No comments about Authentic Recipes from Thailand (Authentic Recipes Series).

3 comments about Thai Cooking: From the Siam Cuisine Restaurant.

1. This is a great Thai cookbook. Simple to understand, a variety of dishes so the non-beginner won't get bored, and things uniformly taste wonderful. Apparently the authors run a great Thai restaurant in the East Bay area of San Francisco, California. It's the Thai cookbook I refer to the most of the several I own; and apparently the authors have produced a Thai cooking video as well, which it doesn't look like Amazon.com carries as yet. You can find the Siam Cuisine website, though, for further info, I suppose.



2. I bought this book when I was 18 and working my way through college as a cook. I loved Asian food, but did't have much experience cooking Thai food. The fact that this cookbook makes you (lets you) make all the curries from scratch is wonderful. It took some searching to get all the ingredients exactly right, but the first few meals I made with this book were just amazing. I continued to cook, and became a professional chef with a giant bookshelf full of cookbooks, well over 200. Now, 14 years later, I rarely use cookbooks, but whenever I do, or if a friend wants to borrow a book for something new, this is the one I give them. I love all of the Charlie Trotter books for the pics and ideas, but this book is the best for recipes. (I know I'm crossing cultural barriers, but I hope you get the point.) After I made my first meal from this book, for a girlfriend, I vowed that I'd go to this restaurant if I ever "made it to San Francisco." Well, now every time I'm there, I make sure I hit Berkeley to go there. The restaurant lives up to all of the recipes, and, this might surprise some, the dishes in the restaurant taste JUST LIKE the ones made from the book. It's one of my favorite restaurants, definitely the best Thai restaurant I've ever been to, and without a doubt, if we're judging cookbooks by the number of times they've been opened, this is the best among my collection. If you're in a smaller city, you might have some trouble getting some ingredients, but if you can't improvise you can always get something from the net. Even if you DO have do substitute some ingredients, I would recommend this cookbook above any other Thai cookbook I've seen, and above any other Asian cookbook as well.



3. I was disappointed with this book because too many of the recipes are not self contained, but rather require you use "Special Sauce #1" or "Special Sauce #2". What if I don't want to make a big batch of your special sauce (that intentionally creates more than for just one recipe). I want to be able to see a recipe and follow it to produce a dish for that night. I own a lot of thai cookbooks. This one does not see the light of day.

5 comments about Thai Cooking Made Easy.

1. This cookbook is okay for its nice pictures but is not one of
   the best. It doesn't tell the real recipies--missing some ingredients in some recipies. I wish the owner of the Thai restaurant would give away the real recipies since he has been making lots of money from his business ( already! ).
   
   I was diappointed to buy this book but I enjoyed looking at all the pictures in it. This book might be helpful for some beginners out there though.
   
   the facts--
   Most Thai restaurants don't wash the veggies because they're afraid they can't keep the veggies for long time.
   
   They usually use MSG and usually tell their customers NO MSG added :)
   
   They use fish sauce and oyster sauce and tell those vegans NO fish sauce NO oyster sauce. ( Impossible: All ready to cook sauces )
   
   Some restaurants use Chicken broth instead of using MSG and will tell you NO MSG added. ( they use MSG anyway because is far cheaper!! )
   
   Some of them hire illegal workers and they love to hide paying real taxes.
   
   Do you think they change the cooking oil as often as they should have???? ( Usually....NO!! ) ( FOR DEEP-FRIED FOOD !! )
   
   Peanuts,crushed peanut,dried chillies.....could cause Cancer because they don't know how to keep them right and they might keep them for too long. Some cooks left the lids open and never close them.....then the moister gets into those ingredients and cause ALFATOXIN!!!
   
   Do you want to make peanut sauce????
   
