Buddha's Table.

BUDDHA'S TABLE By Chat Mingkwan

I love Thai food, so I was quite excited to receive a review copy of Buddha's Table. You'll find a wide variety of vegan dishes in this book. (I found one crepe recipe containing an optional egg and a flied bananas dish that requires honey, which you can easily replace with rice syrup or even maple syrup.)

When preparing curry dishes, it's difficult to buy curry pastes that don't contain fish flavoring. Don't despair--this cookbook provides recipes to make several varieties of curry paste, including Green, Red, and Yellow Curry Paste; Panaeng Curry Paste; and Massamun Curry Paste. From these bases, you can prepare a wide range of Thai main dishes.

Among the Salads, Snacks, and Appetizers, you'll discover recipes for Green Papaya Salad, Glass Noodle Salad, and Pad Thai Salad. Soups include Hot-and-Sour Lemongrass Soup, Galangal Coconut Soup, and Bamboo Shoot Stew.

Finally, for Dessert, you might want to sample Banana Pudding in Coconut Cream, Crunchy "Ruby" Water Chestnuts, Sticky Rice and Mangoes, or Tapioca Pudding with Tropical Fruits.

Buddha's Table (ISBN 1-57067-161-3) is published by the Book Publishing Company. This 192-page book can be purchased for $20 (including shipping and handling) from The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.