Great Thai Cook Book

One of the things I love about Penang is the food.  I'm a great lover of Thai food also and, while there are a number of good Thai restaurants in Penang, the best place to eat Thai food is of course, Thailand.

One of my talents is that of being a qualified chef and, as such, I often like to cook, especially SE Asian cuisine as the ingredients are readily available and reasonably priced here.  I often cook Chinese and Indian food here and fancied a dabble at Thai.  While I have cooked it often, I tend to stick to tried and trusted recipes, mainly because I have found few Thai cook books that I actually rate.

I was thus very pleased when I came across 'Thai Step-By-Step Cooking' in the bookshop near the entrance to Jungceylon (Patong, Phuket) when I visited recently.  Published by 'Asia Books', it is one of their 'Confident Cooking' series.  From memory it cost around RM 50 / THB 500 and it may well be available in Malaysia / Penang bookshops (I'll check and update here next time I'm in town).

The book is 110 pages and I think it is excellent.  I have dozens of cookery books which I culled from hundreds before relocating to Penang, keeping only the best.  This book certainly rates a place among them.  Though I've not counted I guess there around 100-120 recipes covering:

• Starters
• Soups
• Stir Fries
• Noodles and Rice
• Salads and Vegetables 
• Sauces
• Pastes
• Deserts

The book has a very useful 'Glosary' section covering various ingredients and equipment together with the ubiquitous, but often handy, page of conversion tables at the back.  It is well illustrated and contains numerous step-by-step instructions, as you might expect.

I always rate a cookery book by the number of recipes it inspires me to try, often it's just a few.  In this case I fancy trying them all so it earns a place alongside the rest of my culled, but now much coveted, collection.