Reddit mentions of Thai Street Food: Authentic Recipes, Vibrant Traditions [A Cookbook]

id advise to read/buy http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Street-Food-David-Thompson/dp/158008284X for a street style curry or a classic style http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Thai-Cuisine-David-Thompson/dp/0898155630/ref=la_B001MOTLLM_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422352309&sr=1-3

here is a video, he has uploaded a few recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk9Ri238EW0

some may argue whether he's correct/authentic or not, but there are many ways to get the same result, his style is mostly southern style, whereas north Thailand have hotter curries and dont have fresh seafood so they use dried fish more often and have a little burmese influence..

also there is differing styles, such as Royal/Family/Street/Fusion etc, pick what you like and dont be too worried about if its 100% accurate


also if you can get "Healthy Boy Fish sauce" get it, its a pretty solid, not too fishy or salty.


source: was head chef of an award winning thai fusion restaurant 2+ years

Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.

With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.

Japanese

Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.

If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.

Chinese

What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.

For your reading pleasure:

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.

Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.

Go forth, make bao.

Korean

Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.

You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.

Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.

Thai

David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.

Vietnamese

Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.

TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?

Hey! That's a good idea! There should be these 3 dishes included: Pad Thai, Mango Sticky Rice and of course Gang Kaew Wan Gai ;-) Thai food is soooo delicious...

BTW my recommendations for cookbooks, due to you wanna create your own one, maybe you can check it out:



https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Thai-Kitchen-Demystifying-Authentic/dp/0449017052?keywords=thai+cookbook&qid=1539164147&sr=8-5&ref=sr_1_5

https://www.amazon.com/Thai-Street-Food-Authentic-Traditions/dp/158008284X?keywords=thai+cookbook&qid=1539164147&sr=8-14&ref=sr_1_14

https://www.amazon.com/Thai-Cookbook-Authentic-Thailand-Handbook-ebook/dp/B07J4X5B1W?keywords=thai+cookbook&qid=1539164250&sr=8-1-spell&ref=sr_1_1

a giant granite mortar and pestle is a good tool to have. This is a good book, as long as you can track down the ingredients. Andy Ricker's is probably also good, as I'm sure David Thompson's other book is too.