The Essential Thai Cookbook: 50 Delicious Recipes with Step-By-Step Photographs

I ordered this cookbook because it looked well-written, with elegant illustrations, and called itself “The Essential” Thai Cookbook. I thought that meant simple and familiar. There was only 1 review to go on. To my great disappointment, the book had virtually none of my Thai favorites—not even a recipe for Pad Thai! There were no delicious rice paper spring rolls, or any peanut sauce recipes. It doesn’t help that the recipes are listed by English translation, with an unusual spelling of the Thai word for the dish underneath. Hence, the familiar Tom Yum soup is in the book as “Shrimp Soup: Meng tom yam kung.” Other dishes aren’t recognizable. There are only 50 recipes in the book. There is a brief listing of some Thai ingredients, if that is helpful to you. Some of the dishes look tasty, but it seemed like an over abundance of tiny shrimp or shrimp flavorings was incorporated into recipes with something else as a main dish ingredient, and that didn’t appeal to me personally. There are lots of deep fried dishes. And all I wanted was a good Pad Thai recipe!

I love to visit countries and then try to replicate the dishes once I am back home. I found it difficult to obtain that real Thai taste in the food I was cooking until I read this book from Heather Thomas. She knows how to explain cooking in a very easy and understandable manner. She explains what ingredients to use and substitutes for those if they are not readily availiable in your area. Detailed photographs help you through all the sequences in a step by step manner. How easy it is to cook Thai with Heather Thomas. If you are already experienced in the siamise cuisine, I would also highly recommend The Original Thai Cookbook by Jennifer Brennan.