An authentic guide to Thai cuisine provides readers with all the basic knowledge necessary to create great Thai meals, as well as more than 175 recipes for dishes representing the best in Thai cookery. Americans love Thai food. Among the best cookbooks exploring this rich, tantalizing cuisine is chef-restaurateur Su-Mei Yu's Cracking the Coconut . Insisting that there can be no true Thai cooking without homemade "core" preparations (such as various chili pastes), Yu includes precise, accessible recipes for these and other essential ingredients while outlining fundamental techniques in vivid detail. Readers learn the proper hand motions for cracking a coconut, how to wrap ingredients in banana leaves, and how to work a mortar and pestle, the central Thai-kitchen implement. The book's 175 recipes are divided between chapters devoted to essential ingredients or dishes. The chapter on Thai curry ("the signature dish") explores the basics of preparing this exciting fare and includes such delicious recipes as Red Curry with Roasted Pork and Green Banana and Sweet Green Curry with Meatballs. A chapter called "The Secret of Thai Salads" offers recipes for a small repertoire of essential dressings and such tempting recipes as Apricot, Shrimp, and Pork Salad and a salad-feast called, simply, Lamb and Roast Duck. Yu provides cultural notes and cooking lore throughout the book, often drawing from her recipe-hunting travels abroad. It's hard to imagine a better start for anyone wishing to "cook Thai" than this fully illustrated book, which perfectly balances recipes and instruction to make it an innovative standout. --Arthur Boehm For fans of Southeast Asian cuisine, here are two excellent cookbooks. An immigrant from Vietnam to the United States, My Tran has developed her own simplified versions of favorite childhood dishes, many of which now appear in The Vietnamese Cookbook. Her excellent introduction to one of Southeast Asia's most colorful cuisines provides more than 100 recipes for such tempting treats as Spring Rolls and Lemon Rice mixed in with a few pinches of personal recollections and some outstanding color photographs. Novice cooks will especially appreciate the clear, easy-to-understand layout of each recipe, which takes the intimidation out of preparing these dishes. My Tran's book will serve as a good complement to other, more classic Vietnamese cookbooks, such as Nicole Routhier's The Foods of Vietnam (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1989), and is recommended for most public libraries. Rather than simplifying or adapting recipes for American tastes and markets, chef and restaurant owner Su-Mei Yu instead serves up a cookbook that pays homage to the cuisine of her homeland while offering detailed instructions on preparing Thai dishes in the old manner. Cracking the Coconut covers everything from the equipment and ingredients needed to traditional preparation methods such as the use of a mortar and pestle. The text not only gives readers 175 delicious recipes but also provides a fascinating look at the history of Thai cooking as well as a few glimpses at the people and forces that have helped shape it. For the most part, the author forgoes the traditional cookbook arrangement by type of dish (i.e., appetizers, salads, desserts, etc.) and instead devotes chapters to a specific ingredient such as rice or a signature dish such as Thai salads. A sumptuous feast for both serious and armchair cooks, this lavishly detailed cookbook is highly recommended for all public libraries.DJohn Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Thai food contrasts tastes and intense flavors to achieve drama and entice the palate. Yu's highly organized approach to Thai cooking attracts cooks who need to understand basic processes in cooking. Yu begins by inventorying a Thai kitchen's equipment and larder and outlines the differences between what's possible in a large kitchen as opposed to that in a small apartment. Following her suggestions, even those with minimum space can still aspire to prepare excellent Thai dishes at home. Her thorough descriptions of Thai cuisine's meats, fish, fruits, and vegetables guide novices through the mysteries of Asian markets. Recipes clearly indicate substitutions for the most difficult-to-find ingredients. As the title notes, Yu regards the coconut as Thai cooking's central ingredient, the source of much of its flavor appeal. This book is an exceptionally well-crafted guide for any English speaker wanting to master Southeast Asia's leading cuisine. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Su-Mei Yu is chef-owner of the acclaimed Saffron restaurant in San Diego, California. Born of Chinese parents in Thailand, at the age of five she was enrolled in an exclusive boarding school founded by the Royal Court of Thailand. At age fifteen, Yu came to an American mission boarding school in Kentucky. After graduation, she received a master's