Subject: Thai Cookbooks : Summary
Date: 20 May 92 19:09:43 GMT


 This is a summary of the Thai cookbook recommendations I have
received. I was hoping for a vegetarian cookbook and received
3 glowing recommendations for _Thai Vegetarian Cooking_ by 
Vatcharin Bhumichitr (reviews quoted in part below). My decision
has been to buy _Thai Vegetarian Cooking_ and another (cheaper!)
non-vegetarian book. I finally selected Nancie McDermott's book
(below) due to both the price and the cultural information. Thai 
vegetarian cooking is strongly influenced by both Indian and
Chinese vegetarian cuisine, so the recipes are more properly 
called "strongly Thai influenced", but the recipes look great. I got a 
second book to find out about meat-based Thai cuisine, using the
recipes as a starting point for a vegetarian adaptation. Since 
fish sauce and shrimp paste are not vegetarian, I am working on
substitutes. These will never taste exactly the same, but I think 
they will be adequate (besides, I'll never be able to compare them
to the real thing anyway :-)

Eileen

Thanks to the following responders:
From: yp02+@andrew.cmu.edu (Yashodhara P. Pawar)
From: reb@amc.com (Bob Brunjes)
From: lyson@mpr.ca (Angela Lyson)
From: kiran@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Kiran Wagle)
From: b79243631@VIOLET.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU (Amanita Smith)
From: dowding@ai.sri.com (John Dowding)
From: bryanh@stout.gvg.tek.com (Bryan Hilterbrand)

--------------------------------------------------------------
The books mentioned were (in no particular order):

 _Real Thai_ by Nancie McDermott; nice, arranged by region, 
	$9.95 paperback. Some cultural information on each region.

 _The Original Thai Cookbook_ by Jennifer Brennan; author has great
	credentials, recipes can be a bit complicated. Not the 
	end-all of Thai cookbooks, but good. 

 _Thai Home-Cooking from Kamolmal's Kithchen; adequate

_Cooking Thai food in American Kitchens_ by Malulee Pinsuvana.
	Wonderful, though not entirely vegetarian. 
	It has recipes on one side of the page in Thai and the translation on
	the other. 


_Madhur Jaffrey's Far Eastern Cookbook_ by Madhur Jaffrey 
	Good introduction to far Eastern cooking; color plates
	in book to help figure out ingredients. 

_Thai Vegetarian Cooking_ by Vatcharin Bhumichitr 
	(Clarkson-Potter Publishers, 201 E. 50th St., New York, NY 10022
 	ISBN 0-517-58167-1). 

 According to the in _Vegetarian Times_ (Jan. '92) the photos are
"spectacular".  The book (hardcover), is $30.00, making it a little too
pricey (for me anyway).  It contains 130 recipes and makes extensive
use of traditional Thai spices such as kaffir, lemon grass, lime
leaves, galangal and banana leaves (as wrappers).  No dairy is called
for and 25 of the recipes contain egg but, according to the reviewer,
may be modified to exclude them."

"I bought the book also, and I've been very pleased!  I've tried out
three recipes, and all of them have come out very well.  My only
complaint about his recipes is that they tend to be a little salty
(that's easy to fix!).  If you want vegetarian Thai recipes, then this
book is well worth the $30 cover price.
The recipes I've made (so far) are the Hot and Sour Mushroom Soup, the
Massaman Curry, and one of his red curry dishes ...." 

"Yes, I bought the book, and have liked it pretty well so far (I will
admit liking cookbooks with lots of color pictures though).  I have
made two dishes from it so far, Cauliflower-Galangal soup, and 
Chickpea Curry.  The curry was my favorite, easy to make, with 
easy to find ingredients.





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