As the year is wrapping up, I’m reflecting on some of my favorite cookbooks from 2025. Nok Suntaranon’s Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen has unequivocally nailed down a spot in my Top 10.

I attended a livestream Milk Street cooking class with Nok earlier this year and promptly picked up a copy of her book from the library afterwards (and then added it to my own collection, of course). Nok exudes charming, big boss-lady energy which also comes through in her vibrant and occasionally sassy cookbook.

The first dishes I tackled from Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen were a heavily herbed and spiced yum hed ruam (seared mushroom salad) that convinced me to try more mushrooms, a perfectly balanced and satisfying gaeng massaman (massaman curry), and kua gling nua (toasted beef curry) which to date is the spiciest dish to ever come out of my kitchen. Friendly bullying by Nok encourages home cooks to follow her recipes to a T, which means using the precise amount of Thai chilies she recommends. I adore her unwavering dedication to spice and her recognition of the role it should play in a meal:

“Use real ingredients and balance the flavors on the table with sweetness and sour, bitter and cream that cut through the spice. Feel the fear and do it anyway. You will be better for it and really start enjoying your food.”

Pork belly is the star of two of our favorite S-tier dishes from Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen: moo hong (braised pork belly) and moo waan (caramelized pork belly). Slowly stewing the pork belly for moo hong develops glistening, sweetly spiced hunks of the most tender pork you can imagine. We’ve done a couple of rounds of moo waan this year, partially because caramelized pork haunts my dreams but mostly because the shallot-flavored rendered pork fat left behind from cooking is a refrigerator staple, something I often grab when I’m looking to quickly stir fry veggies or make a crispy grilled cheese. Nok’s regular refrain of, “Don’t be afraid of the fat - it will make you happy!” are words of wisdom deserving of a tattoo.

My first time making sticky rice was for khao niew ma muang (mango sticky rice), and while it fulfilled the brief, it was so rich and made so much that we should have shared it with the neighborhood! Because I had some frozen fish sauce-infused chicken broth begging for a purpose, I turned to Nok and made her kang jued woon sen (pork meatball soup & glass noodles with fried garlic oil). This hearty noodle soup was familiar in that noodle soup way but was made more intriguing by the floating bites of silken tofu and crispy garlic topping.

When I’m in a cooking rut, I often return to Kalaya’s Southern Thai Kitchen. When I need to refresh my curry paste supplies or crave something fresh and spicy, this cookbook is the first I pull from the bookshelf. If you’re curious about Thai cooking and aren’t sure where to start, be sure to give this book a try - it will reward you with tasty eats and personality to boot!