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"Pok Pok" by Andy Ricker


heidih

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Andy Ricker's book on Thai food Pok Pok is all over the food internet recently. I "looked inside the book" on Amazon and felt like it was explaining things I knew in a teacher/student way that I don't care for. However, I am a sucker for the stories behind the food and it appears to have that going for it. Has anyone perused it? At this point I think it is a book I want to check out from the library as opposed to own.

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I disagree entirely with your thoughts on the tone. As someone fairly familiar with Thai food, I find that Ricker is just trying to explain things in a patient way to the majority of people who think Thai food is one thing only.

This is one of the more exciting cookbooks I've come across in recent memory. Not only is it exposing an underappreciated cuisine (non-central Thai) to many who would otherwise never come across it, but he does so in an incredibly dedicated and painstaking way.

I've cooked a number of dishes from the book, and they've all turned out remarkably well. To this point, I've made yam khai dao (fried egg salad), yam makheua yao (grilled eggplant salad), het paa naam tok (grilled mushroom salad), aep plaa (curried fish in banana leaves), phat fak thawng (stir-fried squash), phak buung fai daeng (stir-fried water spinach), puu phat phong karii (crab stir-fried with curry powder), muu kham waan (grilled pork neck), jaw phak kat (mustard green and tamarind soup with pork ribs), khao soi kai (curry noodle soup with chicken), kuaytiaw khua kai (stir-fried noodles with chicken, egg, and cuttlefish).

I haven't been disappointed by anything, and I've been quite pleased to explore a number of flavors I've only had glimpses of in the past. In case it isn't clear, I highly recommend the book.

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