Well, I'm half-Chinese. I'll give you two cookbook recommendations which are full of recipes which really resonate with that part of my background:

• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. While I'm generally not big on Chinese cookbooks not specializing in one or two regional cuisines, this book gets a pass because it's so organized and pedantic. It builds itself up from simple to complex and includes recipes which build on each other. It also features a large section on ingredients. An additional pro is that it includes the Chinese characters which makes it easier to find the proper product at your Asian grocer. I love it so much that I lugged this book to Taiwan with me and used it as my cooking guide/reference.
  
• Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. Of all the regional Chinese cuisines with which I have experience, I love the multi-layered flavors of Sichuan the most. It was through Dunlop's book that I first discovered this magnificent cuisine and it encouraged me to discover some of the Sichuanese restaurants in the Bay Area. Instructions are clear and she does a great job bringing Sichanese food to life. An absolute must own if you are at all interested in regional Chinese food. Her book on Hunanese food is also pretty killer.
  
  In addition to the aforementioned Chinese food, I'm just a fat piggy who loves to eat. Here are a few more recs:
  
  
• Thai Food by David Thompson. This is the bible of Thai food for English speakers. It's nearly 700 pages long and not a page is wasted on fluff. It's more than just a cookbook, it's a anthropological study on Thai people, their history and the way they eat. An immense book. If you are more into pictures, check out his book on Thai Street Food.
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. This was the book that really unlocked Vietnamese food for me. I adore how many fresh herbs/veggies are used and how it creates a complex, yet light, cuisine. And don't get me wrong when I say light...it's as full flavored as can be, but without heaviness. In the interim since this book came out, others have showed up on the market which are as good (see Charles Phan's recent book), but Nguyen's book will always have a special place in my heart.
  
• ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller. Thomas Keller is arguably the most important American chef of the past 20 years, so when he turns his sights on homestyle food, you can be sure it's done with correct technique and style. While this book isn't as notable as TFL cookbook or his sorta primer on sous vide cooking, I'm including it because it has recipes which people will actually use. Unparallelled technique, good recipes and delicious food equal a winning cookbook. One note: it's not dumbed down and some of the recipes take time, but everything I've ever made from it has been great.
  
• Alinea by Grant Achatz. {Disclaimer: I worked for Grant Achatz for a couple of years.} Everyone should own at least one cookbook which is completely out of reach, but serves to inspire. When you flip through this book, your jaw will drop and you will wonder, multiple times, "WTF?!?!?!" It's an amazing testament to how open and possible American cuisine is at the moment and you'll do yourself well to flip through it. Additionally, the photographs and the book itself are phenomenal. The paper, in particular, is well worth the price of admission. It's sexy shit, yo.
  
  Feel free to drop me a line if you need more recommendations. I've got quite the cookbook collection (I love to cook, it's not just cookbook porn) and love to share my thoughts.

Basically gonna echo most of the answers already posted, but just to pile on:

• 8" chef's knife. 10" is longer than may be comfortable and 12" is longer than necessary, but 7" may start to feel a little short if she's ever slicing large melon or squash. I'm a casual knife nerd and I have knives by Wusthof, Victorinox, Shun and Mac. My favorite.
  
  
• This Dutch oven. Enameled and cast iron just like the Le Creuset that a few other comments have mentioned, but much, much cheaper. I own two and they're both great. I also have the non-enameled version for baking bread, but I don't recommend it for general use unless you're a Boy Scout. Here's an entertaingly-written blog post comparing the Lodge vs. Le Creuset in a short rib cookoff.
  
  
• This cutting board and this cutting board conditioner. The importance of an easy and pleasant to use prep surface can't be overstated. I'm listing this third on purpose; this is one of the most important things your kitchen can have. A recipe that calls for a lot of chopping is no fun when you're fighting for counter space to do the chopping, or doing it on a shitty plastic board.
  
  
• A cheap scale and a cheap thermometer. Seriously, these are as important as the cutting board.
  
  
• Just gonna crib this one right off /u/Pobe420 and say cheapo 8–10" (I recommend 10–12" but that's my preference) nonstick skillet. One note I'd add is that pans with oven-safe handles are a bit more dual-purpose than pans with plastic or rubberized handles. You can't finish a pork chop in the oven in a skillet with a rubberized handle. But one could say you shouldn't be cooking a pork chop on a nonstick pan to begin with. The important thing is to keep this one cheap: you're going to be replacing it every couple of years, there's no getting around that. For my money $30 or less, and $30 is pretty expensive for these things.
  
