Pim, of Chez Pim, is not exaggerating when she says that Pad Thai is one of the most popular and well-know Thai dishes out there. But despite its popularity, the noodle dish is often simply eaten in restaurants, picked up from takeout places or even cooked from a mix instead of being cooked from scratch at home. Pim has generously provided her readers with a complete and detailed how-to guide for making Pad Thai at home. She guarantees that it is just about foolproof if you follow her specific directions, and since she has a photo to go along with every step in the recipe, doing so should not be difficult in the least.

Pim also mentions several common Pad Thai mistakes that you should avoid, just to ensure you get perfect results, and reassures readers that the sauce can be made in advance, which provides a shortcut for later preparations of the dish.

For anyone new to Thai cooking, pad Thai seems like a good dish to start with. There are many variations of the dish and even an inexperienced cook can throw together a simple peanut sauce to toss with some noodles, which provides a great starting point to expand on later. After all, doing some seriously "authentic" cooking is all well and good, but it's nice to know how to make a relatively quick dinner, too. This pad Thai, from What do I know? was described as an "on the fly" recipe, so it seems to fall into that latter category. The recipe is actually quite easy and it sounds delicious. It has sauteed tofu, garlic, broccoli, onions and carrots mixed in with noodles, bean sprouts, cilantro and peanuts. The whole thing is tossed with a very easy peanut sauce before serving and, from start to finish, it probably takes a lot less time than ordering takeout.

I noticed that Trader Joe's recently started stocking the type of noodles used for making pad Thai, and even though I now have a bunch stocked away in my kitchen, I can't get motivated to make anything with them. Thai cooking is time intensive and, while worth it in the end, you can't always dedicate a lot of time to cooking during the week. Quick & Easy Thai: 70 Everyday Recipes delivers recipes that you can make even when you are relatively short on time that still have all the great thai flavors you are hoping for. The recipes are easy to understand, so it is also a good starting point for someone who wants to get a feel for the basics of Thai food and flavors. One of the best features of the book is that the author provides lots of substitutions, so you will be able to work with most of the recipes even if you don't have access to a well-stocked Asian market, though some staples (like fish sauce and sriracha) will definitely have to be added to the pantry. Recipes include Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, Green Curry Chicken with Zucchini, Spicy Cashew Salad with Chilies, Cilantro and Lime and Sticky Rice with Mangos.

For a less "quick and easy" look at Thai cuisine, try author Nancie McDermott's Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking, which offers a few more techniques, more curries and some more exotic/less common recipes.

While tamarind paste has been available in Asian markets for a long time, it's exciting to see fresh tamarinds popping up more frequently in produce sections. The woody outer pods are brittle and don't travel well, so the offerings in grocery stores usually aren't very pretty. Even if the pods are broken, what you want to look for is mahogany-colored flesh that doesn't look pale or dried out. Also, check the outer shell for tiny holes (see below), as bugs are fond of laying eggs in tamarind pods. The flavor of tamarind is similar to a dried apricot, but more tart. Once the meat has been removed from the pods and stripped of its veins, it can be boiled, seeded, sweetened with sugar, and diluted for a great cold drink. Tamarinds are also a key ingredient in pad Thai recipes. Alton Brown recently made a good version of it, similar to the Cook's Illustrated version I usually make. Boiling, mashing and straining three or four large tamarinds usually works for the ounce or two of tamarind paste that the recipes call for.

[Photos: Nick Vagnoni]