Simply Thai Cooking

Rating:
Summary: The Best Thai Cookbook Ever!
Review: After falling in love with Thai food five years ago, I was determined to learn how to cook it myself.

This is the first and only Thai cookbook I own. Wandee offers a great glossary of Thai cooking ingredients complete with substitute suggestions. More helpful than anything, though, are the wonderful descriptions of each dish in the margins of it's accompanying recipe. This is a terrific starter Thai cookbook that accomplishes exactly what it claims to do. All of the recipies are simple, easy and excellent. I've never been disappointed with anything I've made with this book. It's a must-have for any beginning Thai cook.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best Thai Cooking
Review: Every recipe is an eye-popping wow of a winner! I love Thai cuisine and had no idea how to make it. All the ingredients are nicely described in the opening chapter "Thai Cooking: Hot and Lively." Here in the Washington, DC area, I easily found them all except lime leaves. You do want a wok, I think, though a frying pan is possible.

Back in the kitchen, the recipes are organized by main ingredient (with an index of English and Thai names), and side bars describe the dishes and their preparation in brief. The steps in each recipe are well described and easy to follow. After a few recipes, I started to find the steps similar, even predictable. Some steps can be done in different orders to make kitchen cleanup easier.

It really is simple. Now I feel comfortable substituting this or that vegetable or meat. The authors sometimes offer such tips. This book taught me to cook in the Thai style! Thank you!

Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best Thai Cooking
Review: Every recipe is an eye-popping wow of a winner! I love Thai cuisine and had no idea how to make it. All the ingredients are nicely described in the opening chapter "Thai Cooking: Hot and Lively." Here in the Washington, DC area, I easily found them all except lime leaves. You do want a wok, I think, though a frying pan is possible.

Back in the kitchen, the recipes are organized by main ingredient (with an index of English and Thai names), and side bars describe the dishes and their preparation in brief. The steps in each recipe are well described and easy to follow. After a few recipes, I started to find the steps similar, even predictable. Some steps can be done in different orders to make kitchen cleanup easier.

It really is simple. Now I feel comfortable substituting this or that vegetable or meat. The authors sometimes offer such tips. This book taught me to cook in the Thai style! Thank you!

Rating:
Summary: Can't praise this book enough
Review: From the first recipe I tried which was the basil chicken and sweet and sour tofu, I knew I hit upon a great Thai cookbook. Together with Real Thai by Nanci McDermott, these two books firmly established my reputation as a great cook. Every single thing I made came out delicious. The recipes are not time consuming, the ingredients are easily available, the direction is clear and guides you step-by-step and the taste is incredibly delicious. I finally can make these dishes that I used to buy all the time. Very flexible and workable recipes.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good but....
Review: I do indeed like this book, its not over wordy and ponderous. But included many interesting tips and tid-bits of knowledge from Wandee. I have many many excellent dishes using this book, but they are not like those at her resturant. For instance the Pad Thai served at her resturant has a pinkish/salmon tinge, and has lots of flavour. But the finished product using recipe in the book is much blander and has none of the pinkish tinge. Other recipes also taste differently from those at her resturant. Its a good book, but I was led to beleive that these were the recieps used at her resturant. Since they are clearly not, I'm quite disapointed.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Thai Cooking
Review: I just got this book and I'm very disappointed; even thought, I haven't prepared a thing. There is some picture but it doesn't reference the name of the food that's in the picture. How do I suppose to know the recipes of the food that's in the picture? For most of the pages, it doesn't have a picture of the food....it only recipes. I don't know how the food will be taste like or looks like? If there's a picture, you would say that's looks good but there's no picture. There are millions of recipes, do we suppose to know what's good or not; without providing a picture or sampling it? When a food looks good, people will try to prepare it. If you not a Thai, then you will be very disappointed because you'll not know what your food looks like when you try to prepare it.

Rating:
Summary: Everyone should have this cookbook
Review: I used to go to one of Wandee Young's restaurants in Toronto all the time with my friends, so when I discovered that she had published a cookbook (including recipes from her restaurant), I was thrilled. Ever since I have bought this book I have prepared delicious meal after meal. My favorite dish is the Thai Spicy Noodles (with Pork). The preparation of this food is just as pleasurable as the consumption. As you cook, the wonderful smells of all the ingredients blending together will send shivers of delight down your spine. After eating Thai cuisine, my big complaint is the blandness of North American food. Thai cuisine is much healthier, just as easy to prepare, and bursting with flavor. Do yourself a favor and order this book now.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! Tasty, Healthy and Easy Thai Cooking.
Review: Like many others, I've wanted to learn to cook Thai for some time now but have always been intimidated by what I thought was going to be complex, high energy cooking...Boy was I wrong. This book has enabled me to indulge my passion for cooking while still allowing me to make healthy food choices. Thanks Wanda! [When can we expect another book? I've made almost everything in this cookbook (some more than once).]

Rating:
Summary: Straightforward approach to Thai cuisine
Review: This is one of the first Thai cookbooks I purchased. Since then I have purchased several others, but I keep coming back to this one as my starting point for creating an Asian menu. As most other reviewers have stated, the directions are clear and the ingredient list is manageable. Young offers some helpful tips along the way to make it easier.

Some of the humor sprinkled throughout the book is an unexpected surprise. I love the spicy chili sauce recipe where the last step is "call the fire department".

If I had one quibble with this book, it would be that more photographs of the completed recipes would be helpful. Even so it is not a major issue.

All in all a good investment if you want to learn how to cook Thai food. And if you are like me, living in an area that is devoid of neighborhood Thai restaurants, it is a necessity for those of us who need our Thai "fix" on a regular basis.

Rating:
Summary: Revolutionized the way we eat ...
Review: We bought this book with a gift certificate about four years ago. Since then, rice stick, fish sauce and black fungus have become staples in our pantry. My 5-year-old, fussy as children can be, counts several dishes from this book his absolute favourites - he gets more excited over noodles than even pizza!

The dishes are delicious, easy to prepare and fun to make. As well, they are impressive served to company and make exotic pot-luck contributions, sure to get rave reviews. And tofu never tasted so great! Definitely worth adding to your collection if you love flavourful food.