True Thai: The Modern Art of Thai Cooking [Hardcover]

Victor Sodsook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 1995

"True Thai" is one of those rare and important cookbooks where cuisine and culture meet. Food lovers will come away with layers of understanding, discovering the soul of a country where cuisine is a sacred art.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sodsook's more than 230 offerings go beyond traditional recipes of satay, pad prik, and iced coffee. Here, country and city cuisines appear. A dozen suggested menus and instructions on carving fruits and vegetables round out this very pleasurable, unassuming, and unpretentious cookbook. Barbara Jacobs

About the Author

Born in Nam Buri, Thailand, Victor Sodsook learned cuisine at his mother's side, in a Thai university, and in the employ of fine Bangkok hotels. He arrived in America more than twenty years ago, opening the first Siamese Princess in 1976. Success propelled him to his present location in Beverly Hills. This is his first book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks; 1ST edition (June 21, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688099173
• ISBN-13: 978-0688099176
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > Asian > Thai

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the Thai cookbook you want, June 26, 1999

By 

An Islander - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Thai: The Modern Art of Thai Cooking (Hardcover)

This is it - the real thing. If you are choosing among Thai cookbooks, why not buy one written by a man who is both Thai and an excellent chef in his own U.S. restaurant? The author provides details that an outsider to Thai culture might never be privy to - the specific way a Thai cook fluffs his or her rice before serving; intricacies of street vendors' cooking - which in Thailand, far from our hotdogs and pretzels, is an art unto itself; the specific condiments favored for each dish. On the other hand, unlike cookbooks I bought in Thailand, this book has been written with the equipment and availability of Thai ingredients of the Western cook in mind. The author understands both cultures and provides a wonderful education in his heritage in a manner you can easily reproduce at home (provided you have a wok, and access to fairly common ingredients such as fish sauce, coconut milk, cilantro, etc). When the authentic ingredient may be hard to come by, he provides substitutions, i.e. lime peel slices for Kaffir lime leaves. Having travelled and eaten all over Thailand, I was disappointed, after my return, whenever I tried Thai recipes from my other cookbooks. TRUE THAI has enabled me to replicate those amazing dishes with the layers of flavor unique to that beautiful land. Making homemade curry pastes as he describes - red, green, Jungle, Massaman - is labor-intensive, but very worth it. The chapter on vegetarian cuisine is a cookbook in itself. Recipes we have loved so far include: Phat Thai, Tom Kha Kai, shrimp-fried rice, pork-fried rice, beef with broccoflower, Massaman curry with potatoes and pineapple, and banana fritters with coconut and sesame. There also are chapters on garnishes, menu-planning, and "cooking with a Thai accent" - things like Panang Pizza. There is a useful appendix listing mail-order sources, and I plan to hunt down some tamarind concentrate and Thai coffee powder. If you want to cook real Thai, get this book. It's also just fascinating reading.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Thai Cooking Book Bar None, August 19, 2002

By 

Andy H "ors d'Ouevres" (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Thai: The Modern Art of Thai Cooking (Hardcover)

I have a small library of asian cookbooks, including several Thai cookbooks, but this is by far the best cookbook for Thai cooking that I have come across. I cannot help but to recommend it to all of my friends who (1) like Thai food, and (2) like to cook.
The recipes tend to be on the spicy side, which is almost unheard of. So many Thai cookbooks try to water the spice down, temper the curry paste, only add a splash of lime or a leaf or two of Makrut leaves. Not this book. This book gives you great, rich flavor. Some of the recipes are VERY spicy, but none of the recipes, not even the very hot ones, are without the delicious complexity of flavor that is present in Thai cooking. The flavors are always full of a wonderful mix of different tastes from the region. Wonderful use of lime, herbs, chilis, lemongrass, coconut, and more.
The book has one drawback. I will probably not use the little cheap cans of Thai curry paste again. The recipes for the curry pastes in the book are so delicious and flavorfull that the overly salty curry cans are just not worth the facility they provide [well, almost not worth the facility ;-)].

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The required textbook for my Thai cooking class, May 3, 2000

By 

Diane - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Thai: The Modern Art of Thai Cooking (Hardcover)

I lived in Thailand during the 1980's before Thai cooking became popular across the United States. During that time, there were very few cook books that could come close to the real flavor of Thai cuisine. I learned how to cook Thai food while watching over the shoulder of my dear house maid. She taught me how to make all of the everyday dishes that Thai people love but seldom find on the menus of restaurants. Thanks be to Victor Sodsuk for putting in a chapter on street food. Now all the food that I long for and remember while living in Thailand can be enjoyed everyday. I just recently taught a class on Thai cooking at a local community college and this book was the one that I referred to the most. The recipes are excellent!