The Ultimate “Eating Thai Food Guide”

[Richard Barrow]

If you enjoy eating Thai food like myself then you probably have dozens of Thai cook books at home. Another kind of book that I have is for Bangkok restaurant reviews. However, what I am most interested in these days is Thai Street Food. Luckily, there are a few good books out there on this subject. Most notably the beautiful book by David Thompson: Thai Street Food. I have already bought that massive book from amazon.com as well as another wonderful book called Bangkok’s Top 50 Street Food Stalls by Chawadee Nualkhair.

Although I love these two books, they are not exactly the kind of book that I have been hunting for. The former devotes a lot of space to recipes and the latter to restaurant reviews. What I have always wanted is the ultimate guide to Thai street food. I am sure other people feel the same. Most people only eat a rotation of about four or five different dishes. This is mainly because they are nervous about ordering something new or unknown. What has been desperately needed is a guide to buying street food.

Well, the wait is now over. Mark Wiens from eatingthaifood.com has just launched an extensive ebook called “The Eating Thai Food Guide” which you can download now from his website. I had already started writing and photographing my own Thai Street Food book. But, I think that Mark has done such a comprehensive and thorough book on how to order Thai street food that there is probably no longer a need for me to continue. I have been reading through his book the last few days and it has just about everything, if not more, of what I would have put in such a book.

Any good food guide must have pictures. And plenty of them. I am not talking about the studio shot pictures that we usually see in the cook books. I mean food pictures shot on location. The Eating Thai Food Guide is filled with colourful pictures on every page. Mark gives you a number of suggestions of meal combinations that you can order as well as information on individual dishes. He has also done pictorial lists of the most popular Thai street food as well as his own personal favourites. If you are an expat living in Thailand, a tourist visiting the Kingdom, or a foodie that has already fallen in love with Thai food, then I highly recommend that you download the Eating Thai Food Guide today. You won’t regret it.

[tyu]

The book looks great, I jsut have one question how many of the dishes are vegetarian or are easy to change into vegetarian?

[yy]

It will be pretty interesting too if one day someone comes up with the Thai Food Guide specifically for Kim Jay Festival.

[GkapiBreath]

They do have a vegetarian guide now: http://www.eatingthaifood.com/vegetarian-thai-food/

[Wolfy]

"Thai Street Food" by David Thompson looks a really good book, however, having looked on Amazon.co.uk it's a bit pricey at 25 GBP !!

[yy]

Thanks Gkapi

I may buy the vegie guide in a few days' time (cos if I do so now, it's going distract me from my work), looks rather interesting, especially the sections on the 50 Thai fruits, vegan Thai desserts and the Kim Jay Festival. At US$7 (in e-format though), it's rather affordable, though I was hoping to see mainly vegetarian Thai street food dishes.. N am a bit sceptical about ordering non-veg dishes to make it into veggie ones, cos I have the experience that Thai cooks are not particularly good at understanding what's vegetarian despite knowing u want it vegetarian. Incidentally, in the free page out of the e-book which describes how to make it veg in Thai, the author has not mentioned "without fish sauce" although the recipe is stated to have contained fish sauce.

Will give my full verdict only after I have actually purchased it... If I do decide to purchase it (50/50 right now)...

[yy]

Gave myself a treat today after all the hard work of the past few days and got the Vegetarian Thai Food Guide for US$7 (also AUD7)... For that price, the contents are mostly good. Overall, I feel it is a worthy buy.

Pros:

- I especially enjoy the big coloured dishes featured for each street dish discussed, which is the same compliment Jingjok paid to the non-vegetarian guide book. The section on how to order popular non-vegetarian Thai street dishes as vegetarian ones is pretty comprehensive as it states the ingredients of each dish so that I know what to tell the vendor to take out from each dish. As mentioned, the photos are handy. The guide makes me more confident to try ordering non-veg dishes as veg again. Basically, I eat vegetarian the Thai way - the Jay way, which means I usually prefer to omit eggs, meat and the 5 pungent plants although other non-vegan ingredients such as milk and non-rennet cheese are fine. N to tell the very honest truth, the one thing I miss the most since becoming vegetarian is eating at Thailand's street stalls with the locals and everyone else.
- It features 10 vegetarian eateries, most of which I have never heard about. Plus point: It recommends the author's favourite dishes so that I will know which to zoom in on the next time I am in town. I'm particularly glad that they are not farang-adapted vegetarian restaurants, just normal ones which locals will go to, cos it will mean the taste is often more authentic and I can also people-watch the locals.
- *My favourite section is definitely the one on vegan Thai street desserts. I'm not vegan (cos I do take milk and certain cheese), but find it very useful to know which desserts do not contain eggs. I have learnt about many Thai street desserts I have never known about and they all look mouth-watering. Best of all, I now know that khanom krok does not contain eggs and I can just go for it Have been coveting them since I first set eyes on them from our rented passing vehicle in 2000, but whenever I asked the chauffeur, he would insist they are grilled quails' eggs (which I now know is actually another look-alike dish)...

Cons
- Where are the 50 Thai fruits? I counted only 19
- Have been hoping to see more vegetarian eateries being covered rather than just 10. Maybe if the sales from this debut version is good, the author may be inspired to try out ALL the vegetarian places in BKK and then write a book on it
- I can't blame the author or the book that one of our forumers had previously emailed me a very good list of how to order and instruct vegetarian in Thai, so I found that section in this book rather redundant (and it covers quite a few pages) but others will certainly find it more useful than me.

Overall verdict?
Makes a quick and convenient pick-me-up the next time for any vegetarian in BKK. Can't wait to try out ordering non-veg street dishes as veg ones...

[tyu]

They do have a vegetarian guide now: http://www.eatingthaifood.com/vegetarian-thai-food/

Thank you for this link it was really helpful and now I can cook some vegetarian food.

[Mahindrasarath]

I want to learn how to cook some of these delicious food,esp Kaeng Khiev wan" Green chicken curry "!!

[djaidee]

I want to learn how to cook some of these delicious food,esp Kaeng Khiev wan" Green chicken curry "!!

"Kaeng Kiau Wan Kai" (Green Chicken Curry) is one of my favourite dishes - my wife can cook it excellent, so you are invited Mahin