Hi Jerry, palm oil is the cheapest and most common cooking oil here in Thailand and so I have been using it in my bases and cooking my curries with it for years, it does have a more intense yellow colour than other cooking oils but is just a standard cooking oil and has no really strong taste, there is also a red palm oil that is used for cooking which has a red colour but I have not come accross it here, is that the oil that you have seen in the shops?