Pad Thai is actually one of Thailand’s youngest dishes. It came about in 1916, as a result of a recipe competition held by the Thai Prime minister of the time. He wanted the Thais to make more use of the rice noodle, an ingredient up until that time, favoured almost solely by the Chaozhounese (Chinese) based in Thailand. So the competition was held, and Pad Thai was submitted as one of the many entries. It won with great celebration, as it used the flat rice noodle fried, rather than in soup, as it had previously been used. Since then it has remained a firm favourite in Thailand, and now, across the world.
Original Pad Thai with Flat Rice Noodles
Boworn had been promising to take me to the ‘Best Pad Thai’ in Bangkok for months, so it was with great anticipation that I arrive at the open fronted restaurant on a small soi off Sukhumvit. It was actually quite a modern restaurant and had great heritage; the guy who owns it is not only friends with the Princess of Thailand, but takes his recipes from his Grandmother who cooked for the King at the Royal Palace in the early C20th.
Green Papaya Pad Thai
As with many restaurants, Pad Thai was the only thing on the menu, and it offered variations on the dish including original with flat rice noodles, plain without noodles served with fried wontons, made with vermicelli rice noodles, made with green papaya, made with wheat noodles (Chinese style) and with macaroni (western style). I liked this idea as it shows the Thais open-mindedness about fusion cooking – its given me a few ideas of my own for Thai pasta when I get home!
Boworn had been promising to take me to the ‘Best Pad Thai’ in Bangkok for months, so it was with great anticipation that I arrive at the open fronted restaurant on a small soi off Sukhumvit. It was actually quite a modern restaurant and had great heritage; the guy who owns it is not only friends with the Princess of Thailand, but takes his recipes from his Grandmother who cooked for the King at the Royal Palace in the early C20th.
Green Papaya Pad Thai
As with many restaurants, Pad Thai was the only thing on the menu, and it offered variations on the dish including original with flat rice noodles, plain without noodles served with fried wontons, made with vermicelli rice noodles, made with green papaya, made with wheat noodles (Chinese style) and with macaroni (western style). I liked this idea as it shows the Thais open-mindedness about fusion cooking – its given me a few ideas of my own for Thai pasta when I get home!
Roselle and Soda
Ground Peanuts
We ordered Original with flat rice noodles and Pad Thai with Green Papaya. We were also brought a delicious sweet and fizzy drink of Roselle mixed with soda water. The dishes were delicious. The guys in the office swear that the secret to this being the best is the inclusion of picked radish, which adds a unique sour flavour to counteract the sweetness from the palm sugar. The radish along with tofu, dried shrimp, beansprouts are chucked into a scorching wok along with some egg that has been cooked and agitated before hand, to many crispy pieces. It is literally tossed for 1 minute, over a fierce flame controlled by the chef’s foot. The chives, prawns, noodles (or other main ingredient) and sauce(tamarind, palm sugar, lime juice, fish sauce) are added and it is served, with a handful of fresh beansprouts, Chinese chives and a wedge of lime. In the condiments are all the usuals, plus the addition of ground peanuts – essential I think with ground roasted chillies! The texture of both were fantastic – the ingredients remained crunchy but cooked and the noodles retained bite and bounce and weren’t soft, mushy or overdone, which is so important.
The whole experience was fantastic and I vow never to over cook my Pad Thai again!
The whole experience was fantastic and I vow never to over cook my Pad Thai again!
Happy Cooking!
HJ
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