Chawadee Nualkhair, the author of Real Thai Cooking, is a Thai American who now lives in Bangkok where she is a leading food blogger and street food expert.
Lauren Lulu Taylor, well known in New Zealand for her Secret Kitchen baking mixes, did the recipe testing and editing as well as taking many of the beautiful photographs in this book. They became friends when their daughters were both attending a secondary school in Auckland.
But Lauren’s plans to test and photograph the recipes in Thailand were thwarted due to a Covid lockdown, so she had to test them in her home kitchen in Devonport. Although Real Thai Cooking is aimed at an international audience, this has made their book especially useful for Kiwi cooks as it shows that the recipes can be created in New Zealand kitchens and that the ingredients can be sourced locally.
Real Thai Cooking has a glowing foreword by Chef McDang, a Thai scholar, chef, and writer, and was warmly recommended by David Thomson, arguably the world’s most respected scholar and writer on Thai Cooking, so it promised to be an authentic and highly informative guide. It more than lived up to this expectation!
In Real Thai Cooking, Chawadee Nualkhair takes us on a fascinating culinary journey throughout Thailand, describing how it is a patchwork of ethnicities and nationalities, each of which has helped to enrich and shape its cuisine.
Every region mirrors its own specific influences: China and Burma in the North; Laos in the Northeast; Malaysia and China in the South; and in the Central region, all of the foreign influences disseminated by the Palace.
Climate and the terrain also play their part e.g. due to the North’s cooler climate the meals there are meatier and heartier.
But before we embark on the journey, she sets the scene with some important basics: Food secrets only Thais know about, Preparing Thai Food at Home, Menu suggestions, Using authentic Thai ingredients (including good substitutes for some of the most common ingredients in Thai cooking) and a section on Authentic Thai dips and sauces which includes a recipe for the famous Siracha Chili sauce from Chef Black, a Thai culinary pioneer.
Then the journey begins. On the way, Chawadee Nualkhair provides over 75 iconic Thai recipes (including many from her own family) and places them in their historical and cultural context. Her backstories really bring Thai food to life!
I’ve already bookmarked recipes I’m keen to try from each region. From the first chapter on Street food, it would have to be her authentic version of Pad Thai, one of Thailand’s best-known dishes.
For the Central Region, Chawadee Nualkhair has created a recipe for Salmon Marinated in Nam Pla Fish sauce. It looks wonderful but it could be difficult to source the bitter melon here. The fried lacey eggs with a Thai dressing would be very easy to replicate.
She tells us that Northern Thai cooking is all about ‘the bitter greens and vegetables that make up the local flora, and one more thing: pig, pig and more pig.’ Personally, I’d eschew the pork dishes and head instead to a dish she tasted in Chiang and found incredibly delicious: Minced Fish Larb with herbs.
From cuisine in the Northeast the Por Pia Tod spring rolls which are filled with Chicken Larb look delectable.
And in the Southern-Style favourites the recipe for Yum Woon Sen Glass Vermicelli Salad sounds luscious. It came courtesy of her mother-in-law’s sister who served it at every large family gathering to great acclaim.
I was also intrigued and delighted to find a chapter dedicated to Thai drinks and desserts. When eating a Thai meal, water or a cold beer have always been our drink of choice. The Thai-style Gin Fizz was created by a mixologist friend. Although rather laborious to make, it looks amazing! But the Thai-style iced coffee would be the drink I’d choose when summer arrives again.
From the desserts the coconut ice cream which is enclosed in a hot dog bun and drizzled with condensed milk is beloved by all Thais and for many it is the taste of their childhood. So, it would be fun to try it on the whanau when they come over.
Anyone who plans to travel to Thailand would find Real Thai Cooking a wonderful book to read beforehand. I wish it had been available before we travelled to Thailand some years ago. It would have added greatly to our knowledge and enjoyment of the food on our plates.
Here in New Zealand, it will make us more discerning diners when we eat out at a Thai restaurant.
And I think Real Thai Cooking will be very warmly welcomed by kiwi cooks who are ready to expand their culinary horizons beyond those perennial favourites Pad Thai and Thai green chicken curry!
Reviewer: Lyn Potter
Tuttle Press