Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking [Paperback]

Nancie McDermott (Author), Jennie Oppenheimer (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1992

Nancie McDermott, widely regarded as the American expert on Thai cooking, offers a clear, straightforward approach to dishes that many Westerners have tasted only in restaurants. In Real Thai, she demystifies once and for all every aspect of this flavorful, healthy cuisine. Organized geographically by region, over 100 tempting, easy-to-follow recipes explore not only dishes that may be familiar to Americans, such as Chicken Coconut Soup and Pork Satay, but also lesser-known local specialties such as Crab Cakes with Cilantro Paste, Fish with Yellow Curry Steamed in Banana Leaves, Sticky Rice with Mangoes, and Son-in-Law Eggs. Including advice on basic utensils and techniques, a glossary of ingredients, a list of shopping sources, and a section of suggested menus, this is the definitive guide for novice and expert alike to the diverse flavors of a regional Asian cuisine that is rapidly becoming an international favorite.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nancie McDermott is a food writer and cooking teacher specializing in the cuisine of Thailand, where she spent three years as a Peace Corps volunteer. Her food articles have appeared in numerous magazines, and she is the author of the perennially popular cookbook, Real Thai.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 2nd Printing edition (March 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811800172
• ISBN-13: 978-0811800174
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Thai
  • #67 in Books > Travel > Asia > Thailand

More About the Author

Nancie McDermott is a North Carolina native, born in Burlington, raised in High Point, and educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand gave her a lifelong love for the cuisines, history and cultures of Asia, and she has spent the last twenty years cooking, reading, traveling, writing, and teaching about Asian food. Her ten cookbooks focus on Asian kitchens, but since moving back home to North Carolina in 1999, she has taken time to look at the foods of the American South, the place she fell in love with cooking in her grandmother's dairy farm kitchen. Now living with her family in Chapel Hill, NC, she writes, researches, and teaches about both her beats, while serving as a contributing editor for Edible Piedmont magazine. Visit her blog at: nanciemcdermott.wordpress.com, to keep track of it pie by pie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent source of authentic and easy to produce recipes, May 1, 2002

By 

David Pope (Oak Park, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking (Paperback)

Like the author, I was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand (though it appears from her introduction to the book that she preceded me there by about 15 years).

Anyway, I was thrilled to learn of this book soon after I returned to the U.S. in the early 1990's. My sister had discovered it soon after she had visited me in Thailand, and had found the recipes to authentically replicate many of the dishes she remembered from her first-hand Thai experience. I was skeptical when my sister initially told me of the book, but was pleasantly surprised from the moment that I began to read through it -- so pleased, in fact, that my sister gave me her copy right there on the spot, and then went out the next day to replace her own copy.

What so pleased me was the genuine authenticity of the recipes captured in the book (rather than the "westernized" or "fusion" versions that are contained in so many recipe books, and on far too many a restaurant menu these days). Many of these other books are really glorified "coffee table" books, whereas McDermott has compiled here a practical working guidebook that addresses the entire breadth of Thai cuisine. The recipes contained in her book masterfully and faithfully reproduce the exact dishes that you might find in a restaurant (large or small) or in a typical Thai home, and they are generally quite easy to replicate. As a byproduct of being more authentic, the versions that she has captured in this book also have the added benefit of tasting better than many of the dishes that you are likely to encounter at many Thai restaurants here in the U.S. If you want a book to cook from (and not just to display), this is the one.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You won't be disappointed!, February 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking (Paperback)

The second Thai cookbook I bought the first was The Original Thai Cookbook by Brennan. This book just didn't do anything for me. I attempted to make Pad Thai dish that turned out inedible. Anyways, I bought Real Thai in 1994 while on a daytrip to Mendocino, CA. Boy, was I rewarded many, many times over. This cookbook firmly established my reputation as being a great cook. I kept telling everyone it's because of this cookbook. My husband raves about my cooking and just about tell everyone about it. The recipes are very forgiving and flexible. Many times, I didn't have all of the ingredients and yet it still came out delicious. McDermott has such a finely honed and refined taste that her combination of seasoning is so vibrant and yet balanced. And very Thai authentic. You don't sense that it's lacking or overpowered by one seasoning over the other. Just about every recipe works. Yellow curry chicken, basil chicken, spinach soup, the noodles with broccoli to name a few is absolutely delicious. Her curry paste recipes are delicious which if you have the time is worth the labor. I try hard not to submit to my compulsion to collect cookbooks so after 13 years I finally honed it down to - Hazan's Essential of Italian cooking, Kennedy's Essentials of Mexican cuisine, Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, Bach's The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam, Jaffrey's indian cooking and of course McDermott's Real Thai. The rest of my cookbooks I chucked it out, donated to Goodwill and gave away to my family and friends. My book is splattered with stains and pages are falling apart. You will not regret buying this book if you are into Thai cooking. Another book I found good is Simply Thai Cooking. With these two on hand, you'll establish yourself as a bonafide Thai cuisine chef.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking (Paperback)

I picked this book up on a whim and have not stopped reading it and cooking from it for two weeks. The recipes are incredibly easy and straightforward, but definitely as good as anything you can get in any thai restaurant I've eaten in (and I've eaten in them from San Francisco to Atlanta). I've always wanted to be able to make Larb, yum nam toke and just about everything else that is in this book, and every recipe I've tried has been wonderful. I agree with some of the other reviewers: you can add more chili. Though it has no pictures, I find the simple, friendly text very soothing late night reading and I have already read this book several times more than my fancier cookbooks. I recommend it to novices and experts.