5 comments about Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook.

1. This book is great. The first dish I made (Ginger Chicken - p133) was simple to prepare, and tasted wonderful, with those subtle, yet distinctive Thai flavours that I have come to adore.

   The only drawback is its physical size - unless you have a Heap of kitchen bench space, the book will need to be placed a good distance away to avoid the inevitable splatters...




2. The recipes in this wonderfully illustrated book will give the reader a delicious taste of Thailand. It will not, however, give a 100% authentic taste of it. That may be good news to people who don't live near an Asian grocery where hard to find items necessary for authentic Thai cooking are to be found. Some of the recipes also save the reader time at the expense of authenticity. But unless you are obsessed with making something that tastes exactly as it does in Thailand, the recipes are close enough. This is one of the few books that break all recipes down by region, and that is important. I lived in Thailand for 3 years, with my in-laws for 1 year, and during that time I picked out tell-tale signs of authenticity. I've concluded that the most authentic Thai cookbook is "Thai Food" by Thompson (can't remember his first name.)
   
   In sum, lovely pictures, delicious recipes, authentic enough but not absolutely authentic.



3. I have lived in Thailand and this book is the best cookbook I have found in the US. It made me very happy to be able to see Thai foods that are not offered in Thai restaurants in the US and not seen in other Thai cookbooks. Now I can finally have my Nam Gabi and Soup No Mai. (The spelling is different in the book.) I was happy to see both the Roman lettering and the true Thai word for the dish. It helps me figure out what the dish is and jogs my memory when reading the Thai. Thai food is great and I'm happy to see the recipes and the Thai regional information included.



4. This isn't my favorite Thai cookbook for recipes. There are several good recipes, and many that are not terribly authentic. But, if you love a cookbook with outstanding pictures, this is a wonderful book. There are so many terrific pictures of places I visited in Thailand, I had to get the book.



5. This is a great cookbook. My girlfriend is Cambodian and we like to eat alot of that style of food and I can't wait to try EVERY recipe in here. All of the recipes have great flavor and the pictures in here are gorgeous. If you are a fan of this type of food, (as I'm sure as everybody else has already stated) then try this cookbook out. You won't be disappointed. Some of the recipes call for some unusual ingredients, but that's what makes this cookbook great. More authentic type of stuff.

5 comments about Buddha's Table: Thai Feasting Vegetarian Style.

1. `Budda's Table' by Chat Mingkwan looks like a typical `little cookbook' you commonly see published by Chronicle Books, some of which are decent and some of which are a waste of money compared to other titles available for a similar price. This book, published by a house with the incredibly modest name of `Book Publishing Company' out of Summertown, Tennessee, has lots to offer, even if it isn't published by Alfred A. Knopf, Harper Collins, or Artisan.
   
   Unlike the dominant cuisines of India, Thai cooking is not inherently vegetarian, and yet Buddhism, a religion with strong vegetarian tendencies is the most important religion in Thailand. This gives rise to the book's title and subtitle, `Thai Feasting Vegetarian Style'. This means that fish sauce, one of the most important Thai ingredients, has been removed from all recipes. This is probably about as dramatic as removing anchovies from all Italian dishes. Fortunately, the wealth of southeast Asian fermented bean pastes are up to filling in the gaps left by removing the famous `Nam Pla' from all recipes.
   
   This is not to say Chat Mingkwan has abandoned Thai traditional cooking. He begins his book with an excellent little guide to Thai ingredients which is no replacement for good references such as Bruce Cost's `Asian Ingredients', but it is an honest coverage of the field with a firm commitment to the belief that there are a lot of Thai ingredients with which you cannot substitute and expect to achieve the right Thai taste. Foremost of these in my mind is galangal, a rhizome with some resemblance to ginger. But, based on the scientific names of the two plants, they are not closely related. They certainly do not belong to the same genus. Another unmistakable and unreplacable ingredient is tamarind. While I have never knowingly tasted galangal, I have tasted tamarind and can think of nothing in the western pantry that comes close to its taste. It is sharp, but its bite is somewhere between cassia (Asian cinnamon), licorice, and vinegar.
   
