Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Reply to Mr. Eugene Stiles' review of my book, Cracking the Coconut. Su-Mei Yu, author
Thank you for taking time to read and review my book. Recognizing that cooking and eating is always a subjective experience, I welcome the opportunity to respond to your remarks. 1.In writing a cookbook merging traditional and modern Thai cooking, I chose to focus on recipes that combine basic techniques and staples. Once the basic techniques are mastered, cooking Thai food is less intimidating and time consuming. This is true with the staples used in Thai cooking. Without recipes on how to make these staples such as crispy fried garlic, crispy fried shallot, dried roasted chile in oil, or even coconut milk, the cook will have to repeat the preparation each time it is called for in a recipe. Organizing it in the book in the manner I did makes cooking easier. Besides, it's the way Thai cooks do it. 2. From my point of view, there is no comparison between canned coconut and fresh coconut cream and milk. This is just as true for coconuts purchased here in the United States. It also applies to canned curry paste. Thailand, is, as many nations today, striving to become westernized and has adapted the fast and busy lifestyle. That doesn't mean the food is better! Supermarkets, as well as local markets do sell pre-made chile pastes. Some are better than others. But this does not mean that Thai people have stopped cooking in the way described in my book. On the contrary, as Thai's have became aware of preservatives added to processed food, many have returned to traditional ways of cooking, which includes making coconut cream and milk, and chile paste. To know this you would have to spend time with traditional cooks, not just visiting restaurants.
3. Regarding your claims that Americans are too busy to cook. This may be true for some, but it doesn't hold true for many others who continue to believe that good eating results from good cooking. I believe that cooking and eating are inseparable and speaks for who we are and our cultural heritage. You may wish to cook from canned goods, but there are people like myself who find pleasure in cooking from fresh ingredients. Cooking and eating for me and in traditional Thai philosophy is as much a process and social ritual as a product. Cooking and the time involved for some is pleasurable and a form of relaxation and giving. I am a busy person with a couple of restaurants, writing and engaged in community services and yet I cook everyday for myself and my family. Ultimately, it is a choice of life style. My book is directed at people who seek more from both food preparation, taste and the dining experience. This requires an emotional and time investment. Life, and how we spend our time and to what end and purposes are choices we all make. I am offering an alternative.
4. I encourage you to study Thai recipes closely, or perhaps eat with a more discriminatory palate.
Observations are not the same as merging oneself into the preparation and practices of Thai dining. In almost all Thai recipes, the four ingredients: sea salt, garlic, coriander roots and Thai peppercorn, are part of the recipe, whether combined into a paste or used in combinations with the others. Fresh herbs you mentioned, including lemon grass, Thai basil, galangal, Kaffir (Makrud ) lime and leaves when used, are to add flavor and aroma. Still, without sea salt, garlic, coriander roots, and Thai peppercorn as its foundation, Thai cooking would not be what it is. Fish sauce also does not take the place of sea salt as a primary ingredient, it is added for flavor. My sources on this issue are both my experience as a Thai cook and the traditional cooks who have taught me. Many are introduced in the book.
5. Prikk Thai is a Thai word for Thai pepper. "Prikk Kee Nuu" is a type of bird chile referencing its shape. I maintain, Prikk Thai, rather than Prikk Kee Nuu is the heart of Thai cooking, and revered as such. The chile pepper, as opposed to the indigenous peppercorn, is a recent import, in terms of Thai cooking, from the Americas. While the bird chile stings and burns, the peppercorn warms one's body and spirit.
6. Ancient recipes in the 16th and 17th century, indeed, contained miso, wine, and whiskey, which the Thai adapted from the Japanese, Chinese and the Europeans. To write a Thai cookbook for westerners, where ingredients may not be readily available, substitutes are regrettably a must. The so-called strange ingredients you refer to have been painstakingly tested to closely resemble the original ingredient, in order to preserve the integrity of the recipe. While we may disagree on which substitutions produce the truest authentic flavor, I place my trust in my palate and training and traditional Thai cooks.
Lastly, next time you are in San Diego you are invited to come and eat real Thai food at my home. Kubb Khun Kai.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking

Click here for more information about Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking