Veggie Laksa - My Epic Fail

Doesn't that broth look SO GOOD?

My sister and I decided to use the recipe off this website to try veggie laksa, a recipe that has been floating around the web and looks super delicious. Well to make a long story short, thanks to some miscommunication and a forgetful mind, I bought the wrong ingredient and totally botched the recipe.

We started out on the right path and the soup looked delicious from the start, but as soon as I tasted it, I knew something wasn't right.  It was super spicy and the Thai chili paste completely overwhelmed the coconut cream. I thought maybe we just had the proportions wrong. Maybe I had put too much chili paste in. Maybe I was just going crazy ... But it was too late and we had to eat it or toss it. So we ate it ... and it was painful.

I was very confused about how the recipe went so wrong. I didn't quit know what to expect, but I knew that anything close to what we had made would not be getting the same good reviews the recipe was. So I went back to the original source and there my mistake was glaring right at me. The recipe called for Thai CURRY paste, not Thai CHILI paste. VERY BIG DIFFERENCE! 

Let's not even mention how everyone in the household was coughing like crazy when I was cooking the chili paste. Or how a piece of chili went down the wrong tube and I just about wanted to die. Or how I never want to see chili paste ever again.*

I do want to have a go at this recipe again. I see the potential in it and I still think it looks extremely delicious. Not to mention how easy it is to make. I will let you know how it goes next time.

*When I was looking for this in the international food store, I saw the shelves of gourmet fish sauce (paste?).  I think I may now have to avoid any and all recipes that call for fish sauce. Just imagine little glass bottles with big dead fish in them. Barf!  I know that normal fish sauce probably doesn't have the actual fish in it, but my mind has already been tainted.