   One can of Mae-Ploy ( the best ) coconut milk
   One pinch of salt
   Half tablespoon of Red curry paste
   Half tablespoon of Massaman curry paste
   3-4 tablespoons of sugar or palm sugar
   ( depends on how sweet you like )
   2 tablespoons of tammarind juice ( Por kwan brand )
   Peanut butter ummm about less than 18 oz. you can try to put half of 18 oz. and stir it. If it's not thick enough then add a little more.
   
   you should stir fried Massaman curry paste with red curry paste with a little veggie oil, then add coconut milk, and then the rest of the ingredients. Add peanut butter the last.
   
   This is my home recipie which is different than my restaurant recipies.
   
   FOR EASY STIR FRIED FOR ONE DISH....
   1/2 tablespoon of oyster sauce
   1/3 teaspoon of sugar
   1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce
   1/2 teaspoon Thai thin soy sauce ( SE EW KhaW )
   1/4 teaspoon of ground pepper
   some crushed garlic
   1/2 teaspoon of chicken broth POWDER Knors
   1 TEBLESPOON OF WATER
   
   tHAI ice tea.....Thai tea ($2.99 a pack) and lots of sugar
   yes you have to filter it too!!! Add half and half too.
   
   Enjoy eating Thai food......it's good for you but you should learn to cook it at home ( you know for sure that it's clean and fresh!! )



2. I use it all the time. It is great. Everything comes out
   great. I would recommend this book to anyone!



3. I selected this booik after nearly 3 years of looking at Thai cookbooks. This is easy to use and takes the mystery and confusion out of preparing Thai food. I have given copies to several friends and family.



4. This book is a waste of time and money - very confusing with poor pics
   Buy McDermott's book - you'll be much happier



5. I looooved thai food, that is one reason why I bought this book. This book contains quick and easy step by step photos insturction that is very easy to follow.

1 comments about Easy Thai Style Cookery ("Australian Women's Weekly" Home Library).

1. I love the Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks, and this is my favorite. The instructions are easy to follow, and include photographs illustrating potentially difficult points in preparation. I haven't found a recipe yet in this book I don't like!

3 comments about Vatch's Thai Street Food.

1. I bought this for my husband, an inspired cook, after returning from a year of living in Bangkok where we ate wonderful street food every day. We have one of Vatch's older cookbooks and turn to it again and again when we want to make Thai food that tastes like real Thai food and not the overly saucey, overly sweet stuff that is sold in most Thai restaurants in the U.S. This cookbook has been great! We've already made a number of the dishes, including kao mon gai (chicken and rice) and guawaydiow (street noodles). The flavors are authentic and Vatch gives a wonderful sense of what it is like to be there. This book is particularly good for those that miss the regular, everyday, and oh so delicious food that rarely appears in standard Thai cookbooks, but that is regular lunch or on the go fare in Thailand. Highly recommended.



2. What a remarkable book! There is as much space devoted to conveying Thai culture and food history, as there is recipes... complete with both genuine snapshots of Thailand eateries, as well as gorgeous pictures of finished products.
   
   Book offers a nice selection of ingredient introductory material, history, cultural snippets, and cooking tips. Recipes are easy and unfussy, but not geared toward novice cooks (i.e., directions include "Fry until golden brown," doesn't tell you over what heat).
   
   If you want a taste of Thailand cuisine, this is the book to get! Real, everyday dishes that are simple to prep.



3. I've never been to Thailand but feel as though I have. The descriptions of Thai culture and communities is wonderful. Very vivid in my opinion. The photography is excellent as well. I haven't yet tried the recipes (a procrasinator) but they look as if they will be very pleasing. I'm really looking forward to trying out the Dim Sum recipe.
   
   In all I'd say this is a top-notch book and can wholeheartedly recommend it. Passport not needed!

4 comments about Thai Home Cooking: Quick, Easy, Delicious Recipes to Make at Home (Essential Asian Kitchen Series).