  
  

• Cookbooks
  

  Nothing inspires cooking like a good cookbook collection. The great news about cookbooks is that they're often bought as gifts or souvenirs and they make their way onto the used market cheap and in great condition. Here are my suggestions for a great starter shelf:
  
  

1. The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt. I kind of hate that this is my number one recommendation, but I don't know your wife and I do know J. Kenji López-Alt. This one is brand new so you're unlikely to find it used and cheap, but as a catch-all recommendation it has to take first place. Moving on to the cheap stuff:
   
   
2. Regional French Cooking by Paul Bocuse. This is possibly the friendliest authoritative book on French food out there, and a hell of a lot easier to just dive into than Julia Child (Julia is the expert, and her book is an encyclopedia). Bocuse is the undisputed king of nouvelle cuisine and people like Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain (so maybe a generation ahead of you and I) came from him. Paul Bocuse is French food as we know it, and yet this book—an approachable, coffee-table sized thing—still has a recipe for fucking mac and cheese. It's outstanding.
   
   
3. Theory & Practice / The New James Beard by James Beard. These will completely cover your entire library of American cooking. Nothing else needed until you get region-specific. When you do, go for something like this.
   
   
4. Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. When she died, the NYT ran a second obituary that was just her recipe for bolognese.
   
   
5. Christ, top five. Who gets 5th? I'm going with From Curries To Kebabs by Madhur Jaffrey. Don't get bamboozled into buying "Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible" which is the same book, repackaged and priced higher. You want the one with the hot pink dust jacket, it's unmistakeable. This is one of those end-all books that you could cook out of for the rest of your life. It covers almost every diet and almost every country that Beard and Bocuse don't.
   
   
6. Honorable mentions: Here come the downvotes. Pok Pok by Andy Ricker. If you're American and you want to cook Thai, this is the one. Ten Speed Press can go home now. The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Rosen (so close to making the list). I shouldn't need to say much about this; it's the book of diasporic Jewish food, which means it covers a lot of time and almost every possible country. It's a no-brainer. Thai Food by David Thompson (a perfect oral history of Thai food for English speakers, only it doesn't include Pok Pok's precise measurements, which in practice I've found important). Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Not for someone who just wants to become a baker, this book is for someone who wants to make Ken Forkish's bread. And for a casual bread baker I can't imagine a better introduction. Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham. Andrea Nguyen is out there and Andrea Nguyen is awesome, but I really like Mai Pham's book. It's accessible, reliable and regional. You don't get the dissertation-level breakdown on the origins of chicken pho that you get from Andrea, but the recipe's there, among many others, and it's fucking outstanding. Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. This vegan cookbook is dope as hell and will really expand your imagination when it comes to vegetables. This could actually have been number five.

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?

This dish turned out awesome--it's definitely going into the rotation. I expected it to taste a lot like pad thai as the ingredients were quite similar but the flavor profile was actually pretty different thanks to the caramel-based sauce and lack of tamarind/lime.

Recipe is from the excellent cookbook Hawker Fare by James Syhabout which has a mix of Lao & Thai recipes. I modified it slightly to reduce the amount of oil, increase the amount of fish sauce & shallots slightly, and incorporate meat & broccoli/veggies to make it a complete meal.

RECIPE: I recommend halving this unless you are cooking for a crowd. Plus half the recipe cooked up perfectly in a regular cast iron skillet.

Ingredients:

OMELET (KHAI JIAO)

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon fish sauce

2 teaspoons canola oil

NOODLES

0.5 lb chicken, pork, or 1 block tofu (optional)

any other vegetable you want to include

24 ounces dried medium-wide rice noodles

1/4 cup canola oil

100 grams granulated sugar

1/2 cup sliced shallots

2 tablespoons finely minced garlic

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

3 tablespoons Gold Mountain brand seasoning sauce (can sub soy sauce)

1/3 cup fish sauce

1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (I subbed regular soy sauce)

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon MSG (optional)

2 cups mung bean sprouts

1½ cups scallions, in 1-inch pieces

GARNISHES

Sliced omelet

2 tablespoons Fried Shallots (optional)

