Thai Cookbooks...

[FordPrefect]

Any opinions on a good Thai cookbook with photos for the average chef?

Mrs. Prefect and I are looking at "Thailand: the Beautiful Cookbook." If anyone can recommend this book or any other please let me know.

Like Dr. Hibert, we have recently discovered Thai food, and now our lives are worth living

[Soul Brother Number Two]

True Thai by Victor Sodsook is by far the best Thai cookbook I own or have seen. Run do not walk and buy it.

[FordPrefect]

That book, and the one I mentioned are now on order at Amazon. Thanks!

[MikeG]

David Thompson's Thai Food is about hte best I've ever found. Comprehensive and wonderfully written, it will tell you everything you need to make authentic Thai cuisine.

[MsWhatsit]

I was actually going to come in to recommend Thailand: the Beautiful Cookbook. It's amazing. From looking at it, you'd think it was just a coffee-table picture book, but the recipes in it are outstanding, also. You will definitely get your money's worth out of it.

[Scarlett67]

As of a few weeks ago, Thailand: The Beautiful Cookbook was on sale at Borders stores for $10, along with a bunch of other cookbooks in the same series. I stocked up on the Mediterranean, Italy, and Asia as well. They're all gorgeous.

[iwakura43]

Those "Beautiful Cookbooks" seem to be eternally on sale. We have a whole set, and enjoy them.

[sturmhauke]

Originally Posted by Soul Brother Number Two

True Thai by Victor Sodsook is by far the best Thai cookbook I own or have seen. Run do not walk and buy it.

I have this one. It took an entire day to make his red curry, but the results were outstanding.

[Ferret Herder]

Originally Posted by MikeG

David Thompson's Thai Food is about hte best I've ever found. Comprehensive and wonderfully written, it will tell you everything you need to make authentic Thai cuisine.

I opened this thread to make this recommendation. Even the introductory chapters are fabulous. He includes snippets of poetry that some friends who read it referred to as "food porn" because it sounded so luscious.

Ah, here we go, I found it: translations of part of King Rama II's epic poem, "The Boat Songs."

Mussaman curry is like a lover
As peppery and fragrant as the cumin seed
Its exciting allure arouses
I am urged to see its source

Latiang is like the pillow on which I dream
And to the heavens from which I rise,
Yet upon my unsettling return
I find close comfort only with you

The rich custard
On the grains of rice shows its sallow
Silent sadness all too clearly
Broken, like my heart, for the love of you

[guizot]

I haven't done very a big survey, but every Thai cookbook published in the States I've tried, has been very disappointing. They tend to bland the food down, especially the soups and curries, and leave out some important ingredients. But I did find a two book set at a Thai market. They were published in Thailand, and were completely bi-lingual (English/Thai), by a Thai woman. (The English was full of errors.) They were apparently directed in part to Thai women married to non-Thais living in the States. The photography was lousy, but the recipes produced Thai food even better than in Thai restaurants. She explained all the traditional ingredients, and how to substitute if you have to. Fortunately that's not necessary where I live. They have an excellent recipe for making your own curry paste with a mortar and pestle. I think it was called Thai Cooking in American Kitchens. The author's husband worked for ASEAN.

I'd say check for the curry paste recipe and it doesn't have about 15-20 different ingredients, I wouldn't get it. Also, if the recipes have kha (galanga) powder instead of fresh (or none whatsoever) in soups and curries, it's probably not going to taste like the Thai food you get in a good restaurant. Another bad sign: no fresh garlic in stir fries--should be lots of fresh garlic. And if they tell you to use soy sauce instead of fish sauce in the traditional (non-Chinese derived) dishes, forget it.

[MikeG]

etmiller, you'd love Thompson's book ; freshly ground curry pastes, ingredients such as krà-chai , curry powders like phong karii samrap neau, use of mud crab, galangal and kapi. All for such lovely dishes as mũu má-nao and sup hang wua.

[Penchan]

*Sits back and smiles since her mom is Thai and owns a Thai restaurant*

[ShibbOleth]

Originally Posted by Penchan

*Sits back and smiles since her mom is Thai and owns a Thai restaurant*

Cool! DopeFest at Penchan's mom's place!

[My_Dog_Klaus]

Ok - it's not a cookbook, but here's a nice collection of thai recipes

[FordPrefect]

That's a DopeFest I would considering going to!

Thanks for all the suggestions and food porn, that is great stuff.

[elbows]

I have to recommend "Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet" by Alford / Duguid.

Because it's just plain silly to think you can really seperate Thai food from Malay food, or Vietnamese food, or Indonesian food, or Burmese, or Lao. These cultures have been benefitting from influence and overlap for centuries. You will see all of these cuisines as they relate to eat other.

This is an expensive but truly outstanding book. You will not be disappointed. You have to love a cookbook that includes recipes for street food! It's as much travelogue as cookbook.

It is filled with outstanding photos all of which were taken by the authors on their travels, really a remarkable feat when you see them. You really get the sense of how much these people love food, and how lovingly they poured themselves into this book.

Even if you don't want to buy it, I encourage you to look through it for a few moments if you see it in a book store. I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.

[sturmhauke]

Originally Posted by etmiller

I'd say check for the curry paste recipe and it doesn't have about 15-20 different ingredients, I wouldn't get it.

Sodsook has you pounding lemongrass with a traditional mortar and pestle. I daresay he would skip this step if he wasn't serious about his recepies.

[ShibbOleth]

Originally Posted by sturmhauke

Sodsook has you pounding lemongrass with a traditional mortar and pestle. I daresay he would skip this step if he wasn't serious about his recepies.

If you're really serious about Thai food you have one mortar and pestle just for som tum and another for combining curry ingredients. (You also own a bamboo steamer for making sticky rice to go with it).

[TellMeI'mNotCrazy]

That's it, I'm having my mom make som tum tonight.

[iwakura43]

I really enjoy cooking and such, but at least around here good Thai food is so cheap it seems hardly worth making at home.

I love Thai food

[Soul Brother Number Two]

The thing about True Thai, and I'm sure Thompson's book as well, is that anything you make will be twice as good as just about every Thai restaurant where you have eaten. I'm totally serious. We have good Thai here is the Bay Area, but Victor's tom kha gai, his red curry paste (unfuckingbelievable) and what you make with it, his chicken and basil, etc. has always been the very best I've ever tasted.

That will always be true of any place, not just Thai, but the highest of the fine dining establishments. The restaurants are cranking out volume, using up sub-par ingredients, cooking out of jars, etc. You are fussing over one pot of soup, one batch of curry. If you have the right recipe, the right ingredients, and the soul of a cook, you'll beat them every time.

[sturmhauke]

There's a restaurant called Sri Thai out in Dublin that's pretty damn good. Yeah, the red curry paste was awesome, but that restaurant is about as good.

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally Posted by elbows

I have to recommend "Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet" by Alford / Duguid.

I second that recommendation. Excellent book. Everything I've cooked from it has been delicious. Link.