• Eat Your Books

  2001 James Beard Award (Cookbook of the Year), International Association of Culinary Professionals Award Winner

• nomadchowwoman on January 07, 2010

  Gorgeous book, somehat intimidating, but the recipes I've tried have been delicious.

• crjoburke on December 26, 2009

  Presents useful information about Asian culture and regions. A serious reference book with recipes you will not find elsewhere.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Spicy grilled beef salad (Neua nam toke)

  • krista_jo on July 29, 2019

    This is one of my top 5 steak recipes of all time.

• Hui beef stew with chick-peas and anise (Niu rou fang zang)

  • westminstr on December 17, 2013

    I made this on Sunday for us to eat during the week. On Sunday night when the stew was freshly made I loved it. I was worried the star anise would dominate but it didn't. I started from dried chickpeas and they held up well in the long cooking time -- their broth was delicious and the texture good as well. Unfortunately, when I reheated the stew for dinner on Monday, the flavors had become a bit stodgy to my palate, or maybe I was already tired of it after being exposed to the aroma for a long period of time

• Green-wrapped flavor bundles (Miang lao)

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    Excellent party food!

• Shrimp and rice soup (Chao tom)

  • mirage on January 16, 2010

    Love this soup!

• Jungle curry (Gaeng pa moo)

  • okcook on August 24, 2012

    Very ordinary. The taste is a little 'muddy'.

• Spicy cucumber salad (Layou huanggua)

  • lorloff on April 09, 2020

    Quick and easy to do used 5 thai chiles it was delicious but too hot for my husband. Will try three next time.

  • tekobo on March 27, 2017

    Good way to jazz up cucumbers.

• Classic mixed vegetable stir-fry (Pad pak)

  • lorloff on March 23, 2021

    I totally agree. I also used Korean doenjang soybean paste and the result was perfection in a way that was unexpected and terrific. Very easy to make. Used snow peas, mushrooms and napa cabbage about double the snow peas so I doubled the sauce and it worked perfectly. I used red boat fish sauce with the doenjang and it came out perfectly.

  • lorloff on March 26, 2021

    I totally agree. I also used Korean doenjang soybean paste and the result was perfection in a way that was unexpected and terrific. Very easy to make. Used snow peas, mushrooms and napa cabbage about double the snow peas so I doubled the sauce and it worked perfectly.

  • tracyfox on January 27, 2015

    Made with fish sauce and Korean doenjang soybean paste, this was simple but tasty. Finished sauce had a nice consistency over cabbage, carrots, celery and assorted mushrooms.

• Chicken and potato curry (Khoua kai)

  • mcvl on February 01, 2021

    This is mighty tasty. I added some quartered cherry tomatoes that were approaching tomato-raisin status because they improve anything, savory or sweet. The one thing that didn't do it for me was the potato; I think next time I'd substitute something spongier, like winter squash or sweet potato.

• Rice soup, Khmer style (Babah)

  • mcvl on July 22, 2014

    Excellent -- alas without the rice, since my husband is still doing low-carb. I recommend Phú Qu?c fish sauce -- the quality really makes a difference.

  • twoyolks on January 04, 2014

    This is closer to a porridge in consistency than a soup. The broth and rice are only very mildly flavored. The toppings and condiments tend to overpower the other flavors.

• Som tam with yard-long beans (Som tam to yai)

  • mcvl on January 30, 2015

    Dead easy (my local supermarket has long beans already sorted and cut, bless them) and so delicious. I don't chop the peanuts, just serve them in a little bowl on the table, so they don't get soggy.

• Minced chicken with fresh herbs (Laab gai)

  • mziech on May 30, 2015

    Easy recipe. I used a combination of Vietnamese coriander, sawtooth herb and cilantro.

  • twoyolks on August 08, 2015

    The sour flavor was too strong. The flavor was out of balance.

• Vietnamese chicken salad with rau ram (Ga xe phai)

  • mziech on November 11, 2015

    Loved it. Very fresh crispy salad. Easy recipe.

• Quick Khmer pork with green beans (Cha sangdek khoua)

  • mziech on July 07, 2015

    really easy and very quick recipe, perfect for weekdays. Simple flavors. I cooked the green beans separately to prevent the pork from overcooking.

