• mziech on February 03, 2011

  a blogger from california cooked thai dishes for one month using this book, with lots of pictures, nice for inspiration http://dishaday.blogspot.com/

• Chris A on July 31, 2010

  One of the three or four most important books in my collection.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chilli jam (Nahm prik pao)

  • metacritic on March 26, 2020

    Takes a little bit of effort but once complete you have 1-2 years worth of an amazing jam that enlivens soups and brings mussels or shrimp to a level you might not have known exists.

• Chicken, shiitake mushroom and young coconut soup (Geng jeut mapraow orn)

  • metacritic on December 03, 2023

    Many Thai dishes announce themselves brashly with heat and big flavors. Spend enough time in Thailand and one also comes to note that many dishes assert themselves quietly, building nuanced and even subtle flavor with each bite. This dish belongs to the latter category. It is deeply savory. The coconut (I used frozen young coconut to great effect) gives great mouthfeel and also both a sweetness and a deeper note that plays beautifully against the mushrooms. Will make again. Needed to add a bit more palm sugar to get the balance right but this was a winner. David Thompson shines with soups, as anyone who has eaten at Nahm already knows.

• Chicken and galangal soup (Dtom khaa gai)

  • ecroasdell on April 11, 2021

    I owned a restaurant in Thailand. The chance of finding a chanterelle mushroom in that country is almost nil. The chance of finding one in Dtom khaa gai is less than nil, you would have to bring your own to the restaurant and slip it in when nobody is looking! It is a pretty bizarre choice of ingredient for Thai food. Oyster and straw mushrooms are by far the most common mushrooms used in this soup, often in combination but with oyster mushrooms being the most usual. Other than that this is a good recipe.

  • metacritic on December 05, 2021

    Great dish, whether with oyster mushrooms (my usual) or chanterelles. From what I've read, you can find them in the north, and I certainly had them in the dish back when I had the great pleasure of eating at Nahm when Thompson still ran the kitchen.

• Fish and vegetable curry with wild ginger, white pepper and lemon basil (Geng liang pla)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    Did not like this recipe a lot, because the wild ginger (grachai) had a overwhelming taste. Recommend making "Bream and green gourd simmered in coconut cream" which has similar ingredients but also coconut milk and is more balanced.

• Chicken and vegetable curry (Geng kae gai)

  • Dannausc on September 14, 2020

    Fairly quick and easy. Good.

• Steamed fish curry (Hor mok pla)

  • JLDuck on July 03, 2022

    This recipe is fantastic, if a little rich. I balked at making a basket out of banana leaves and used a round bowl to excellent effect. I made my paste by using a mortar and pestle. The result gave me a slightly sore arm (those muscles), but a wonderful paste.

• Grilled prawn curry (Ngob gung)

  • Allegra on April 03, 2013

    Stellar recipe! Made about 1.5x the amount (using up all the curry paste), with about 1lb of shrimp and half grated coconut, half coconut cream/milk. Made 4 banana leaf packets to divide the shrimp & sauce into. The dish was mildly spicy, a little bit sweet, and just exploding with enticing flavours and fragrance. This one is going into the grilling rotation.

• Beef panaeng (Geng panaeng neua)

  • twoyolks on December 07, 2015

    This was good but was sweeter than I'd like. It was also very soupy.

  • cathinchley on May 28, 2016

    Have made this recipe a number of times with chuck, and made it tonight with beef brisket. Never going back to chuck - it was amazing. Agree with twoyolks that it can be very sweet - I only added a little less than a tablespoon of palm sugar and was still sweet to my taste. Definitely start with 1/3 to 1/2 of the palm sugar in the recipe. Also, the recipe for the paste made about 8 tablespoons, and the recipe calls for 4. We also increased the amount of meat used as we felt the meat-sauce ratio was too far in favour of sauce - perhaps again leading to twoyolks comment r.e. soupy

• Aromatic duck curry (Geng gari bpet)

  • JLDuck on November 20, 2017

    I left out the potato and ate with rice. Need to add more sauce if this is done.

• Bean sprout salad (Yam tua nork)

  • abettino on October 23, 2011

    Easy and delicious.

  • wester on November 27, 2018

    Easy to make and very tasty. I liked it, hubby loved it. Also very different from other salads, with its peanut-coconut dressing. I did think the dressing was too thick, next time I will thin it a bit.

