5 c  "Thin" coconut milk

      1 sm Chicken, sectioned and cut

           -into bite-sized pieces
           -(bone-in)
      3    Stalks lemon grass, bruised

           -and cut into 1" lengths
      2 ts Laos powder (Ka)

      3    Green onions, finely chopped

      2 tb Coriander leaves, chipped

      4    To 6 fresh Serrano

           -chillies, seeded and
           -chopped
           Juice of 2 limes
      3 tb Fish sauce (Nam Pla)

  Here's another classic "Tom Yam" type chicken soup.  The "Laos"
  powder is dried galangal, powdered.  Unlike ginger, dried galangal
  seems to retain most of it's character.  If you use canned coconut
  milk, the "Thin" milk is the more watery liquid in the can.  The
  thick condensed stuff is coconut "cream" (not to be confused with the
  syrupy sweet coconut cream used for Pina Coladas).  If you shake the
  can up and combine the two, you have thick coconut milk.
  A lovely lemony, creamy soup, Dom Yam Gai calls for chicken pieces cut
  through the bone with a heavy cleaver, Chinese style.  If you find
  gnawing on chicken pieces and delicately trying to remove the bone,
  vainly searching for a place to deposit it, inhibiting your dinner
  conversation, you may debone the bird and substitute chicken pieces.
  In either case, use both dark and light meats for color and nutrition.
  [Although if you're talking at the table, ya got no reason to be
  eating a dish this good!  S.C.  ;-} ]
  In a saucepan, bring the "Thin" coconut milk to a boil.  Add the
  chicken pieces, lemon grass and Laos powder.  Reduce heat and simmer
  until the chicken is tender, about 15 minutes.  Do not cover as this
  will tend to curdle coconut milk.  When the chicken is tender, add
  the green onions, coriander leaves and chillies.  Bring the heat up
  just below boiling. Remove the pan from heat, stir in lime juice,
  fish sauce and serve.
  NOTE:  Beef cut into thin strips or firm white fish pieces may be
  substituted for chicken.
  From "The Original Thai Cookbook" by Jennifer Brennan, GD/Perigee,
  published by Putnam.  1981.
  Posted by Stephen Ceideburg; February 6 1991.