½ cup chopped cilantro, stems included

1 cup mung bean sprouts

CONDIMENTS

Prik phong (ground toasted chile) or Sriracha

Directions:

MAKE THE OMELET: Crack the eggs into a small mixing bowl and add the fish sauce. Beat with a fork, as if making scrambled eggs. Add the oil to an 8-inch nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. When it’s warm pour in the egg mixture and tilt the pan to ensure the egg covers the bottom. Continue to cook over gentle heat for about 3 minutes—you’ll notice the top of the omelet firming up. (If it starts to color it means the pan is too hot; remove the pan from the heat.) Once the top is firm, flip and cook over low heat for another minute. Slide the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate to cool. Slice into ¼-inch by 2-inch slivers and reserve for garnishing.

MAKE THE NOODLES: Cook the noodles according to package directions, but undercook them by a minute or two as you'll finish cooking them in the pan.

If adding meat or other vegetables, stir fry them now then set aside.

Add the oil and sugar to a saucepan with a wide diameter and mix well; set over medium-high heat. As the oil gets hot the sugar will caramelize. Cook until the caramel turns a deep amber.

Once it has reached the desired color turn off the heat, carefully add the shallots and garlic, and give it a stir with a spoon to sweat the aromatics—at this point your kitchen should smell very good. Sweat the aromatics for 1 minute, deglaze with the water, and stir well. Add the seasonings (oyster sauce, seasoning sauce, fish sauce, sweet soy sauce, black pepper, and MSG, if using) and mix well.

Return the saucepan to medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add the drained noodles and cook, stirring constantly with a pair of tongs. Move the noodles as if tossing a salad—they’ll wilt and slowly soak up the sauce. When the noodles have absorbed all the sauce and the pan is dry, with no residual sauce remaining, turn off the heat and fold in the bean sprouts and scallions, again like tossing a salad. Season to taste with additional salt, soy sauce, and/or fish sauce. Top with the omelet slices, fried shallots, and chopped cilantro, with a side of extra mung bean sprouts. Serve with prik phong or Sriracha.

Fuschia Dunlop is a good source for Chinese food. Her published recipe for Kung Pao Chicken is pretty killer. Eileen Yin-Fi Lo is also a well respected Chinese recipe author, check out My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen.

For Thai Food, Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is pretty interesting (and the restaurants are pretty awesome). There's also a tome, simply called Thai Food from David Thompson, as an outsider, looks complete and exhaustive (it's also daunting to me, but nice to have).

Hot Sour Salty Sweet also features Thai (as well as other SE Asian flavors). And I really like Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges as a more upscale cookbook.

Also, I find this little, unsung book to be a great resource. It has fairly simple recipes that can yield some nice flavors, great for weeknight dishes.

And, Momofuku is a fun contemporary twist with some good basics, but it's not a beginner book by any stretch!

Finally, The Slanted Door is on my wishlist. Looks divine.

I have a group of em, especially if you want any! i love love love the penny books. any of these would just make my skirt fly up.

• Mexican Family Cooking
  
  
• Healthy Thai Cooking
  
  
• Cooking the Lebanese way
  
  
• Saved by Soup
  
  
• W&S Soups and Stews
  
  
• W&S Salad Collection
  
  
• W&S Pasta Collection
  
  
• W&S Vegetable Collection
  
  
• Slugs in Love
  
  
• The Jungle
  
  Fun fact, majority of the Williams-Sonoma books have a penny option, and they have a ton! if you like great cookbooks like i do :D i figured i'd give you a big list so you can add anything you like and get yourself something nice :D

I cook mostly Asian food, although I'm not Asian. Here are several cookbooks I couldn't live without...

Real Thai (McDermott)

I have David Thompson's epic Thai cookbook, but that's more for special occasions. McDermott's book has excellent recipes from many regions of Thailand. The homemade curry pastes are really worth the effort.

Chinese (Sichuan): Land of Plenty, Dunlop

Chinese (Hunan): Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Dunlop

I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's cookbooks highly enough. You will have to search for some ingredients, but these days this is pretty easy.

General Asian: Complete Asian Cookbook (Solomon)

Charmaine Solomon's book is hit or miss sometimes, but it has so many recipes in it that it's worth it, from Sri Lanka to the Philippines to Japan, etc.

