Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen

Bring the bold, spicy, beautiful world of Southern Thai cooking to your kitchen through recipes and stories from the James Beard Award–winning chef of Kalaya, in Philadelphia.

Growing up in the tropical region of Southern Thailand, Nok Suntaranon helped her mother pound the fresh curry pastes she would sell at their local market. But decades later, after making a life in the United States, she returned home and saw that the food had become watered-down—sweeter and more geared toward a tourist’s palate. Her life mission became clear: to preserve the flavors of Southern Thai food as she remembers them and to show American home cooks how delicious, intricately flavored, and doable Thai cooking is.

This is the cuisine of her homeland, both balanced and fiery, rustic or refined. From peppery fish sauce-garlic Hat Yai fried chicken to an extra-fresh, extra-herbal green curry to a celebratory turmeric sticky rice with savory coconut shrimp topping, this is Thai food as you’ve probably never seen it.