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Dried Kaffir leaves

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When I was in Vancouver, my Thai colleague showed me a humongous bag of dried kaffir leaves he bought for mere dollars in Chinatown. I asked him where he got it, but he did not remember. I walked all over searching one day and could not find it but did not want to harass him. He had told me they were easy to find in NY Chinatown. I have never seen this before in all of NY. Can anyone help me locate a store in Queens or Manhattan that sells big bags of dried kaffir leaves cheaply?

I cook a whole lot of Thai food, and the little baggies of fresh leaves for a few dollars at my local Thai shop sure adds up! I used to have kaffir trees at various times throughout the years, but hubbie killed them when I went on business trips. Sigh. LOL.


Also, my friend has a tree in his backyard....does anyone know if I can cut a branch and grow from there? How? Or would I need the root or seeds for this particular plant?

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  1. I dont remember seeing dry leaves but you can often find fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves in chinese groceries, or in NYC chinatown in the SE Asian Grocery on Mulberry or the little thai store on Mosco. Fresh can be frozen.

    1 Reply
    1. re: jen kalb

      there is a llittle thai grocery across the street from sripraphai and another one a block down the street (away from roosevelt) and i've bought little baggies of about 15 frozen leaves for around $1. i'm not sure if that's better than the little baggies you get, price wise. also, the 4-5 places i've bought these leaves in queens always sell them frozen. there was a time when they were fresh, but maybe that's only during certain times of the year. anyway, i never found a significant difference between cooking with fresh or frozen leaves.

    2. You may order kaffir lime leave powder from www.importfood.com.