OP: Pok Pok Noodles (signed bookplate)
When Andy Ricker began the travels in Thailand that would lead to his opening Pok Pok restaurants here in the US, noodles were an essential part of his education in Thai cooking. They are a vital part of Thai street life and available in a veritable galaxy of flavors and variations. He wants you to be able to recreate some of that in your home.
Like Ricker’s other cookbooks, Pok Pok Noodles is not meant to be a collection of simple recipes, ready in 10 minutes. Ricker assumes you are interested in making your own noodles when practical, that you will have prepared your own spice mixes and pastes, pickled some chilies and other vegetables, and even perhaps made your own home versions of Thai sausages or fish balls. The reward for that work is enjoying an array of vibrant soups (including a few drawn from elsewhere in Asia): rice vermicelli with shrimp, coconut milk, and toasted mung beans; “boat noodles” from Central Thailand with beef meatballs and beef tendon; stir-fried wide noodles with cuttlefish and duck.
Ours is a first printing with a bookplate signed by Andy Ricker—on the publisher Ten Speed’s letterhead—affixed to the front free endpaper. Shelfwear about the corners and a half-inch tear to the front cover hinge. Without dust jacket, as issued. A rewarding adventure for the willing.