   Thai cuisine is an ancient fusion of Indian and Chinese cuisines, jolted to an entirely new level with the addition of the capsicum chilies from the New World. I know less about Indian cooking than I do on just about every other major cuisine you can name, but it seems to me that the primary transformation from Indian to Thai cuisine seems to be the shift of curry mixtures from powders in India to pastes in Thailand. This generalization may be all wet, but it is quite true that virtually all curry bases described in this book are pastes, making the mortar and pestle a very important tool in the Thai kitchen. I agree entirely with the author and millions of Mexican home cooks and Jamie Oliver and everyone else who wants to weigh in on the subject that the mortar and pestle is simply a superior tool for making pasty mixtures than any modern blender or food processor. If you want to make serious use of this book, get a good, heavy set and find yourself a good source of Thai ingredients.
   
   To reinforce this point, the author opens with a 15-page chapter devoted to chili and curry sauces. These recipes also reinforce the fact that you will not succeed with these recipes unless you can find a source for galangal, Kafir lime leaves, and lemongrass. Most of the other ingredients should be no problem in Mittelamerica. In my darkest Pennsylvania, my local farmers market carries fresh lemongrass and cilantro with roots and my local megamart has all the chilies, bean pastes, and tamarind you want.
   
   The next chapter on salads and snacks includes easy recipes with that oh so distinctive Thai taste based on peanuts, lemongrass, chiles, cilantro, and tamarind. This chapter includes a recipe for the famous Pad Thai salad, where, unlike many famous French salads, the only difficult task is finding all the ingredients. The chapter also presents rice as a salad ingredient, something rather uncommon in western menus. And, if rice isn't your dish, there is always tofu.
   
   The chapter on soups brings back my most indelible memory of eating Thai food when I asked for clear Thai soup to be done `spicy'. It was very, very, very spicy hot! Chef Mingkwan immediately scored points with me when I saw his vegetable stock recipe. My fussiest and most highly respected French sources on stocks insist that vegetables are simmered no more than an hour in a stock, and Chef Mingkwan puts his daikon and cilantro and chiles to the hot water for no more than 45 minutes. This chapter also includes a great foodie talking point recipe with a `Hunter's Soup'. This is the Thai vegetarian version of the soup one makes when the hunting has not gone too well.
   
   The next chapter deals with stir-frying, one of the strongest influences from China on the cuisines of Southeast Asia. I have seen street food people from Burma to the Philippines use woks with almost exactly the same techniques as you may see in Shanghai or Beijing. The introduction to this chapter is a fair example of the author's sense of humor as he points out that uses for the wok include steaming, smoking, deep frying, floating on flood waters and sledding in the snow. While the stir fry recipes are very good, this book is no primer on stir-frying technique or stir-frying equipment. If you are not familiar with the wok through experience with Chinese techniques, I suggest you check out Ken Hom's `Quick Wok'. I suspect Martin Yan's earlier books are also good sources, but I have not gotten around to reviewing them yet.
   
   This is a sample of the good Thai cooking experience available to you in this book. The value of this little book is capped with an excellent bibliography that oddly omits a reference to the definitive new work `Thai Food' by David Thompson.
   
   A recommended easy intro to Thai cooking for vegetarians.



2. A very good local Thai restaurant had recently closed and my wife and I were looking for some replacement when we found this cookbook in a vege zine. The recipe's are great and easy to follow. We made the Tom Yum which is a lemon grass soup and it was excellent, just like the restaurant.



3. I did not expect so much from this book and was worried I would never be able to find all the ingredients listed here, but boy was I wrong. I was able to find most of the ingredients at 99 ranch (Chinese market) and the book also lists colorful pictures and descriptions of the major ingredients listed in the recipes. I just made Phad Thai & Red Curry from scratch using this book and they were absolutely amazing. I'm a novice at cooking but these dishes were in some ways even better than some of the Thai restaurants I've been to, not just because it's less oily and less salty but very tasty! I can't wait to try rest of the recipes to add to my home cooked vegetarian meals. Definitely recommend it.



4. I've made 3 recipes from this book, and all of them were edible, although the Tom Kha required some alterations before I was willing to serve it.
   
   I think the problem here is that the author is not himself a vegetarian (according to the intro) and therefore is not familiar with typical substitutions. The Tom Kha recipe omitted the usual fish sauce--just omitted it without any replacements. Could we use a konbu soupbase for a fishy flavor? Maybe some of that fermented bean paste? Something was missing. I'll have to attempt my own substitutions.
   
