I just had a chance to try a recipe from "Simple Thai Food: Classic Recipes from the Thai Home Kitchen" by Leela Punyaratabandhu. Being half Thai, and having grown up with 'real' Thai food, I was extremely interested to see if this cookbook would give an accurate representation of true Thai food. I tried the Pad Thai, a Thai classic, and often horribly Americanized dish. I was extremely impressed with the results. The same goes to the Spicy Basil Chicken and Fried Eggs on Rice. This was one of my favourite childhood dishes, and had it several times a week whenever we visited family in Bangkok, so I've tried numerous renditions of this dish. Although its slightly different than my mother's, it was rather delicious.
Leela also included many less known Thai dishes that I love. Although I haven't had a chance to try these yet, I can't wait! It'll be my reward for taking my Organic Chemistry test on Thursday...
I'm also excited to try her hand made pastes at some point, most Thai people I know, actually all Thai people I know, buy them, so I can't wait to compare.
My only criticisms are that the book could use more pictures. Many of these dishes will be unfamiliar to most readers, and if you're not familiar with Thai food, the titles can be misleading. Pictures would help readers choose. Also, out of necessity for western readers, Leela uses some substitutions that I think would vastly alter the taste. The Leaf Wrapped Salad Bites (pg 25) are a case and point. It'll be nearly impossible for people in the states to find cha-phlu leaves, but substituting collard greens or Chinese broccoli leaves will simply not work. However, that's not her fault.
Overall, I absolutely recommend this book!
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. However, all the opinions are entirely my own.
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