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The cooking stories explain the ideas behind Thai food rather than single recipes: how cooks balance sour, salty, sweet and hot at the end of cooking, which ingredients are worth buying first for a Thai pantry, and why a heavy granite mortar still beats a blender for curry paste and som tam.

They are written to be read alongside the recipes and ingredient guides on this site, and link to the dishes and ingredients they mention, so you can move from understanding a technique to using it.

If you are new to Thai cooking, start with the four flavours and the pantry. Together they explain most of what makes a Thai dish taste right, and why recipes always end with the instruction to taste and adjust.

The stories also cover equipment and staples in practical terms: what to look for in a mortar, which brands of fish sauce and coconut milk work best, and how to keep fresh herbs, curry pastes and chillies so that a Thai dinner can be cooked on a weeknight.