Customer Reviews

Thai Cooking Made Easy (English and Chinese Edition)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whether it's a characteristic of the publisher or of the author, the rather unique approach this cookbook takes to presenting ingredient lists and preparation instructions is outstanding. I'd like to think I'm pretty confident in the kitchen, but there's something to be said for simplified instructions, especially when you're in a hurry. But whether you're confident and competent as a cook, or a complete novice who finds toast a bit of a challenge, you'd have a hard time screwing-up a recipe from this one.

All the recipes I've tried have come out perfectly. And for those more experienced, there are plenty of opportunities for improvising where desired, as I have on the second and third times through some of the recipes.

Of particular note is Kittivech's take on sweet and sour pork. Extremely easy, it comes together quickly, and the taste is terrific. (Though I recommend doubling the sauce ingredients so you'll have plenty when served over rice.)

Like much Thai cooking, get ready for fish sauce. If you're not used to it, it's really pretty awful when first put in the wok, but the taste and smell mellow considerably with just a minute of cooking, and it does introduce a unique and intriguing flavor.

Finally, not worth failing to mention here are the beautiful full-color photographs of all the dishes in the book. They'll invite you to try more recipes, and they give excellent cues for preparation (like fancy cuts on vegetables) you may want to try.

Definitely one of the better additions to my cookbook library...

Easy, tasty, almost impossible to wreck recipes. All ingredients found at local supermarkets (then again live in the SF Bay Area). Get it and try the Thai Toast, you wont be unhappy. The one thing this book dosent have is recipes for the curry pastes, it uses all premade store bought stuff, BUT if youve ever tried to get all the ingredients for your own, and then it didnt come out right any way you wont mind this. Just add more garlic to the sauces and it will be great!! The Green Curry Chicken will forever be my favourite! mmmmmmmm good!

I love this book!!!!!!! Let me count the ways:

1) The recepies are very fast and simple and contain no ingredients that you can't find.

2) The receipies taste correct and are excellent!!!! (given #1 and the fact that even some gourmet recipies I have tried don't taste correct I was shocked to find this!)

3) It comes with a clear plastic book cover that made the thing almost indistructible no matter how much fish sauce I splatter on it.

4) Hi quality, beautiful color photos for every dish make it easy to get the presentation right. It's also great for window shopping if you can't decide what to make for dinner! (every photo will make you drool)

The book is written in both Chinese and English.

If you are looking for one Thai cookbook that is full of easy to understand recipes that use easy to find ingredients, then buy this one. It was recommended to me and I agree that this is a must have for Thai cuisine lovers. My family loves spicy coconut and curry dishes like Panang and Massaman. There is no shortage of great recipes that are as good if not better than our local Thai restaurant. We liked it so well that our local Asian market ordered it from Amazon after they asked us where we got our recipes.

I have tried most of the recipes! They are simple and make you look like you know what your doing. Most items are made in less than 15 minutes. The sauces taste great and are very basic. Our guests love them. I recommend this to anyone who likes to cook!

This book is excellent. I can make Thai food as well as my favorite Thai restaurant (No lessons, just the book). My favorites are stir-fried Pork and Curry (Prik King Pork), Sweet & Sour Pork, Spicy Chicken with Chili & Basil over Rice. I buy cook books that look interesting, but then they sit in the book shelf. This is one that use all the time. I highly recommend it.

I received this book a couple years back as a gift from somebody who knew I liked to cook simple, fast stuff, and also knew I liked Thai food. It has turned out to be my favorite cookbook so far, with a 95% success rate for the recipes I've tried. (One recipe, I forget which one, was kind of boring.) My only previous exposure to cooking Thai food before I got this book was a class that I took that focused on Thai curries. There are not a lot of curries in this book, which is fine with me. I have tried about 25% of the recipes in the book so far, many of them 5 times or more.

I do have to comment on another reviewer's review below, his review is titled "not a great cookbook." I heartily disagree. He complained that the recipes were too salty. NONE of the recipes in the book call for ANY salt! Of course most DO call for fish sauce. Not all fish sauce is the same, if your fish sauce is too salty, switch to another brand or use less of it.

As an introduction to Thai cooking, this book is just great! If curries are the most important thing to you, then you can probably find a better book for yourself. There are a few curry recipes in here, and they are good, but it's not the main focus.

Most of the recipes in the book only have about 3 steps, and often even these steps are very easy ones. The pictures are useful and pleasant, and the pages are glossy enough to survive being used by a messy cook such as myself. The cover itself is plastic coated too, which helps. This all makes a difference, since this is the most stained & well used cookbook of all in my collection.

If you are looking for a Thai cookbook, this is the one! A few special ingredients and you are on your way. Each recipes is laid out in an simple straightforward manner, pictures of every dish, only one drawback - no recipe for 'larb gai' - but dont let that stop you. If you want to cook Thai at home - get this book.

A friend of mine is married to a Thai. She gave me cooking lessons and actually uses this cookbook. When I asked her for a recommendation of a good book, this is the one she told me she uses all the time!

Oh, yeah! The food in here tastes great, too!

'nuff said for me!!!

I must add my two cents here (and I never write online reviews). I am online to purchase this book for a friend (again); it's the one book I consistently recommend. When I left home for college, this was the first book I bought as I missed my family's Thai/Lao cooking. And I have bought about 10 others since. This is the one that I use the most, as seen by the splatters on the pages from over 10 yrs of use.

It is convenient: glossy pages with pictures of ingredients for first time users, easy one page instructions and true to taste ... the way I like Thai cooking to taste - punchy and spicy. Most dishes are served with rice, which compliments nicely with the salty taste, referenced below. As with any recipe, you can easily modify taste to your liking, after the first try. The dishes use: fish, soy or oyster sauce for salty taste which is balanced with sugar, and sometimes lime. It uses basil (my favorite herb in Thai cooking), mint, cilantro in all the right places. I do have to say I was shocked to see ketchup as an ingredient to Phad Thai, but for the convenience, the taste is comparable to using Tamarind, a more traditional ingredient in Thai cooking, which is harder to find and prepare.

What really makes this book convenient and easy to use, compared to the ten others I've tried, is the author's use of pictures. Images of ingredients and bottles of sauces are laid out on each page. Pictures convey faster and better than text. I know what to grab right away rather than having to take time to read a list of what's needed. Sounds simple and almost moronic, but it's a time saver. What's amazing is every recipe is done in one simple page, the format is consistent throughout.

Sure you'll find more beautiful, more authentic or more variety of recipes elsewhere but you'll get the biggest bang for your buck in this book.