• Aromatic minced pork, Shan style (Laab moo tai yai)

  • TrishaCP on December 17, 2016

    We also really loved this- the fresh herbs were really nice. We only used four chiles and that was plenty for us. I subbed ginger for galangal since I couldn't get fresh galangal- I'm sure it's even better without the sub that I made. Served with white rice, lettuce, and pickled carrots.

  • twoyolks on October 22, 2014

    Very flavorful, even cutting back on the chiless a bit - almost as good as the laab at our local Thai place. We served with butter lettuce, the recommended steamed veggies (used carrots and delicotta squash), and white rice.

• Vietnamese green papaya salad (Goi du du)

  • tracyfox on January 27, 2015

    Delicious even without the starfruit garnish. Holds its texture beautifully for a few days as well.

• Shan salad with cellophane noodles and ginger (Neen)

  • tracyfox on January 27, 2015

    Texture of the salad was interesting with the cabbage adding cruch to the slippery noodles. I made the variation with mushrooms and felt like the dressing completely overpowered the beautiful grilled oysters I added. I'm just not a fan of cellophane noodles, but this was the closest I've come to producing something I liked with them.

• Yunnan greens (Sunni cai)

  • twoyolks on September 19, 2013

    I made this with Choy sum instead of bok Choy. This was just too mild. There's not enough ginger or chili pepper to add any appreciable flavor.

  • lkgrover on May 26, 2017

    I made this as a side dish, with bok choy and one jalapeno pepper. (I sauteed the pepper in oil, along with the bok choy, but removed the pepper before eating as instructed.) The broth and cornstarch made a thicker sauce; a nice change from my normal plain sauteed greens. I enjoyed it, but it was spicy. (For a variation, see Stir-fried stem lettuce Lhasa-style in Alford & Duguid's Beyond the Great Wall.)

• Pad Thai classic stir-fried noodles (Pad thai)

  • twoyolks on January 22, 2013

    This much pad Thai is probably too much for a home wok. I'd recommend a half recipe. Also, I think marinating the meat and tofu would go well. In the future, I'd probably use chicken over pork.

  • meggan on January 14, 2023

    Bizarrely tasteless.

  • peaceoutdesign on January 01, 2021

    I didn't find all this was too much for the wok and it fed 4 perfectly. It was a little disappointing, it lacked the redness that colors most Thai...paprika? the ratios of ingredients seemed close to authentic but I suppose there are as many ways to make Phad Thai as there is lasagna, a burger...

• Grilled chicken with hot and sweet dipping sauce (Gai yang / Ping gai)

  • twoyolks on August 09, 2013

    The ingredient list specifies chicken breasts but any form of bone-in chicken works. Also, the cilantro listed is actually cilantro root.

• Stir-fried chicken with holy basil (Gai pad bak gaprow)

  • twoyolks on August 28, 2016

    This was pretty easy to make but it didn't really have a lot of flavor to it. It tasted like a mediocre Thai stir fry.

  • ashallen on June 17, 2020

    Very nice, flavorful, and easy stir-fry. I wasn't able to get holy basil, but this was a great way to use up the remainder of a bunch of Thai basil I had since it calls for *lots* of basil. My 1 cup was "loosely packed" but I would have been happy with even more. I left out the chilies on behalf of one of the dish's eaters, but they would have been great and I missed their flavor. It looks like some versions of this dish call for shallots - that might be a good addition for future chili-less versions. Chicken cooked more quickly than I expected, so next time I'll pull it off the heat sooner. My chicken released a fair bit of liquid (not sure it was supposed to do that) - I removed the chicken chunks once they were done cooking and reduced the liquids to intensify their flavor before recombining everything and adding the basil - worked well.

• Thai fried rice (Khao pad)

  • twoyolks on November 20, 2015

    Despite a simple ingredient list, this was really flavorful and tasty. I made it without the optional ingredients. This particularly nice because the ingredients are ones I typically have on hand.

  • peaceoutdesign on January 25, 2021

    A good way to use left over rice. I made this with all the suggested ingredients but in a different way. After frying the rice, I added 1 beaten egg and fried that. I then added in diced cucumber, all the green onion. I then added the lime juice and cilantro. Served with the Thai fish sauce, it was very flavorful and had lots of texture. Leaving out the pork would be just as tasty.

