Customer Reviews

Keo's Thai Cuisine

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book would be an excellent addition to the library of an intermediate to advanced Thai chef. Keo's Thai Cuisine is an wonderful resource and contains many excellent recipes. However, it's main draw back is that it provides little cultural context for these recipes. Thus, the book is more or less a "recipe catalog" which would make it difficult for a beginner to get this book and "run with it." I know from experience. This was the first book I bought dealing with Thai cooking. I selected Keo's Thai Cuisine because it was physically very attractive (lots of beautiful color photographs are included) and because it contained many of the recipes I was interested in making. Previously, I had extensive background in cooking Japanese and Chinese cuisine, and I expected that it would be very easy for me to learn Thai. However, although I was successfully able to copy some of the easier recipes, I found myself hard pressed to make some of the more advanced recipes. The problem was that I was unfamiliar with many of the ingredients. Although a short (5 page) glossary is included that lists most Thai ingredients, many of the ingredients go by multiple names (which were not included) which made it difficult for me to find the supplies I needed. After I had read additional books and had about 3 months experience cooking basic Thai foods, I had the background necessary to make the most of the recipes in Keo's. Now Keo's is one of my favorite cookbooks.

Overall, the book contains 96 total recipes, 51 of which are entree-like, all of which are delicious. Color photographs are included for most dishes, although some are somewhat stylized. Although all of the recipes I have tried have been excellent, I have had a very hard time making my dishes look like the photographs. This is a minor point (because they taste great), but I usually don't have this trouble with other cookbooks, and it has always left me wondering if I'm doing things "right," or if the photographs were made using a different recipe.

Every dish I have prepared from this cookbook was excellent. My only complaint, was I wanted more one dish recipes. A beautifully photographed coffee table book with unexpectly easy to read recipes.

This is unequivocally the best Thai cookbook you could buy. While in Hawaii I ate at Keo's restaurant and had what was some of the finest Thai food I've ever eaten. I purchased his book at the restaurant as I wasn't thrilled with the other Thai cookbooks I had, which had a tendency to overcomplicate recipes. I wasn't sure this would be better because of the gorgeous photos and complexity of taste in his dishes. However, after using the book and trying a few recipes it became apparent that not only are Keo's recipes better than those in other books, but they are also far simpler to make! Better food, easier to make - a simple equation and one well worth the investment. The book itself is gorgeous with great photos and nice layout, but the real payoff is in Keo's simple and extremely delicious recipes. I find myself constantly looking back at the pages when making a dish and saying to myself "That's it? I'm not missing anything? That's too easy...."

After eating at Keo's in Honolulu, we bought his cookbook and made the recipes we raved about at his restaurant. They were exactly as he prepared them--wonderful! The pictures in the book are beautiful, his recipes are easy to follow, and you'll love their delicate Thai flavor. The book, Keo's Thai Cuisine, is the next best thing to eating at his restaurant.

This is my staple Thai cookbook, that I got from a friend who lived in Thailand for many years. He said that the recipes, were the best of all the books he looked at as far as duplicating Thai food. We worked our way through the book over several evenings and dinner parties as he taught me to cook Thai. That said, the first thing I learned was selection of ingredients. The cookbook covers this a bit, but not enough for someone new to Thai. Secondly, there were several typos that were misleading and several of the cooking times were absurdly short-- like potatoes going fully cooked in 7 minutes, it simply won't happen in a frying pan. So, while the cookbook has authentic recipes that are delicious (if you like Thai), it does have it's shortcomings, hence 4 stars. That said, I'm not giving up my copy. It has a special place on my cooking shelf.

This cookbook is frequently used in my kitchen. I've probably attempted about 1/2 the recipes in the book over the past 7 or more years. Whereas a lot of these dishes do come with Kheo's personal (Lao) touches, these recipes are very good. Skip the garnish section. Quality food doesn't need a carrot rose in order to taste great.

This is the fourth copy of this book I have purchased. People always want to keep a copy as I usually travel with it or prepare the recipes from memory. All recipes well received.

First tasted at Mekong restaurant in Honolulu and enjoyed the meal. Challenge is to reproduce the flavours of the restaurant from the cookbook. Well written and simple to follow.

I'm no professional, but I haven't had much trouble with any of the recipes in this book. Some have noted that getting the finished results to look like those in the book is next to impossible. Although food is a multi-sensual experience, my main concern is to taste, not to look. I usually add and subtract things from each recipe, and often choose my own garnishes, so my end result rarely looks like the pictures. It would help if he would specify the Thai names of some of the harder to find ingredients, but the ladies at our Asian food market are usually very helpful in that regard. Some of my best recipes have been improved by simply asking how they would prepare the meal. I wouldn't make this my only Thai cookbook, as there are so many variations, and it's a good idea to try different recipes for the same dish, to see which ones work for you. Not a great book of recipes, but a good one that I have used several times. I found it for about $7 at B & N.

This book has been in our house library of cookbooks since its first release in 1986. What seemed like incredibly exotic recipes at the time have become much more commonplace as Thai restaurants spread and thrive: Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Musamun Curry, Pad Thai, etc. While not a lot of historical or regional background information is presented, for those wanting to cook favorite Thai dishes at home this is quite a useful collection. Most dishes are not that complicated to prepare as long as all of the ingredients have been assembled--and unlike at a restaurant, one is able to control the spiciness of the dishes exactly to one's taste.

The book is beautifully photographed and delightful to browse through. I would recommend it to most cooking enthusiasts looking for a good overview of Thai cuisine that can be prepared at home.

This book has great photography, but unfortunately, cookbooks should be for tasting, not looking - and from my experience, this book falls short. Two recipes in particular - one for shallots and one for lemongrass / shrimp soup - have convinced us that we're never daring to try another recipe from this book again. Bitter, pungent sauces like oyster and fish sauce are given no other spices or ingredients to balance it out, leaving one with a soup, for instance, that tastes like dishwater. The curry recipes bear little resemblance to those in other Thai cookbooks, and some staples like coconut soup are omitted. On top of this, directions are sometimes spare. We're moving on to another Thai cookbook.