My favorite new, specialty cookbook is

Cooking at Home With Pedatha (Giri & Jain)

which has delicious Indian (specifically, Andhran) vegetarian recipes.

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

Honestly there are so many amazing cookbooks out there that I think you'd have better luck with something else. I don't eat dairy either, and although you can substitute stuff, and some of her recipes don't rely on a lot of dairy, you're honestly going to be missing out. Butter or cream play a huge role in so many of her dishes that you'll basically always have to make worse versions of the stuff in the cookbook. At that point it's a little ridiculous to be working from that cookbook rather than just picking a more suitable cookbook in the first place. Like, I know she's famous, but she fucking loves butter, and you're not going to be eating any butter.

So, unless you're the world's biggest fan of margarine, just go for something else. I would suggest something like Thai food, Burmese food, Ethiopian food, Japanese food, more Indian or Chinese (Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks are great) since those two categories encompass like eight million different cuisines, or something else that is not likely to be very dairy-centric (Indonesian, Malaysian, Sri Lankan, Korean, etc.).

I don't have a tried and true recipe but I just checked my copy of Pok Pok to see if there was a tom kha recipe, there isn't. So why am I writing this? If you're interested in Thai cooking I can't recommend Pok Pok highly enough.

It's a good read, even if you never cook from, but you should cook from it.

If you find a good recipe, put up some pics of the result and share with us!

If you "search inside" this book on amazon you can see their recipe for Tom Kha. It has galangal, kaffir leaves, fish sauce and chilis so how bad could it be?

I'm curious to know how you managed to make it to 2017 w/o being exposed to Thai food...but congratulations! One of the world's truly great cuisines. I highly recommend Buddha's Table: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570671613/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

you get 10,000 points for "Sightseeing"!

I can't think of too much fiction... The Windup Girl is an excellent book, but the Thai setting feels a little cringey and forced. It doesn't ruin the book but it doesn't have to be in Thailand either.

Three non-fiction books I think are essential for anyone who hates being clueless:

• Very Thai explains a lot of minutiae about life in Thailand that you probably won't figure out on your own. I wish it were easier to find here, but it's worth buying if you ever see.
  
• Siam Mapped by Thongchai Winichakul explains how modern Thailand and the concept of "Thainess" came to be. It's by a famous Thai academic, but was originally written in English because there's a little too much hard truth in it.
  
• The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott explains the fuck out of hill tribes. I don't think any book has colored my understanding of anything quite like that one. It's full of boring, skippable parts but there are some insights about Southeast Asia I don't think you can gain elsewhere.
  
  edit: I remember an awesome hilarious collection of anecdotes/essays by a prototypical farang sexpat in the late 40s but I forget what it's called, I'll look for it tomorrow
  
  edit #2: Lonely Planet's "World Food Thailand" is also excellent and well-researched
  
  edit #3: "Letters from Thailand" is interesting too, it's about a boy who immigrates to Bangkok from southern China in the 1940s and it follows the rest of his life in Thailand.

Thanks /u/booksandstuff13

Mine is pretty neat..


The oldest item on my Origional list when I first got may amazon account is a copy of Bad Taste a movie Item added January 8, 2007 XX

The thing I would probably want though is from my cooking stuff list, [These](https://www.amazon.com/dp/4915249905/?coliid=I3DDOC2YTMKW06&colid=3I75S9M5DLJ5N&psc=0&ref=lv_ov_lig_dp_it) books are really easy to follow, I found the Japanese one at the bin store and I love it.

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.

Agree with /u/X28.

Andrea's book should be considered as a primary text for Vietnamese cooking (much like David Thompson's Thai Food for Thai, or Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes for French).

Luke's books are great (as well as his shows that sort of accompany the books, or the other way around).

Yeah, yummo, love Tom Kha Gai, so quick and easy to make for something that impresses the pants off people. I usually add baby corn, bean sprouts, coriander to mine. I also add quite a bit more chilli.

Have you made Tom Yum? Similar but a thinner broth with no coconut milk made by boiling up prawn (shrimp) shells and heads.

David Thompson's book is amazing.

This book is my go to for Thai recipes.