• Our favorite noodles with greens and gravy (Guaytio ladna)

  • twoyolks on April 06, 2013

    I made the fresh rice noodles and they ended up sticking together during stir frying. They also started to fall apart. The end result was a bit too sour but adding some roasted chili powder brought it back into balance. I substituted pork tenderloin for pork shoulder and it worked well.

• Home-style pork soup with vegetables (Rouding fanqie tang)

  • twoyolks on February 22, 2013

    The broth ended up very spicy. I'd cut back on the chili in the future. I'd also cut the pork into bite sized pieces b

• Simple cucumber salad (Huanggua liangban)

  • twoyolks on July 31, 2017

    The flavor of the black vinegar made this inedible to me.

• Classic banana shake

  • twoyolks on August 09, 2013

    I would err on the side of too many bananas instead of too few. This is very easy and fast to make and is quite tasty. This could easily be adapted to many other types of fruit.

• Quick red chicken curry (gang ped gai)

  • twoyolks on March 12, 2015

    I found the curry sauce to only taste of chiles and coconut milk. There were not the complexity that I expect from a Thai curry. This also was rather soupy.

  • sherrib on August 13, 2014

    Quick Red Chicken Curry p.210 I made this after I finally finished making the Red Curry Paste (on the same page.) This dish was definitely quick, easy and delicious. Everyone in the family loved it (even though the red curry paste turned out too spicy for our tastes.) I omitted the kaffir lime leaves and the fresh chiles because I didn't have those. Also, my fresh red curry paste was missing shrimp paste so I added a tablespoon of tamari soy sauce to the curry to make up for the missing umami flavor. All in all, once you have the ingredients at hand, this is a very easy and delicious dish to put together in a very short amount of time.

• Hearty Vietnamese beef noodle soup (Pho bo)

  • JKDLady on January 25, 2016

    I absolutely loved this. The rest of my family liked it, but didn't love it. I thought the flavors were excellent. I used 4 T of fish sauce instead of 5. The only change I would make is not to throw the beef short rib meat away. I would simply put the stewing beef in the broth earlier and use both of the meats for the soup or something else. I was confused with what to do with the Lime Juice Yin-Yang (separate recipe, but an accompaniment). I would rather just squeeze lime into the soup.

• Lime juice yin-yang

  • JKDLady on January 25, 2016

    I'm not sure what the point of this is. I understand you mix salt, pepper, and lime juice, but are you then supposed to pour it into the soup? I would rather just squeeze the lime into the soup.

• Pomelo salad (Nyoom kroit t'long)

  • hillsboroks on August 27, 2014

    The combination of ingredients in this salad sound crazy and weird but it is oh so delicious! I have made it many times and served it to family and friends who clean out the salad bowl in nothing flat. Pomelos are not always easy to come by so I usually substitute grapefruit and it tastes great.

  • lkgrover on March 04, 2018

    I made this with grapefruit (because I couldn't find pomelo). It has a unexpected blend of flavors. A great side dish alongside a spicy Asian curry.

• Chile-vinegar sauce (Nam som)

  • peaceoutdesign on January 01, 2021

    Good Thai staple. I used jalapenos because I have never had a mild chile in Thailand.

• Red curry paste (Krung gaeng deng)

  • sherrib on August 13, 2014

    I had all of the ingredients for this except for the kaffir lime - I substituted regular lime zest. Also, I omitted shrimp paste (this probably made a big difference to my final dish (quick chicken with red curry on the same page)) so to make up for the umami flavor, I added a bit of soy sauce to my final dish - NOT to the paste - just to my dish.) Also, instead of soaking the dried chiles, I deseeded them and then put them in my toaster oven for a bit on 200 degrees. They dried out and were super easy to grind in the mortar and pestle. The final paste was delicious but too spicy for us. Either soaking the chiles would have reduced some of the spiciness, or I will want to use less of them next time. The quick chicken curry was delicious as a result of investing much time and effort in aquiring, processing and, finally, manually processing the ingredients in a mortar and pestle.

• Duck stock

  • Zosia on January 27, 2021

    Makes a very flavourful soup base.