• Cucumber and prawn salad (Yam dtaeng gwa)

  • wester on November 27, 2018

    Fresh and flavorful, with a clearly Thai flavor. Both me and hubby loved it. I replaced the chillies with 1/4 tsp of sambal and omitted the sugar. I also used just one shallot, but it was pretty big. I'm not that sure the prawns are essential to this salad.

  • Dannausc on September 14, 2020

    Quite good

• Spicy minced chicken salad (Larp gai)

  • lorloff on April 18, 2020

    Very good Larb Gai recipe. I used cooked poached chicken and his suggested method for hand chopping worked very well. I used big handfuls of cilantro and used an Indian chili I had on hand and some Thai chile as well. Added roasted rice powder, a little ground galanga, and a small amount of powdered lime leaf - these were spices I brought back from Thailand. Will make again.

• Chiang Mai-style larp of pork (Larp Chiang Mai muu)

  • milgwimper on July 02, 2014

    Loved this recipe, and it was well received. What little was left over were excellent with tortilla chips.

• Grilled beef salad (Nahm dtok)

  • Frenchfoodie on November 06, 2025

    A classic for a reason. Quick to throw together and delicious. Worth doing the toasted rice powder, adds another dimension to the zing of the sauce and the deeply savoury beef (cook on high heat for short period for browned exterior and pink interior).

• Steamed egg mousse (Kai dtun)

  • nickrey on August 03, 2010

    Similar to Chawanmushi

• Crispy fish cakes (Pla fuu)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    Not so difficult to make as the recipe says. If the oil is the right temperature the fish pieces stick easily together. The smoked trout is a nice addition (I smoked it myself, which did work out fine). The recipe does take some time to make, you have to fry the cakes one by one to keep control of the temperature of the oil.

• Freshly salted beef (Neua kem sot)

  • Dannausc on September 14, 2020

    I made it with venison. Good but really salty.

• Red curry of scallops (Chuu chii hoi shenn)

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    5 stars with fish - less with scallops

  • metacritic on December 03, 2023

    An unctuous dish that is rich, briny, and spicy. Thai food at its most refined and most astonishing.

• Red chicken curry with ginger and green beans (Geng sap nok gai)

  • Eurydice on May 14, 2012

    I thought it was well worth blitzing up the paste for this dish. My husband wasn't keen on one of the flavours though. Maybe the galangal?

  • Dannausc on September 14, 2020

    Quite a bit of prep, but super easy after that. Really good! My wife said she loved it!

• Prawn and lemongrass relish (Nahm prik dtakrai)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    I really liked this relish. Nice balance between the prawns and lemongrass. Final version was quite liquid (all ingredients need to be mashed with a pestal and mortar). Used witlof and cucumber as an accompaniment.

• Egg mousse with pineapple, corn and salted duck eggs (Kai dtun lert)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    I made this recipe one time, but it didn't set after steaming, so was very liquid. Will try again, taste was really nice.

• Bream and green gourd simmered in coconut cream (Geng liang pla)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    Nicely balanced curry. Really liked the wild ginger with coconut milk and fish combination.

• Deep-fried bean curd with crab, pork and spring onions (Tor huu yord sai tort)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    The filling of crab, pork and spring onion could have had more flavor. Thought it a bit bland. Takes some time to make, bean curd needs to be steamed and then cooled, then fried. The basis was there though, will try to make this again.

• Chicken curry with holy basil, ginger and peanuts (Geng gai haeng)

  • mziech on December 11, 2011

    Easy to make recipe, great balance of flavors. Curry paste can be made in advance.

  • Dannausc on September 14, 2020

    Fairly quick and easy. Good.

• Bean curd stir-fried with bean sprouts (Tor huu pat tua nork)

  • Ganga108 on February 03, 2021

    A lovely light dish. Omit the oyster sauce for a vegetarian version.

• Jungle curry of fish with deep-fried shallots (Geng bpa pla sai)

  • tekobo on December 09, 2020

    Lots of work to slice finely and then pound the paste ingredients. Tasted good though. Might try this with prawns or chicken thigh next.

• Salmon and coconut soup (Dtom khaa pla salmon)

  • thecharlah on February 11, 2015

    Very tasty, but it wasn't clear what to do with the seasonings (galangal, chilies, etc.) after assembling the soup.