   The Phad Thai recipe also just omitted the fish sauce without replacements. It had a pretty good flavor though. My husband thought it was great.
   
   The author seems to use mushrooms in place of meat in most recipes. I like mushrooms, but if you don't, be warned.
   
   I am familiar with good Thai flavor--there was a little hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant near where I used to live. The walls of the restaurant were decorated with framed magazine articles naming that restaurant as the most authentic Thai restaurant in the western United States. The food was excellent. The recipes in this cookbook are just close enough to remind me of that Thai restaurant, but far enough to make me really miss good Thai food.
   
   The first time I opened this book, it made a cracking sound and now the pages are falling out; inferior binding, but the other books I own in this series are not falling apart.



5. Before buying this cookbook, I had tried making Thai dishes from various internet sources and the cookbook Real Vegetarian Thai - but they never turned out like those in the restaurants. Buddha's Table changed all that. So far I've made Tofu Pra Ram, Tom Kha soup, Yellow Curry, and Pad Se-iew noodles, and they've all turned out exactly like the dishes I order.
   
   Chat Mingkwan lets you in on the secret ingredients to get just the right taste. I found out that my curries never tasted quite right because I was missing coconut cream (in addition to coconut milk) in my sauce! And my peanut sauce turned out perfect by following his recipe exactly. It's definitely worth the extra trouble to find all of his ingredients to get a really authentic taste.
   
   I disagree with a previous reviewer with regard to the fish sauce in the Tom Kha - Chat includes light soy sauce in his recipe, which he describes in his notes on ingredients at the beginning of the book as the ideal replacement for fish sauce in vegetarian cooking.

5 comments about True Thai: The Modern Art of Thai Cooking.

1. I never knew a cookbook with so few photos could be so beautiful! The descriptions are so vivid, you hardly miss the photos. While you learn to make curry pastes and hot sauces from scratch, you can also learn the history and culture behind different dishes. The recipes I've tried so far have been delicious, and they taste even better knowing some of the background of the dishes. It's also more gratifying knowing that you made everything yourself with fresh ingredients, rather than buying premixed spices. I made the pad Thai for someone last night, and he agreed that it tasted just like what he would get at a restaurant.



2. I wanted one Thai cookbook that would tell me how to do everything for my Thai cuisine loving hubby.
   
   This is it!
   
   Ok, it's very time consuming. But believe me, it's worth it! Each time I've made these recipes for dinner guests they've been blow away.
   
   You do need access to a good asian grocer in order to make the recipes in this book. When I've been in a hurry, I've even cheated by using a reputable brands "curry sauce" as a base, reviewed the ingredients in it and IMPROVED it by using the recipes in this book.



3. I'm a Thai food affectionado and always looking for the most authentic stuff around. I'm also so picky that sometimes I take to making the stuff on my own when I can't find it around. This book is awesome. Few points that I noticed:
   
   1. A lot of the recipes call for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too much garlic. So much garlic that it overpowers the dish. I made the blue shell crab meal and used 4 instead of 6 garlic cloves and still ended up with a rather unpalatable final dish which didn't do those live crabs justice for sacrificing their lives!
   
   2. I'm not accustomed to all the use of the various dried chiles. I suppose it would be difficult to give a fresh chile vs dried version in such a lengthy book.
   
   3. Has tons of great recipes. I was amazed when my red chicken curry tasted exactly like a good restaurant's version! I also now appreciate the amount of time and effort that goes into making curry paste, wow. It's labor and time intesive.
   
   If I was to choose a thai cookbook to have, this would be it along with The original Thai cookbook



4. This book is a welcome addition to any cook's library. I love Thai food and am now spoiled because I prefer to cook my favorites versus finding them on a menu.
   
   Victor Sodsook is the chef/owner of Princess Siamese in LA and is Thai, himself. He shares tidbits throughout the book that make you feel as if you are talking with a good friend.
   
   His book is broken down in easy-to-use chapters, including a chapter of Ingredients and Equipment, explaining why each is key. The book goes on to highlight soups, rice and noodles, poultry, meat, fish, seafood, vegetarian cuisine, desserts, beverages, and even a menu-planning guide.
   
   What makes this a well-rounded book to me is that it also includes chapters on Bangkok Street Cooking and Royal Thai Cuisine, as well as Fruit and Vegetable Carving and Thai Favors. My favorite has been the chapter on mail order sources for Thai ingredients, as well as plants (Buddha's Hand is a favorite in our garden now) and even cookware.
   
