Night + Market

Starred review from October 2, 2017
Yenbamroong opened Night + Market on L.A.’s Sunset Strip in 2010; it was a fun, casual environment where patrons could dine on terrific food and wine while watching classic tennis matches and campy ’70s movies. It’s that mash-up of refinement and quirk that makes this cookbook such a delight. The dishes might sound like mere novelties—drunken noodle pastrami, Bangkok Mall Pasta, and “Thai” steak salad (which echoes a cliché dish found in many American Thai restaurants)—but the recipes are certainly solid. In these and dishes such as Chiang Rai fried chicken, a hot-and-sour shrimp soup, and grilled sweet corn with coconut glaze, Yenbamroong nicely balances flavors, hitting all the hot, sweet, sour, salty, and umami notes that make Thai cuisine so addictive. Essays on Thailand, the art of stir-frying, and the history of blood soup (sopped up with sticky rice balls and served with deep-fried intestines) add to the reading experience, as do the wine-pairings suggestions. Though among its many dishes there are some that aren’t the easiest or quickest to prepare, Yenbamroong does his best to pare recipes down to their bare essentials. Home cooks and their guests will be rewarded with deeply flavored, inventive Thai fare.