Nancie McDermott"s "Quick and Easy Thai" written for Americans - something you would want to eat after all that work

I'm not sure it's really what you're looking for because it's pretty big and not entirely basic, but look through a copy of "The Food of Thailand: A Journey for Food Lovers" some time. It's gorgeous and part of a really nice series of cookbooks with great pictures, interesting information and really delicious food.

Check out the website of the It Rains Fishes author. You can try some of the recipes and see if you will like her book:
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/

Drbabs, glad you like it. Now if only I could wrestle a cookbook of food memoir list or two out of the Food52 community. ;-)

@ Peter--what a great site! Thank you for sharing it!

Erin-

Take a look at this booklist (on my book recommendation site) -- it has 3 different excellent Thai cookbooks:

http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/Accessible-Southeast-Asian-Cookbooks/335

Happy holidays!

-Peter

I have one that is definitly a beginner Thai book, but I love it - The Beautiful Cookbook - are those even still in print? It's a cookbook / coffee table book almost. There is a whole series of them ... ah yes - you can order from Amazon of course!

http://www.amazon.com/Thailand-Beautiful-Cookbook-Panurat-Poladitmontr/dp/0002550296/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292245113&sr=8-1