Maenam is a sophisticated Thai cookbook geared towards a Foodie or a Gourmand. While I enjoyed browsing through the cookbook and there were a few recipes I would love to try making at home, I felt it wasn't for me. I wouldn't find myself making a lot of the recipes, as you need the time and dedication, or sometimes a substantial budget to source the specific exotic ingredients, such as wagyu beef, spot prawn, or sea urchin, and have the space for the kitchen equipment such as a sous-vide apparatus, or a deep fryer. Also, I wasn't familiar with some Thai ingredients like Phak Chi Farang that the cookbook didn't explain what it was, and I had to look up online. So, I would love to learn about Thai cuisine, but I felt I wouldn't get it from this cookbook.
Now the descriptions and the beautiful and colorful photography showed scrumptious dishes. I was surprised to learn that Chef Angus An has multiple restaurants, besides Maenam, in the BC Lower Mainland. While I may not be making all the dishes from the cookbook, I would really love to visit his restaurants and savour his food.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced view of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Very authentic Thai recipes. The currie mixes and dressing are great, there are a lot specialty store ingredients in the seafood recipes.

Gorgeous and sophisticated Thai recipes from the award winning chef Angus An. This book makes me want to be able to travel to Vancouver so I can eat at Maenam and experience this food for myself. Some of the recipes in this book are ones I would love to eat but not make myself, though there are some that I would try in my home kitchen like Chicken Satay and the ones for condiments and cocktails.. I also appreciate the ingredient glossary included at the end of the book.

Today I'm browsing through my advance copy of Maenam: A Fresh Approach to Thai Cooking, (via Amazon) by Angus An. I haven't often attempted Thai cooking here at home, and I'm hoping there are enough vegetable and noodle centric recipes here that I can adapt them to my vegetarian kitchen.

This new international cookbook comes out August 4, 2020.

Aleady, I’m delighted by the gorgeous flat lay food photography. The Snacks chapter includes Thai street food inspired recipes. Many of the snacks listed so far involve seafood, so I won’t be able to utilize them (by my choice to not eat fish). In case you are interested, the recipes include Scallop Ceviche, Chicken Satay (a Thai restaurant staple!), Squid Ink Cupcakes, Crispy Fried Oysters, Prawn Cakes, Hamachi Crudo, an Uni Sundae (I’ll have a no thank you helping), Steamed Mussels with Lemongrass Basil (my boyfriend would LOVE this), and a Northern Style Grilled Hen. (That sounds like a big portion for a “snack”). Recipes for things like “Coconut-Cream Relish of Fermented Pork and Spot-Prawn Tomalley” make me think this is a better cookbook for advanced cooks or people with a bit extra time on their hands.

I’m eager to check out the Noodles and One Bowl Meals chapter. Besides staples like Pad Thai and Pad See Ew, there are recipes for Boat Noodles, Chiang Mai Curried Chicken and Noodle Soup, Hot Sour Pork Soup, and Hainanese Chicken on Rice (Khao Man Gai). These all seem doable and like my boyfriend would be the happiest man on earth should I make one or two of them for his next dinner. I’m noting that these recipes are said to make either one large serving or two to four family-style servings.

The Condiments chapter is perhaps the most useful to me in this cookbook. I can learn how to make my own homemade chili oil, chili vinegar, sweet vinegar, fermented soybean sauce, tamarind water and tamarind sauce, fried garlic and fried shallots, and other things I can use to spice up and flavor my vegetarian tofu Thai dishes.

You know I love cocktails, so I’m peeking through the Cocktails chapter avidly. There’s a Scotch Tom Rick, a Rusty Bumber, a Siam Sunburn, Thai Ginger, and several cocktails I don’t know how to pronounce. The ingredients for most of these aren’t things I have laying around my house (cassia bark, galangal, stalks of lemongrass, ginger juice, Chinese salted plums, etc) but I do have turmeric to make the Scotch Tom Rick.

Overall, this cookbook is too meaty, too seafoody for my vegetarian diet preference, the dishes too fancy for my meat-and-potatoes boyfriend, and the recipes are far too involved for an amateur cook. For now, I think I will stick to ordering Thai takeout from our favorite local small business. If you are a confident cook and can source unusual ingredients, I definitely recommend this Thai cookbook with the gorgeous photos and fresh, vibrant looking dishes to you.