   The one thing I wish the book had was color photographs of the food, as Thai food is so pretty and colorful. It seems a dis-service not to show Tomato and Sardine Soup with Thai Chili and Mint or Miang Kam.
   
   Otherwise, this is a thorough resource, and if you like Thai food, it is essential to your library.



5. I've had a great time trying to make the recipes from this book. However, I wouldn't generally consider cooking my primary hobby, so a lot of these involved more dedication than I'm interested in. Be warned that a lot of the recipes involve tons of prep time - first making a curry paste from scratch, which is not trivial, before you can really start the recipe at hand. Unless you just want to use curry paste from a jar, but then you hardly need the cookbook at all.
   
   Also, while there is an explanation of some of the more exotic ingredients, and suggestions about where to get them, there are also many exotic ingredients that go completely unexplained, so you just have to hope that you live near a Thai market and can manage to pronounce the ingredient name well enough to get them to know what you're talking about.
   
   These are surmountable obstacles, but they take time. If you're willing to deal with all that, the results are great.

5 comments about Quick & Easy Thai Cuisine: Lemon Grass Cookbook.

1. Found this book so easy with ingredients easily sourced in Australia that I have bought another copy for my 14 year old grandson.



2. This is a very straight forward and easy to understand book since it is mainly based on pictures. Now it is easier to buy what is needed at Asian markets, and follow their simple directions.
   
   The only drawback is that this is a small book with not that many recipes, but I really do like the SELECTION of recipes in the book. They are the more useful ones and tend to be more of the things that I like to order at a Thai restaurant rather than something very strange or with lots of ingredients that I will never make.
   
   Overall, this is a good book to have if you want a simple to follow Thai cookbook and I am not disappointed. It has most every recipe I really hoped for.



3. I loved this book. If you want to try cooking thai food. This is a great book to start. You can find most ingredients at your local asian stores. The instruction is very easy to follow and the content of this book is pretty authentic.



4. 
   This is a good starter cookbook for those interested in trying the cuisine of southeast asia. Great Pictures. Juicy. I've tried three or four and they were splendid. My wife and I are now eating Thai or Vietnamese about twice a week. You do need to collect eastern cooking ingredients that are not common to western cooking, but it's worth it. I'm still trying to find spring roll wrappers. My kitchen has been globalized. RJ



5. This cookbook is most appropriately titled: the recipes ARE quick and easy.Great Thai food is said to have an etheric, uncontainable quality...and I find that is true.
   My partner and I love to cook together, and this book has served as a sure starting point on which we build.
   The spices are easily and cheaply available in local Asian stores and usually much cheaper than your local supermarket. Here in San Diego we shop at 'Ranch 99'.
   One suggestion for readers; Mazola oil is a great choice for the deep frying entrees. I substitute coconut oil for the other recipes.If you haven't tried cooking with it, you might like it :)
   Altogether a really fun, easy and inspiring book!
   If you're going to get ONE Thai cookbook, THIS is the one!
   Enjoy!

5 comments about The Best of Vietnamese & Thai Cooking: Favorite Recipes from Lemon Grass Restaurant and Cafes.

1. Being a Vietnamese-American, I have found this book useful in supplementing what I had learned as a kid growing up in Viet Nam.
   
   The notable recipes included Beef Noodle Soup (the spice mix is the trick to get the right flavor in the broth) and spring rolls and related sauces (hoisin-based and fish-sauce based). My mother, who has been cooking since her teens, has also found the recipes very useful.
   
   My only gripe would be wanting more recipes! :)
   
   All in all, worth the money. I am looking forward to trying the dishes at Lemongrass in Sacramento.