The key flavours you are looking for a tamarind water/paste and fish sauce. If you like Thai food I cannot recommend this book enough - the guy ended up living in Thailand researching recipes for the book and they are excellent. Also pink/faux-silky cookery book ftw. Outshines everything else!

Hey Folks,

I love the Thai Kitchen and bought already several Thai Cookbooks. These are my 3 personal favorites:

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

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.com.mx

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

amazon.fr

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, amazon.fr, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

The Food of Thailand: A Journey for Food Lovers has been in my collection for several years now. It is a beautifully illustrated book with many very authentic recipes, including curry powders and pastes!
http://www.amazon.ca/Food-Thailand-Journey-Lovers/dp/1740454731

> I know, I probably sound like a ridiculous hypocrite

It's not silly or ridiculous. Our bodies habituate themselves to the things we eat, our brains remember foods that taste good (aren't bitter or poisonous, have high fat content, salt content, etc). It's completely legitimate to miss the sensations or the emotional response (comfort) you once associated with them. It just may take some time to change, that's all.

> The vegan cheeses I've tried have frankly been extremely off-putting, and while I've been getting by on coconut and almond milks, I really dislike them.
Every time I step into a grocery store or restaurant, I feel sad and limited

Why don't you try not replacing them for a while? Looking into other vegan recipes, cuisines, and styles of cooking that have nothing to do with dairy? Lots of Asian food doesn't use dairy because of lactose intolerance.

Instead of feeling stifled, maybe try to explore something new. That can help make things feel interesting and different.

Is there an Asian cuisine like

Chinese food, Korean food (some of these are vegan), Japanese food (1, 2), Thai (ingredients for Thai food are less commonly available, but it's an incredibly interesting cuisine if you can find them)

or maybe something else you've wanted to explore?

If you are serious about getting into thai cuisine, beyond the lime juice, fish sauce, shop bought curry paste get your head around David Thompson's book thai food. It is encyclopaedic, and makes no concessions re hard to get ingredients, but it is epic. The amazon reviews are pretty comprehensive.

Pick a classic in a cuisine with which you're generally unfamiliar but for which you feel confidant you can get good ingredients. A few ideas:

• Diana Kennedy - Essential Cuisines of Mexico or The Art of Mexican Cooking
  
  
• Barbara Tropp - The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking
  
  
• David Thompson - Thai Food
  
  
• Claudia Roden - The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
  
  
• Shizuo Tsuji - Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art
  
  You'll be forced to learn new techniques and deal with new ingredients, and get a sense of an entire cooking tradition. Any of those books will give you at least a small sense of the culture that inspired the cuisine, the human context, in addition to culinary knowledge.

I got this japanese one and this thai one for my mum a month ago and she absolutely loved them! Maybe they'll suit your fancy?

FYI I'd recommend this book if you're into Thai Food

I got my first copy many years ago and it's a bit of a Thai food Bible.

This is it! If you want I can take a picture of a recipe and send it to you so you can try it out. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Vegetarian-Thai-Nancie-McDermott/dp/0811811514

this book is your ticket to Thai food. :)

I’m interested in this, based on the bit I’ve read on her blog (shesimmers):

https://www.amazon.com/Bangkok-Recipes-Stories-Heart-Thailand/dp/0399578315

World Food : Thailand

Thai

http://www.amazon.com/Thai-Food-David-Thompson/dp/1580084621

http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Thai-Food-Classic-Recipes/dp/1607745232

http://www.amazon.com/Pok-Stories-Roadside-Restaurants-Thailand/dp/1607742888

My favourites for a few of the countries you list:

> Thailand

https://www.amazon.com/Thai-Food-David-Thompson/dp/1580084621/

> India

https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028/

> Korea

https://www.amazon.com/Growing-up-Korean-Kitchen-Cookbook/dp/1580082815

I don't have any that are free, unfortunately. I've got a vegan chickpea curry I adapted from a recipe on the Something Awful forums, and lately I've been doing a lot of Thai curries out of this cookbook.

This is possibly a variation of Evil Jungle Prince, a dish made popular by Keo's Thai Cuisine of Honolulu. The recipe is in Keo's Thai Cuisine and possibly online. It involves making a paste of lemon grass, lime leaves and Thai chiles, then cooking the other ingredients with this paste in coconut milk, and finishing with Thai basil.


edit: here is is: http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/January-2007/Taste-the-World/