Hawker Fare

Starred review from November 6, 2017
Syhabout’s outstanding debut is a combination immersive deep dive into authentic Thai and Lao cuisine and personal memoir of Syhabout’s journey to chefdom and owner of the restaurants Commis and Hawker Fare in the San Francisco Bay Area. After arriving in Oakland as refugees from Northern Thailand in 1981, his family opened Wat Phou, a Thai restaurant that leaned heavily toward American tastes. Inspired by trips to Thailand and informed by his formal training at the California Culinary Academy (as well as stints at restaurants such as Masa and El Bulli), Syhabout opened Commis in Oakland in 2009 and later Hawker Fare in San Francisco. Mouthwatering but often labor-intensive recipes dominate, such as tapioca dumplings stuffed with caramel-cooked pork, salted turnips, and peanuts; bamboo shoots stewed in fermented fish sauce; and Lao pork herb sausage with pork skins. Determined cooks looking to entertain will flip to recipes for Lao minced-pork salad; devilishly simple chicken wings in red curry; and Syhabout’s Isan barbecue chicken, which benefits from an overnight brine and marinade infused with lemongrass, curry, coriander, and fish sauce. This is an eye-opening guide to a little-known cuisine.

February 15, 2018

Syhabout, a first-generation Laotian chef whose family came to the United States in 1981, immerses readers in the Thai and Lao cuisine served at his Hawker Fare restaurant in San Francisco. With food writer Birdsall, Syhabout delves deep into his family history and career path, sharing flavorful recipes such as fried chicken with charred chile jam, pork and egg drop curry noodles, tart and aromatic fish salad laap, and banana and coconut milk rice pudding steamed in banana leaves. Most dishes are daunting, requiring home cooks to seek specialty ingredients and embrace frequent use of a large mortar and pestle. Those who persevere, however, will be richly rewarded. VERDICT An exceptional work; Syhabout's first book blends substantial memoir with mouth-watering foods.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2017
Thai food and Lao food reflect the complex ethnicities and indistinct, historically imposed boundaries between Thailand and Laos. Westerners tend to lump together these Southeast Asian cuisines, but emigrants readily distinguish and defend the provenance of each dish. It's particularly from Isan, now part of northeastern Thailand, that many people emigrated. Chefs opening restaurants usually identified their cooking as Thai, but for themselves, fellow countrymen, and cognoscenti, such chefs might prepare distinctively Lao dishes. Many of California restaurateur Syhabout's recipes will seem familiar to Thai food aficionados; other offerings are decidedly different, especially a recipe for Laos' definitive sauce, padaek, a pungent combination of carp, salt, and rice bran, muddled together and aged for a year. A long and detailed introduction provides a very personal and articulate glimpse into the life of Lao emigres. Libraries needing to round out Southeast Asian cookery collections will want to add this unique title.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)