heating. The red sauce, featuring traces of coconut milk, red chili, kaffir lime peel and coriander seed, produces a languishing heat that builds over time (it's even better a day or two later). The more complex masaman sauce, charged with garlic, lemongrass, clove and tamarind, imparts a rich flavor and a deep brown tint to anything it touches. You can also combine the various sauces for a spicy-sweet blast, or add some crushed red pepper flakes to increase the heat index of any particular dish.

According to Moran, the biggest seller to date has been the gourmet curry combo pack. But he and partner, Nimir "Lim" Harimtephathip, are already developing a highly anticipated coconut soup concentrate and a Thai barbecue sauce Moran describes as "really sweet with a spicy kick to it."
In the meantime, Moran is working to trim the jumbo curry pouches down to a more singles-friendly size; each curry currently comes in a two pound bag which is good for approximately eight to 10 servings. And he's talking with mainstream grocery stores and specialty retailers to try and get his products in stores by the end of the year.

Moran is returning to town to peddle his wares at the 2006 Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show, a gastronomic conference debuting at the D.C. Convention Center from November 3 through November 5. Why come back? Because although he now lives in Atlanta, Moran says the CurrySimple client base reaches all the way back to the nation's capital. "Probably half my orders are from the D.C.-metro area." he proudly states.