false 4 0 false false Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 09:05:37 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 09:18:45 -0700 2009
I don't remember where i found a listing about this book, but we got it from the library last summer in the attempts to satiate the never ending desire for thai food. Admittedly, a compendium of thai cooking penned by someone named David Thompson (who i can only presume to not be thai) clothbound in hot pink left me feeling a little skeptical, but flipping through it seemed to reputable and thorough in its information.

I'd really only attempted a couple variation of a penang curry, which turned out pretty magical despite adapting it to be vegetarian and leslie and had written down that recipe to use in the future. I've a lot of ground to cover in the book, but on the whole it seems like an excellent reference for making thai food from fresh ingredients (not the standard asian market prepackaged mae ploy stuff, which i find to be pretty good, but doesn't compare to fresh galangal and lime leaves...)

Obviously thai food is far from vegetarian, so if you're strict, or uncertain about adapting recipes to not use shrimp paste this book is going to be useless. But i find the information about ingredients and techniques to be really insightful.

Oddly enough, we'd written down the recipe for penang curry to use after returning the book. Last weekend when we had a craving i scribbled out a grocery list and headed to the market to pick up supplies. It being a lazy sunday afternoon i of course got sidetracked with my usual weekend route of book/record store stops. Magically, with a hand written recipe in my pocket, i stumble across a used copy and She Said Boom on College. ]]>