1. I wrote this book, and I can say unequivocally, it is authentically easy. With recipes supplied from the Chiang Mai Thai Cooking School in northern Thailand, proving true to Thai cooking became my labor of love. Tips for time saving are regularly added, as are substitutions for those without an ethnic market in their vicinity. Chili afficionadoes will relish that capsicum quantities have not been decreased, but not all dishes are hot. And when the real Thai foods are very hot, variable quantities are recommended. Northern-non-coconut based curry are included, and as befits Thai cooking, numerous vegetarian variations also provided. But most of all, this book begins with curry pastes -- either store bought or home prepared -- and then shows myriad dishes using these delicious pastes. These are recipes as Thais cook them at home -- but written with a Western understanding. As with any home made meal, these recipes are variably easy -- not etched in stone. People around the world -- whether in Anchorage or Australia, Minnesotta or England, will be able to cook from this book. And the vibrant, authentic flavors will be the final test.



2. The recipes in this book are wonderful. I have cooked the green and red curries, the pad thai, and the tom kha gai. I'm going to cook the Chang Mai noodles next. I was looking for a good approximation of the wonderful Thai food I had in D.C., and with some tweaking, was able to match it. A couple tips: If you're new to cooking thai food, DON'T SKIP ANYTHING UNLESS THE DIRECTIONS SPECIFICALLY SAY YOU MAY! There is a section devoted to ingredients that you should read carefully. In my opinion, a thai curry is NO GOOD without genuine kaffir lime leaves, which are hard to come by. I found them in the frozen section of an asian grocery store. Also, if you fry the curry pastes, they stay for up to 2 months. Last, a note on flavor. The curries needed a little more sweentess for me to be perfect. Try adding 1/2 tablespoon more palm sugar to the red or green SUACES if you have the same problem. Also, don't be afraid to reduce the number of chilies in the SAUCES (don't know about the pastes themselves though). Lastly, a food processor makes any of these dishes relatively easy. Besides that, once you get the basic ingredients, you can make many of these dishes, over and over again, making it cost efficient. This book is a wonderful intro to tasty thai food.



3. My husband and I have spent several months in Thailand and have been looking for a way to replicate authentic Thai dishes...this book is it! The pictures are just stunning...we were paging through and found a dish my husband had had many times for lunch in Thailand(Phad krapow neua); he knew how to say the dish (phonetically) but we didn't know how to spell it so we had no way of looking it up...but a picture is worth a thousand words! It came out perfectly, just like in Thailand.

   The section for ingredients was extremely helpful, too. I just took the book with me to the asian grocery store, and pointed out what we needed (I can't believe we found Thai basil!)

   Can't wait to try more dishes!




4. I borrowed this book from the library first and then I had to buy it after trying some of the recipes. Most thai cookbooks are so complicated and tedious. This one was so easy with very clear instructions and it even shows pictures of each exotic ingredient (and how to clean and prepare them) so you'll know what to look for in the asian food store. Buy this; it's worth it!

3 comments about Easy Thai Cookbook: The Step-By-Step Guide to Deliciously Easy Thai Food at Home.

1. I love just about everything about this cookbook. First of all, it is a very nice size and it has high quality, glossy paper with a beautiful photo for just about every recipe. It is spiral bound, so it is easy to flip through, and the pages lie flat while you are trying to cook and read a recipe at the same time.
   
   At first I was intimidated by some of the Asian products that were unfamiliar to me, but so far I have been able to find just about everything that is called for. I'm still having a problem convincing myself to add ground up dried shrimp into the pumpkin soup, but it looks so beautiful and delicious that I am going to have to try it. If I had only known how easy Thai cooking really is, I would have tried it a long time ago. Who knew what a magical flavor a little lemongrass, lime leaves and chili paste could bring!



2. Easy Thai Cookbook: The Step-By-Step Guide to Deliciously Easy Thai Food at Home
   
   I was given this book as a present. I could not wait to start cooking from it, it is well written and very easy to follow (heaps of good quality photos too). One of the best things about this book is at the back it gives you menus to use and all the timings for making the meals, you will wow your friends when using it. I use it the whole time and LOVE it. Well recommended for those either at a starter or intermediate level of Thai cooking. One of my favourites is the Mango Sorbet its so good my mouth is watering just writing this.



