Giggling Squid restaurant in Cambridge celebrates launch of new cookbook

The Giggling Squid, a restaurant with a delightful interior located in The Old Library on Wheeler Street, Cambridge, held a launch party for its new cookbook last Tuesday evening (November 8).

The cookbook, featuring Giggling Squid’s signature tapas dishes and Thai classics with a twist, is inspired by Thai legends and owner Pranee’s childhood food memories.

Visitors to the launch also learned how to recreate one of the restaurant’s favourite dishes, duck or vegetable spring rolls, before an intimate dinner with Giggling Squid co-founder, Pranee Laurillard.

The Giggling Squid Cookbook is a celebration of Thai food from the restaurant famous for its Thai tapas and beautifully designed interiors, and features some of its favourite fish, meat, curry, noodle and rice dishes. There are also breakfast, light meal and drink recipes, as well as vegetarian and vegan recipes.

The recipes are introduced by Pranee, who opened her first restaurant with husband Andy in a small fisherman’s cottage in Brighton 20 years ago. Giggling Squid now has 45 restaurants nationwide with five new ones opening in 2022.

I went along with my wife to sample some of what Giggling Squid Cambridge has to offer, and there is certainly a lot to choose from on the menu. To start with, I had the Hawker-Style Moo Ping - garlic and coriander marinated pork skewers served with a spicy tamarind sauce. Garlic and coriander are two of my favourite ingredients - and I love anything with tamarind, so it was a win-win choice.

My wife opted for the Mah Kwan Pepper Pork Belly - a bowl of sweet, sticky-fried pork belly flavoured with mah kwan pepper. Phrases like ‘sticky-fried’ always tend to draw me in so it came as no surprise that when she kindly let me try it, I liked it very much.

For the main course I went for the Massaman curry, one of the restaurant’s recommended dishes, which includes coconut milk, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise and cashew nuts in its eye-catching list of ingredients. I had the chicken version and it was delicious. I was a little surprised to find carrot and potato in it, as they’re not usually vegetables I associate with Thai food, but they were certainly not an unwelcome addition.

Meanwhile, my wife had the Spicy and Tasty Chicken - stir-fried chicken breast strips with galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves, garlic and krachai, which is similar to ginger. I tried it and it was incredibly flavoursome, although it may be a bit too spicy for some! Rice comes separately. My wife had the jasmine rice, while I went for the coconut option.

Pudding-wise, my wife had a mango cake - similar to apple upside down cake, but with mangoes - and I had a chocolate bombe, which was the perfect end to a wonderful meal.

[Read more: Inside the stunning Thai restaurant Giggling Squid as it opens in Cambridge]

For more information on Giggling Squid, visit gigglingsquid.com. The Giggling Squid Cookbook is available now, priced £25 and published by Ebury Press.