Galangal drinks up more water this time of year, so the paste needs an extra few minutes at the mortar to break down properly. It is a small adjustment, but the kitchen notices it every June — one more thing the notebook does not write down and every cook just learns by hand.
Humidity changes more than the ingredients, too. The curries simmer a touch longer to hold their thickness, and the kitchen runs the exhaust fans harder than any other month of the year.
Nothing in the notebook mentions the weather. You just learn to read the galangal instead.
It is the kind of adjustment that never makes it into a recipe card, which is probably why every family cook ends up spending a full rainy season just watching before they are trusted with the mortar alone.