3. I checked this book out of my local library and then I liked it so much I bought it. I recently went to Thailand and wanted to learn to cook some of the incredible food. But it's a different world with different ingredients and spices. This book does a great job of explaining all the different vegetables and spices, how to select them and prepare them for cooking. I felt like I can take this book to an Asian market and use it as a reference. Some Thai cooking books already assume you know all this stuff. Also the photos were helpful and easy to read. All in all a great book!

1 comments about Complete Thai Cooking.

1. First off, let me say that I am a "foodie". I search out prime ingredients. I fuss over my equipment like a mother hen. I read cookbooks in the bathtub.... You get the idea.
   
   "Complete Thai Cooking" is a great cookbook with the following key attributes:
   - dishes which are seriously tasty and "feel" Thai (see below)
   - clear instuctions
   - non-complicated prep work
   - findable ingredients, with helpful substitutions
   - excellent Thai spice/herb overview
   
   I have the specific need of cooking Thai food in a location where I have limited ingredients and time. At the same time, I am unwilling to spend time cooking anything where the tastes are watered down, and the dishes uninspiring.
   
   I have not been disappointed by anything I have made from the book.
   
   Mild disclaimer:
   I must admit that I am not qualified to speak about the authenticity/thru-Thai of the recipes. I do know that they taste wonderful, and I'd be happy to pay for them at a Thai resturant.

5 comments about Simply Thai Cooking.

1. This is one of the first Thai cookbooks I purchased. Since then I have purchased several others, but I keep coming back to this one as my starting point for creating an Asian menu. As most other reviewers have stated, the directions are clear and the ingredient list is manageable. Young offers some helpful tips along the way to make it easier.

   Some of the humor sprinkled throughout the book is an unexpected surprise. I love the spicy chili sauce recipe where the last step is "call the fire department".

   If I had one quibble with this book, it would be that more photographs of the completed recipes would be helpful. Even so it is not a major issue.

   All in all a good investment if you want to learn how to cook Thai food. And if you are like me, living in an area that is devoid of neighborhood Thai restaurants, it is a necessity for those of us who need our Thai "fix" on a regular basis.




2. This is one of the first Thai cookbooks I purchased. Since then I have purchased several others, but I keep coming back to this one as my starting point for creating an Asian menu. As most other reviewers have stated, the directions are clear and the ingredient list is manageable. Young offers some helpful tips along the way to make it easier.

   Some of the humor sprinkled throughout the book is an unexpected surprise. I love the spicy chile sauce recipe where the last step is "call the fire department". There could be more photos in my opinion, but that is not a major issue.

   All in all a good investment is you want to learn how to cook Thai food. And if you are like me, living in an area that is devoid of closeby Thai restaurants, it is a necessity for those of us who need our Thai "fix" on a regular basis.




3. I just got this book and I'm very disappointed; even thought, I haven't prepared a thing. There is some picture but it doesn't reference the name of the food that's in the picture. How do I suppose to know the recipes of the food that's in the picture? For most of the pages, it doesn't have a picture of the food....it only recipes. I don't know how the food will be taste like or looks like? If there's a picture, you would say that's looks good but there's no picture. There are millions of recipes, do we suppose to know what's good or not; without providing a picture or sampling it? When a food looks good, people will try to prepare it. If you not a Thai, then you will be very disappointed because you'll not know what your food looks like when you try to prepare it.



4. I have been using this book for about a year now and have used many of the recipes. The results beat any Thai restaurant. Do not be frightened by the long lists of ingredients, as they are not hard and the recipes are very clear.



5. I'm learning to cook Thai, so I don't always have to buy it. This book is a great way to learn about the special ingredients as well as some super recipes. The only negative is that the steps are probably more complicated than they need to be for someone who already knows how to cook. I would streamline the instructions and it would seem less daunting.

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.