Buddha's Table presents a magnificent and joyful celebration of Thai cuisine guaranteed to add diversity and pleasure to your cooking experience. Under the guidance of Chef Chat Mingkwan, you'll be able to sample the flavors of Thailand's four regions as you make delicious, beautiful Thai meals in your own kitchen.
I bought this book from the author, after a cooking demonstration, at the annual Seattle VegFest. This book inspires my trips to the international district to find ingredient, but after my gathering is done, the preparation is quick, easy, and impresses guests with the authenticity of flavors. I love Thai food, and cooking at home saves me money and has taught me more about the food and culture than I could have learned just from dining out. These recipes, as the title suggests are vegan versions of classics (though much traditional thai cooking has always been vegan). The use of peanuts, cashews, and coconut give many of the recipes a rich creamy texture that doesn't miss the dairy at all. Lemongrass, lime leaves, and galangal are my new favorite ingredients!
This book rocks!!! I have made the Gaeng Koa pineapple curry dozens of times now and it is SUBLIME. Never before seen it in any Thai restaurant and now has to be one of my all time favourite curries. No pictures though, what a shame, what a shame, what a shame.
Since we've become veggie powered, it's been hard to find good Thai recipes -- that ol' fish sauce. So I was glad to find this book. We went on a wild hunt for ingredients in the Raleigh area, trying to find some of the sauces that the author recommended. We had some trouble and I ended up buying several jars containing black beans in some form or other. The ingredients should be easy to find in the LA or Bay area.
We've tried several in there, and they're delicious. So far our favorites are the stir-fried eggplant with holy basil, the Pad Thai, and the Stir-fried assorted vegetables. The only disappointing thing about the book is that it isn't very long. We'll be trying the peanut sauce and 'spiced pockets' soon.