2. There were a lot of things I really liked about this book. There's a detailed section on ingredients where she gives brand preferences on things like fish sauce, and substitution suggestions for hard to find ingredients. (The brand of specialty sauce you use can make a big difference in outcome in Thai/Asian food, and if you're not familiar with those foods, it's hard to know what brand to pick. And her preferences generally line up with what I've heard elsewhere.) The recipes that I've tried are fairly easy and straightforward. And I wouldn't care about authenticity if I liked the food. My problem is that while, for the most part, the results were perfectly edible, there was nothing I would want to make again. The lemongrass chicken was tasteless. And I love lemongrass chicken when I get it in Vietnamese restaurants! The lemongrass lemonade was very good, but not worth the work. The curried rice with kaffir lime leaves and the Thai Green Curry with chicken were both good, but definately missing something. This might just reflect my taste preferences--I live in New York, so I might be used to a relatively authentic restaurant version, or it might have been my technique or my lack of stellar ingredients. However, I've had much better sucess in general with Nancie McDermott's books. I will hang on to the book for the ingredient introduction, and I may try one of the recipes again if there's something I can't find elsewhere, but probably not.



3. I've been using this cookbook for years and I have yet to make something that I am not pleased with from it.
   
   Some of my favorites include "Warm Beef on Cool Noodles", a classic Vietnamese dish. The Cornish hen stew, (made with a chicken instead) was insanely good (use Japanese style yellow curry, i think they say it in the book).
   
   The curry recipes are quite good, although I prefer to defer to Simply Thai Cooking for their technique with curry recipes (involves lots of boiling of curry and coconut milk). But these recipes are definitely great.
   
   There is also a great recipe for Shrimp with a homemade paste made with peppercorns, cilantro, and chiles that is excellent, even when I completely riffed on it.
   
   The format is easy to read, and the book has held up to my extremely messy cooking style. I also enjoy the author's anecdotes about Thailand and Vietnam.



4. I'm Vietnamese-American & grew up eating lots of Vietnamese food but never actually knew how to make anything myself so it is nice to have a cookbook that includes many of the traditional Vietnamese recipes, like carmelized ginger chicken, congee (chicken & rice soup), pho, etc. Also, the book includes Thai recipes which seem interesting though I haven't tried them yet. I've followed a couple of the former recipes and they provide good guidelines for the dish, however, I don't like how the author has "Americanized" the recipes and seems to make the highest priority presentation because I'm really just interested in eating simple, good food that's easy to make. Also, her narrative often includes "plugs" for her own or her husband's businesses which is a turn-off and detracts from the focus and authenticity of the book (which is supposed to be about cooking, not personal advertising). Still, the recipes seem ok and serve the purpose for Vietnamese-style cooking.



5. When I first bought this book I thought it was great but since then I have purchased Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors which is much more detailed and authentic. This "lemongrass" book is good for an introduction to both THAI and Vietnamese cuisine but I find it leans more towards "Americanizing" its flavors and for someone like myself who is trying to learn Vietnamese cuisine for her husbands sake..isn't the best. I being Hispanic, like the recipes but my Asian husband said they lacked TRUE flavor..hence my second purchase, which is a big hit. I like the Thai recipes in this book but tend to turn to the before mentioned book for Vietnamese recipes.

5 comments about The Everything Thai Cookbook: From Pad Thai to Lemongrass Chicken Skewers--300 Tasty, Tempting Thai Dishes to You Can Make at Home (Everything Series).

1. Purchased this book with high hopes based on other reviews. I was very disappointed in the fact that there are NO PICTURES at all. I am a visual person, and enjoy seeing pictures of dishes; especially ones that can be a bit complex. The substitutions of Thai ingredients completely change the dish. Ginger is not the same flavor as Galangal....I could go on and on. The authentic ingredients are not too difficult to find these days. You can order online or just go to a specialty Market. It IS worth the trip to get the right stuff to cook these dishes with. If you like more authentic books with pictures, pass on this one. Try templeofthai.com for a great website and supplier.



2. This book is super easy to follow and has tons of great tasting recipies.



3. I have not yet tried any of the recipes but felt I must respond to the critic who lambasted fish sauce-how ridiculous. Does he (she) not know that all Thai and most Vietnamese dishes have fish sauce in them? Perhaps the reviewer would be happier having a Thai dish from McDonald's or someplace similar.



4. Personally I thought this was a waste of money. Majority of the recipes are Americanized, which I wasn't really feeling.
   But, on the other hand, if you're not too picky on authenticity, or live in a smaller community where exotic produce and spices may not be available, this would make for a perfect cookbook. It's easy to follow and has plenty of recipes.



5. I've tried over two dozen recipes in this book and they all work, taste great, and are reasonably authentic Thai flavor. A book worth having if you like cooking Thai food at home.

5 comments about Real Vegetarian Thai.

