Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)After having gone through several supposedly "authentic" books on the subject, I decided to take a cooking class. I was annoyed that my versions of Thai cuisine never seemed to even come close to even a typical restaurant. Chat was the one who was teaching that day, and in about one hour, I had somehow created my FAVORITE dish, Green Curry! I couldn't believe that with a few specialized ingredients, the elusive magic that I wanted was there. I made my own green curry paste first. THAT I think made all the difference. You can't duplicate something like this from a can or jar in some store. We did several other dishes that day during class, and every single ingredient somehow stayed distinct. What I'm trying to say is that Chat is an amazing cook! This book of his has all recipes you could want on the cuisine. And it really is authentic, because he grew up there! A big difference. He runs over how and why the food is different by region. He identifies the common unique ingredients in most of the dishes (like galangal root, thai bird eye chilies, kaffir lime, and fish sauce of course!). And there are many pictures that go along with each dish. Each recipe is all laid out and described in one page, because he makes it very easy. He's very good at explaining as well the reasons why one prepares an ingredient a certain way (like using a mortar and pestle instead of the blender). This is my favorite cookbook from a person who really made me feel like I can actually cook. I've since had four cooking parties with over ten people with recipes from Chat.
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Chef Chat Mingkwan takes the reader-chef on a culinary tour of his home country, offering favorites from each of Thailand's four regions: the cool, mountainous North, where "Curried Egg noodles" are the signature dish; the drier Northeast (Isan) where resourceful chefs rely on staples like glutinous rice and dried fish; the fertile Central region, which is home to Bangkok, abundant with seafood as well as fruits and vegetables; and the tropical South where locally grown coconut is a popular ingredient and where the majority of Thailand's Muslim population is concentrated, thus making seafood and chicken curries the classic dishes of the region.Thai people have taken the best of culinary influences from nearby countries such as China, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma and Vietnam, and adapted them to produce distinctly Thai creations like "Galangal Chicken," "Green Curry Chicken," and "Three Flavor Prawns."In addition to over 150 recipes, all adapted for the North American kitchen, Mingkwan provides helpful sections on Thai spices and ingredients as well as cooking techniques.
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