mtc@datagen.UUCP (12/16/83)
For fans of Southeastern Asian food in general, and Thai food in
particular... here are reviews of two cookbooks (not really new) on the
subject.
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*Flavors of Southeast Asia* by Jeffrey Davis and others; 101 Productions,
San Francisco. Paperback.
This cookbook is really 3 short cookbooks in one. There are sections in this
book dealing with Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Thai cooking, each around 30
pages long. Here, I am talking about the section on Thai cooking (by Davis),
not the others; however, the other sections are in a similar editorial style.
In only 30 pages they manage to describe several popular recipes, and some
uncommon ones, on soups, salads, curries, meats, seafoods, and desserts.
The recipies tend to be sketchy in places - sufficient information is presented
for semi-experienced cooks, but I would never recommend this book to beginners.
For example, in preparing a baked lobster dish, there is no detail on how to
prepare the lobster for baking, aside from "splitting it in half". I have needed
to consult specialized cookbooks for more information on some procedures.
In addition to recipes, there is sufficent description of the ingredients that
you could go to a supplier of Thai groceries and find most of what you need,
probably without asking.
I have used a few of the recipes in this book; my favorite thus far is the
one for "Multi-flavored Soup" - which is just the familiar Chicken-Coconut
soup you may have had in Thai restaurants, which contains coconut milk, lime
juice, galangal (an unusual member of the ginger family - readily available
in dry form), and lemon grass. Also familiar is the recipe for Pad Thai
(a fried noodle with peanut dish) and Sate (broiled marinated meat on skewer,
served with a spicy peanut sauce and a cucumber relish).
An interesting aspect of this book is that all recipes are presented with
yields of 2 servings. In practice, you will want to double, quadruple, etc, the
measurements to create a larger dish (so as to feed more people or have
delicious leftovers), but having them ALL in the same yield makes this easy.
By the way - 101 Productions has a complete line of "Flavors of ..." cookbooks,
including Indian (vegetarian), Mexican, Italian, etc. The Mexican cookbook is
full of very interesting authentic recipes - useful to those who are willing to
do all the work and find the right ingredients. Its one of my favorite cookbooks
on the subject.
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*The Original Thai Cookbook* by Jennifer Brennan; Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan,
Inc, New York, NY. Hardbound.
This is the first cookbook devoted to the subject of Thai cooking that I have
found anywhere. The recipes are somewhat easier than those of the *Flavors of
Southeast Asia* book, but Ms. Brennan has taken liberties with the recipies to
substitute easier-to-use ingredients (eg, peanut butter instead of freshly
roasted and ground peanuts - tradeoff of taste/ease of preparation; also, one
recipe calls for a tablespoon of KETCHUP (!) which I highly doubt is used
in Thailand.
There are over 140 recipes in this book. The chapters cover most of the same
subjects as the other book, but with more detail and more recipies.
An interesting aspect of this book is that Ms Brennan spends a lot of time
describing her visit to Thailand and relates several anecdotes. She talks
about customs, origins of words (there is a beginning Thai vocabulary in an
appendix of the book!), and geography (mostly origins of the dish).
The glossary of ingredients is much more complete, to the extent that she
even discusses fruits which will NEVER be imported to the US. There is a
complete chapter on the more commonly used ingredients in Thai cooking,
including how to make your own coconut milk or cream for real authenticity.
For the most part, the recipes are fairly complete; however, I prepared a
dessert (Lichee fruit with custard) which I found the directions skimpy -
she did not indicate how long it would take for the custard to form or what
it looks like when it has formed... as if this were already familiar to her
readers (it may be familiar to many of them - but my expertise excludes
desserts, for the most part).
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In preparing Thai-style meals, I usually attempt to find a recipe in BOTH
books and compare them. I rarely follow recipes exactly; by using two books
it is possible to combine the favorable elements of the two recipes into one
superior dish.
Has anyone ever seen other books on the subject of Thai cuisine? I would
be interested in hearing about them.
For you Boston-area USENET readers, these books are available at Wordsworth and
Paperback Booksmith at Harvard Square (this is not a plug).
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Mark "mtc" Colan {allegra, decvax!ittvax, rocky2} ! datagen!mtc
Data General Corporation, Westboro, MA