1. To date, all of the reviews here grant four or five stars to this book - and I am no exception. This little red book contains the most delicious selection of vegetarian Thai recipes that I have encountered in my 15 years of cooking vegetarian meals. Not only are the recipes quite easy in preparation, but they also are based on easily available ingredients and are very quick to make. The outcome is almost always exceptional - both in taste and presentation. I can wholeheartedly recommend this book as a valuable addition to anyone's collection of cookbooks. As you can see from the other reviews, I am not alone. So, what are you waiting for? It's rare to find such a unanimously positive opinion about anything.



2. I have used many different recipes in this book and every one turns out consistently great. I definitely would recommend this cookbook.



3. This is a nice cookbook. All the recipes that I have tried have turned out exactly as I expected (not common for all cookbooks offered for sale). It is very handy that the author gives recipes for 4 different types of curry paste. I also appreciate the glossary of Thai terms.
   
   The Fried Cashews with Chilies and Green Onions is a particularly good recipe.
   
   If you like Thai food this is a nice cookbook to have in your library. Also, if you like spicy food or Chinese food, I suggest that you give this book a try.



4. I have tried about seventy percent of the recipes in this book - sometimes even substituting ingredients - and yet had success each and every single time. Friends and family think I took classes in Thai cooking - thanks to the authoress, for a truly wonderful book! Also I did not realise how much better the food tastes - I suspect most restaurants do use a 'tad-bit' of fish-sauce or oyster-sauce - because without these, I find my dishes turn out with richer flavours and taste.
   
   I do wish there were pictures in colour though, because after all, isn't half the fun in cookbooks about lusting at the beautifully laden dishes, having your mouth water and then rushing in a frenzy to cook 'em up and dig your hungry paws (um, I mean chopsticks) in 'em :)?



5. Like the review "Worth it for the Pad Thai recipe" - which is true - to me it could also be worth it for the Satay Peanut Sauce recipe. I have become obsessed with this sauce and add it to tofu and a large assortment of vegetables several times a week. It is absolutely delicious and satisfies me more than anything else; it is sweet, rich, spicy, salty, and tangy all at once! I have been eating it as part of the Schwarzbein Principle Program (low carb, high veg) and have been losing weight even using regular full-fat coconut milk. This satisfies my need for sweetness. The Paht Thai recipe is also superb. A really fun and delicious cookbook!

5 comments about Thai Food.

1. I cannot heap enough praise on this book. Many people don't care about authenticity, and that's fine, but real cuisine gets lost that way. This work preserves the recipes for real Thai cuisine, (as opposed to the Westernized pastiche that usually passes) but goes the extra length to mention when substitution with Western ingridients (for example vegetables) is appropriate for a dish. You do not need another Thai cookbook, although Kasma Loha-Unchit's are wonderful. I wish there were a few more authors to preserve Burmese, Khmer, Viet, Lao,and Malay food in the same ridiculously comprehensive, academic, and educational way. I will literally use the book until I learn the recipes and preperations by heart (which will take a few years at least).



2. I'm no slouch in the kitchen and I've found nearly every recipe in this book astonishingly hard to make. Most of that is derived from the ridiculous lists of ingredients required to prepare every dish. It may be the most authentic Thai cookbook around, but it shouldn't require you to live in Thailand in order to make anything in it. Even in NYC it's hard to find a lot of this stuff. It probably has a lot of good recipes, but most of us will never know...



3. I work in a kitchen and i am fond of asian food, especially Thai; there are many books on the subject; this is the best, maybe because the author is one of the world's best chefs specialized in Thai cuisine.



4. I have just returned from Thailand -- eating and cooking my way from south to wayyyy north. Every cook I met recommended this book as THE definitive Thai cookbook. I ordered it and read, with considerable fascination, the history and cultural context and evolution of Thai cooking, along with outstanding recipes.
   
   You cannot go wrong with this comprehensive tome.



5. I am absolutely crazy about Thai cooking. Tried to make several recipes before but it did not work out (used curry sources from a bottle). Bought "Thai food" after reading a very good review of a famous Dutch gourmet and restaurant reviewer. Cooked 3 recipes so far - absolutely brilliant. The best thing is that the author offers recipes for curry pastes for every (curry) dish. A bit time consuming but tastes as good as in a Thai restaurant. Recommend to all Thai cooking lovers.

5 comments about Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking.