• Stir-fried minced beef with chillies and holy basil (Neua pat bai grapao)

  • MmeFleiss on September 13, 2017

    I made this in 1/2 pound batches, keeping everything else the same except for the large chilies which were halved and doubling the garlic. It was perfect. About the same level of heat as medium salsa.

  • Dannausc on September 14, 2020

    The paste took quite awhile to pound, but it was super easy after that. Good but not quite as good as I had hoped.

• Green papaya salad with sweet crispy pork (Som dtam malakor gap muu warn grop)

  • abengal on February 05, 2026

    This is only for the salad. Did not make the pork. Very, very good. Had to substitute green mangoes for the green pawpaw and green beans for snake beans and used finely diced whole tomatoes for cherry tomatoes. Left out the dried prawns and tamarind (forgot to buy both). However, it was still very good which shows what a robust recipe it is, substitutes and the occasional omissions don’t upset it too much although of course it would have been MUCH better as written!

• Stir-fried beef with spices (Neua pat nahm prik pao kaek)

  • thekitchenchronicles on November 10, 2014

    This was a real disappointment. I'll take credit for some of it (my nahm prik pao must have crystallized, I didn't realize it was so sticky/hard and by the time I got it into my wok I had overcooked the beef) but the overall flavor was really, really salty (and I didn't even add the full amount of salt OR fish sauce) and the color was an unappetizing grey.

• Fried rice with longans and roast duck (Kao pat lamyai bpet yang)

  • metacritic on January 20, 2021

    This is an incredibly delicious fried rice. It bears almost no resemblance to Chinese recipes that I know. it is wetter to start (and I'd like to experiment to see if I can achieve the same depth of flavor with a dryer result). The roast duck, the fried shallots, and the sauce give loads of umami. The longans (I used lychees) brighten the result and make for more varied and interesting bites.

• Pat Thai

  • tmitra on July 02, 2020

    This was the first recipe I made from this book, and while it's more accessible than many of the others I flipped past, I still found it too vague. I corrected some of my issues in my second attempt (soaked the noodles longer and altered the balance of sauce ingredients), but this isn't the book for me at this early stage in my Thai cooking career.

• Stir-fried rice noodles with chicken and Chinese broccoli (Gai pat sii uuu)

  • twoyolks on November 05, 2016

    The sauce for this was just too sweet with the amount of added sugar. I'd also like a larger portion of Chinese broccoli and less meat.

  • IvyManning on May 04, 2020

    Very bland and sweet.

• Rice noodles and pork with thickened "gravy" (Raat nar muu)

  • twoyolks on January 10, 2017

    This was very flavorful and very good. The sweet soy sauce added a bit of sweetness. I would use more pork and more broccoli in the future as there was enough sauce for noodles for two but not enough meat or vegetable.

  • metacritic on February 03, 2021

    This was a terrific dish. Perhaps the quality of the broth makes a difference. As it happens, all I had was beef broth from the Gjelina recipe, so that's what I used. I simply loved this dish and rank it among my favorite noodle recipes I've tried. It absolutely needs the vinegar soaked chilies and toasted chili powder to give it some heat. I borrowed a trick that I found in Thai Street Food, which is to steam the rice noodles, rather than boil them, before stir frying. That worked like a charm and I'll do it again and again with fresh wide rice noodles.

  • Stephenn31 on January 02, 2025

    Turned out well

• Rice noodle and minced pork soup (Gwio sen mii muu sap)

  • twoyolks on December 18, 2015

    This was a really simple and easy soup but was really flavorful and good. I used half water and half strong pork stock for the stock. This recipe only makes one serving. For 2 servings, I ended up using 1 lbs of fresh rice noodles (for Pho) which seemed like quite a lot but actually worked out well. This soup could easily see some improvisation: some chile or some lime juice would probably go well.

• Chiang Mai curried noodle and chicken soup (Kao soi gai)

  • Allegra on April 03, 2013

    The best khao soi I've ever eaten! Made a double batch, increased the meat & noodles. Served with recommended roasted chile sauce, which added to the flavour dimensions. The lime is necessary to round out the dish. Very good!

• Sweetened white sticky rice (Kao niaw muun)

  • Chefjames1 on March 22, 2026

    Good! Cook rice more next time. Does not continue to cook in the coconut sauce.

• Kitchn by Faith Durand

  For anyone curious about Thai flavors...this book is the most in-depth, beautiful, readable introduction to how to get those flavors at home.

  Full review