OUCH

LEMON GRASS

For the average home cook, the skyrocketing price of lemon grass might not be a problem. But Thai chefs are feeling the pinch.

"It's gotten worse every month since April," says Sak Pollert, owner of the restaurant Rice in Northwest Washington's Logan Circle/Shaw neighborhood and Simply Home on U Street NW. "I told my chefs that if the price doesn't come down soon, we're going to buy a farm and grow it ourselves."

In April, Pollert paid $1 per pound for the fragrant, reedlike herb that is a key ingredient in Thai curries, soups and drinks. In May, he paid $3 per pound and in June $3.50. When you buy 160 to 240 pounds per month, as Pollert does, the increase is significant. Thus far he has not raised menu prices -- "for now, we're just absorbing it."

For home cooks, the pain is felt at the supermarket. Magruder's spokesman Mike Patterson says that last week his stores did not carry lemon grass because of its scarcity and high price. In April, customers paid $2.99 per pound. This coming week, if lemon grass comes in at all, he estimates it will sell for $4.99.

"Most supermarkets across the country aren't carrying it," says Robert Schueller, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based Melissa's World Variety Produce, one of the country's largest distributors of specialty fruits and vegetables. He says the problem stems from heavy rains in February and March in the Fresno, Calif., area where most of the U.S. lemon grass crop is grown. Eighty to 90 percent of the crop was ruined. The price took off in late March when the supply from Mexico ran out.

"In comparison to cost and availability, lemon grass took the sharpest turn of any crop this year so far," says Schueller, who predicts that prices will stay high through August. "This may not be the best summer to use lemon grass as skewers on the grill."

-- Walter Nicholls