1. This book is excellent for those interested in Asian meals but do not have a lot of understanding of the grocery list that goes along with it. Meals are simple, delicious and easy to put together.



2. We've been using this book as our Thai cooking bible now for eight years, from LA to Baltimore. We became so addicted we even bought a kaiffer lime tree (sadly, had to leave in LA.) We love the tome kai gia, the clay pot shrimp with bean thread noodles, crab fried rice and use the dipping sauce for beef to marinate pork ribs. Once you master the flavors, the recipes are easy to adapt to your taste. We add ginger to the dipping sauce, and cut down on the coconut milk in the tome kai gai. However you do it, it's an amazing cook book. You will need to find a Thai grocery store in your area, though.



3. I was lucky enough to be "adopted" by the owners of a local Thai restaurant who were trying to make a go of it in Sanford, FL. Their chef was amazing & this cookbook is the best resource I can think of to get anyone producing food close to that level. Additionally, McDermott provides cultural insights and details from her time in Thailand that help you get to know this graceful & hospitable culture.



4. This is the best Thai cookbook I have found in the States, and makes the most authentic tasting recipes. Someone complained that surely it must not be authentic because of the lack of dried shrimp in the som tam and pad thai recipes. Well...while dried shrimp is normal in pad thai, it is not always included in som tam. I miss Thai food after having lived there for many years, and this is the only recipe book I've found that can reproduce my favorites and give me the taste of Thai food (which you don't find in many Thai restaurants!). Not 100% of the recipes are perfect, but they are by far and away close enough and you can adjust seasoning. The larp recipe is awesome. This is the one Thai cookbook I recommend to friends who want to do some Thai cooking.



5. This cookbook is wonderful. My husband and I purchased it prior to our first trip to SE Asia. We enjoyed all of the recipes from the start and were pleased to find them to be very authentic after our travels. We are now on our second copy, after wearing out the first. My only complaint is that it is not available in hardback.

5 comments about Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes.

1. I have tried several of the recipes in this book, and they work. The author has done a great job at reducing the various recipes to their tasty essentials. Over-complexity is the bane of most professional chefs- it seems nearly impossible for them to resist going a step or three beyond a sensible stopping point. But Ms. McDermott resists this temptation admirably.
   
   The recipes use traditional Thai ingredients, and she also suggests alternatives, and offers a list of mail-order Thai groceries. My favorite substitution is plain yogurt for coconut milk, which is not suggested in the book, but as much as I love coconut milk that's a whopping lot of calories and saturated fats. Good yogurt adds a bit of tang and creaminess, and you have to remember to add it last so it doesn't cook too long and separate.
   
   She also gives tips on modifying the various dishes; you don't have to be a slave to the exact recipes, but can try different ingredients, such as different meats, different veggies, different types of noodles, and so forth.
   
   Most of the dishes are well-photographed in full color. If your local grocery doesn't stock everything used in the book, ask. My small-town grocery will order lemon grass and lime leaves without even thinking the request is odd. :)



2. I love to eat Thai food. I am a good cook, but not a great one by any means, so wanted to a Thai Cookbook that offered quick, easy & delicious recipes to follow for my busy lifestyle. This one fit the bill!
   
   I have yet to try all the recipes in this book, but the few I have tried have been delicious and enjoyed by my husband and my self. The curry dishes are fabulous!
   
   I like the layout of this book and the one or two paragraph introduction written by the author before each recipe. The "Useful Utensils For Cooking Thai Food" section at the end of the book is also good!



3. This book has been a great introduction to Thai cooking for me. One word of warning: though the title says "quick and easy," the recipes are not usually quick and easy at the same time. The ones I've done so far have been easy, but not quick. I'm sure that there are others that are quick, though. Or maybe I'm just slow. :)



4. I LOVE THIS BOOK! I've only had it about 2 weeks and I've made several of the recipes. I consider myself to be an experienced amateur cook. Some of the foreign food books I've purchased get a little tricky at some points or make some parts of the recipes hard to understand. This book is simple, easy to understand & not too "wordy". Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm dying to make some more "Yum Woon Sen"



5. You really get what the title of the book says - Quick and easy Thai. It actually could be named - quick, easy and tasty Thai. I highly recommend this book to everybody who doesn't like spending too much time in the kitchen but still wants to surprise his/her guests with a delicious meal.