• Chicken soup with greens (Canh ga)

  • Zosia on January 27, 2021

    I made this with the duck stock from the book which added another layer of flavour. It was simple and delicious.

• Sweet corn fritters (Taozhe yu mi)

  • Barb_N on September 08, 2014

    I made these with fresh corn to accompany tomato soup. They were easy and very quick; a nice taste although I would probably spice them up a bit next time.

• Vietnamese must-have table sauce (Nuoc cham)

  • sarahawker on November 13, 2018

    Simple. Fantastic. Used as a salad dressing and the kids loved it.

• Lao yellow rice and duck (Khao cari ped)

  • lkgrover on March 14, 2019

    Lovely rice dish, if you use the optional turmeric. I used leftover roasted duck, and cooked the jasmine rice in the rice cooker, which simplified the recipe.

• Smoked fish and green mango

  • lkgrover on January 22, 2017

    I made this for lunch, using fresh trout fillet (sauted in peanut oil) and mint. I liked the sweet and sour contrast. It makes an excellent, light lunch course with some greens on the side.

• Quick and tasty Yunnanese potatoes (Jiaxiang tudou)

  • lkgrover on May 31, 2018

    I substituted a fresh serrano chile for dried Thai chiles to reduce the spicy heat; used both scallions and the optional chives. I agree with Tekobo that "quick" is a misnomer, with boiling & cooling the potatoes, then frying them. But it is delicious!

  • tekobo on March 17, 2017

    Quick is a relative term, when you have to boil potatoes in their skin, peel them individually and chop up a load of spring onions. I dropped the hot potatoes individually into an ice bath to make them easier to peel. Also, be aware that pre-frying the dried chillies can have a big impact on your ability to breath! I will either leave that out or only fry at a lower temperature and very briefly. All that said, the result was delicious.

  • ashallen on August 14, 2022

    These were great and tasted like soft-style (vs. crispy) hash browns. Lots of flavor from just a few ingredients. I was using up some sad Yukon Gold potatoes that needed trimming, so I peeled them before boiling. Perhaps in part because the potato chunks were peeled, vigorous stir-frying with a metal spatula was breaking them into smaller pieces, so I switched to a silicone spatula and let the potatoes sit and sear before turning them to sear on another side - worked well. We don't handle super-spicy very well so I used two chile de arbol (seeds removed) instead of the small pile of Thai chiles called for in the recipe.

• Stir-fried cabbage with dried chiles and ginger (Lajiao baicai)

  • tekobo on April 01, 2017

    Really simple to make. Used chinese sausage in place of pork butt.

  • epelkofski on July 18, 2022

    I loved it but put a personal spin on. One pound ground pork, fresh cilantro, and, gulp, some cashews and it was just wonderful. Went heavy on the aromatics to taste. Star anise here was so lovely. Very nice summer stir fry.

• Cellophane noodle salad with oyster mushrooms (Yam wun sen)

  • sosayi on June 01, 2018

    A really refreshing summer noodle salad. Once I got the dressing balanced I quite enjoyed it, but I would say that (for us) equal parts lime juice and fish sauce was too heavy on the lime end. I'd start with perhaps 2-3 T of lime with 3-4 T of fish sauce and go from there (cutting back on quantities of both as it was a bit too much dressing overall, but keeping sugar the same). Broiling technique for the oyster mushrooms worked well, too, and they were a great crispy addition.

• Bananas in coconut cream (Gluay bua chi)

  • Ndesousa on March 10, 2017

    All I can say is wow this is really good! If the bananas are very ripe cut down on the sugar. Don't skip the sesame seeds or peanut garnish because that just adds a great finish.

• Grilled eggplant salad (Yam makeua issaan)

  • leilx on August 05, 2018

    This was delicious—a fantastic balance of flavors. Needed more eggplant. I used only 1 T of fish sauce and it was more than plenty so be very judicious when adding it.

  • leilx on August 05, 2018

    Delicious and fantastic balance of flavors. I think it needed more eggplant—maybe mine were just small. Be very careful with the fish sauce. I put in only 1 T and it was almost too much.

• Khmer stir-fried ginger and beef (Saiko cha k'nye)

  • hibeez on March 05, 2018

    use young ginger - or cut older ginger very fine.