Thai Cooking Made Easy: Delectable Thai Meals in Minutes [Thai Cookbook, Over 60 Recipes]

I love cooking, and I love Thai food, but attempts to make my favorite dishes at home always seem to come up short. The flavors aren't quite right, it doesn't look the way it is supposed to, and all the recipes I try don't quite cut it. Good, authentic Thai cooking is never really that easy, as evidenced by this book. "Thai Cooking Made Easy" does an admirable job making Thai cooking accessible. The directions are easy to follow, the spiral bound format is perfect for the kitchen,, and all of the recipes have great pictures to help you pick your challenge. But... While it says "delectable Thai meals in minutes," almost every recipe has substantial prep time, with an hour being standard, and several being much longer. Possibly the biggest barricade is the ingredients required by the recipes. You will either need a specialty store, or else a truly excellent supermarket before you attempt these dishes. How many of you have roasted rice powder, galanga root, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind juice and roasted grated coconut in your pantries? Attempts at shortcutting on ingredients or preparation account for the second-rate dishes that I have been eating. If you want that magical taste, you have to be prepared to work for it! "Thai Cooking Made Easy" is a great guide and a solid cookbook, but don't expect to be whipping up authentic Yum Pla Muk or Tom Som Pla in the same way you would dash off a grilled cheese sandwich.

I have only made 3 of the recipes from this cookbook, but those i made came out absolutely perfect. The "Thai sweet and Sour shrimp" recipe was the best sweet and sour dish I've ever tasted. I've already made this one a couple of times with other meats. The Fragrant Beef Panang Curry" was delicious. It was the first time I could get this dish to come out as good or better than in a restaurant. There isn't many recipes in this cookbook, but many of the classic Thai recipes can be found here. The author only gives the Thai names for some of the recipes, so if you have a favorite Thai dish and only know it's Thai name you may be out of luck. On the plus side every recipe has a good full page color photo, so you can shop for a dish by browsing through the recipes. The author does give a short introduction to Thai ingredients, but it is incomplete compared to other Thai cookbooks such as "Thai Home-Cooking from Kamolmal's Kitchen". Don Egger