Pad Thai

[Chittychangchang]

The most famous Thai dish in the world! Making a good pad Thai takes time. There’s a delicate dance with the noodles because they cook in three stages. First you soak them in warm water and they begin to absorb water and soften. In the pan, they first get pan-fried with all the ingredients. Be patient in this stage. Allow them to begin to yield and marry with the hot oil and other ingredients. Once they look soft enough to eat right out of the pan but are slightly al dente, add the sauce to finish their cooking.

SERVES 4 TO 6

Pad Thai Sauce
4 tbsp (60 ml) Thai fish sauce
3 tbsp (45 ml) bottled tamarind paste
1 tbsp (15 ml) lime juice
1 tbsp (15 ml) rice vinegar
4 tbsp (50 g) sugar

Pad Thai
2 tbsp (30 ml) vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp (30 g) packaged shredded sweetened radish
1 tsp dried shrimp
½ cup (95 g) sliced baked tofu
2 eggs
½ cup (95 g) thin strips of chicken breast or thigh
10 large shrimp, peeled and cleaned
3 cups (750 g) medium rice sticks, soaked
2 tsp (10 g) paprika
3 green onions cut into 3" (8-cm) julienne
¼ cup (50 g) chopped dry-roasted unsalted peanuts, divided
1 cup (240 g) bean sprouts

For the Pad Thai Sauce

To make the sauce, combine the fish sauce, tamarind paste, lime juice, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Make sure to stir well until the sugar dissolves, then reserve.

For the Pad Thai

Heat a skillet or wok over high heat for about 1 minute or until the pan gets pretty hot. Add the oil and swirl to coat the pan completely. When the pan just starts to smoke, add garlic and stir about 5 seconds. Add radish, dried shrimp and tofu and stir-fry until they begin to get fragrant, about 1 minute.

Push the ingredients in the wok to one side and let the oil settle in the center of the pan. Crack the eggs into the pan and add the chicken. As the eggs start to fry, just pierce the yolks to let them ooze. Fold the chicken and eggs over for about 30 seconds or until the eggs begin to set and scrape any bits that are starting to stick. Now stir together to combine all the ingredients in the pan.

Add the shrimp and allow to cook for about 30 seconds until they just start to turn color and become opaque. Add the soaked (and drained) rice noodles and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes until soft. Add the reserved sauce mixture and paprika and fold together until the paprika evenly colors the noodles and all the liquid is absorbed, about 2 minutes.

Place the green onions in the center of the noodles, and then spoon some noodles over the green onions to cover and let steam for 30 seconds. Stir in 3 tablespoons (38 g) of the peanuts. Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with bean sprouts and the remaining peanuts.

[stroller]

Local guy does them in 2 minutes.

[Hugh Cow]

One of the nicest pad thai dishes I had was at Hua Lampong station. Been back since but the woman is no longer there.

[DrB0b]

Local guy does them in 2 minutes.

He'll have a high pressure gas setup. That can't be done at home. Most home gas rings can't reach the temperatures wok cooking requires. This recipes not bad at all, it has the sweetened radish but leaves out the Chinese chives garnish. Eggs are an abomination here although that may be just me.

Also, Pad Thai is not traditional - it was invented in the 1940s by the Dictator Plaek Phibunsongkram as he felt Thailand (a name he invented) should have a national dish of its own. As well as creating Pad Thai and Thailand he also invented the Ramwong, Sawatdi as a greeting, the constant use of Ka and Khrap, and the national costume. In fact, almost all of what people think of as traditional Thailand was created by Marshal Plaek in the 1930s and 1940s. He outlawed most genuine Siamese traditions as he felt they were not civilised.

[buriramboy]

Best pad Thai I ever had was on soi neung plab wan on the dark side of Pattaya. Old woman and her minions would come to work about 5-6pm and people would be queuing down the soi, only cost 25 baht as well if I remember. Could have charged 100 baht and I'd have considered it cheap.

[aging one]

The wife's, best I have had.

[tdar]

Here's my girl's version.

P.S. On the look out for a new girl.

[TizMe]

About the only thing I miss of my ex is her Pad Thai

[David48atTD]

Local guy does them in 2 minutes.

Also, Pad Thai is not traditional - it was invented in the 1940s by the Dictator Plaek Phibunsongkram as he felt Thailand (a name he invented) should have a national dish of its own.

DrB0b ... humm

I'm not having a go but ... 1940 was 70 years ago. In A Thai life span ... it's one's entire life, birthin' to deaden'

Probably 3 generations worth.

Not long enough to be called 'Traditional' by now?

Remember that recipes change as peoples tastes change and new foods become available.

.
Just an alternative viewpoint.

[Chittychangchang]

Nice enough but definately not the best Pad Thai in Town, taken last week near the Koh Sarn Road.

[HuangLao]

Local guy does them in 2 minutes.

Also, Pad Thai is not traditional - it was invented in the 1940s by the Dictator Plaek Phibunsongkram as he felt Thailand (a name he invented) should have a national dish of its own.

DrB0b ... humm

I'm not having a go but ... 1940 was 70 years ago. In A Thai life span ... it's one's entire life, birthin' to deaden'

Probably 3 generations worth.

Not long enough to be called 'Traditional' by now?

Remember that recipes change as peoples tastes change and new foods become available.

.
Just an alternative viewpoint.

Perhaps the distinguished DrBob was around Siam during the early 1940s when the even more distinguished Phibun introduced Pad Thai in it's pure and infant origins and witnessed tradition being created - better or worse.

I'd go out on a limb to suggest that today's general acceptance of what might be Pad Thai has no resemblance of the good Field Marshal's native design.

Things change.
Even tradition.

[hallelujah]

It's fucking shite.

All the flavours and spices that Thai food has and this bland crap has prominence on the world scene.

A Chinese dish so bad it had to be given the "Thai" moniker.

[Chittychangchang]

Is Pai’s pad Thai a light cheat meal?: The Dish
The Dish breaks down the nutritional information on a favourite pad Thai meal at Pai Northern Thai Kitchen.

Most days, Daniel Tran scrutinizes what he eats, careful of the calories and components of his meals.

But once a week, the self-described fitness buff grants himself a cheat day, often heading to Pai Northern Thai Kitchen, a busy below-ground restaurant in Toronto’s Theatre District known for its authentic take on Thai street food.

While Tran and his wife have tried nearly every dish on the menu, deeming them all “fantastic,” it’s the Chef Nuit Pad Thai with chicken that gets their complete devotion. Tran says the stir-fried rice noodles, with house-made tamarind sauce, tofu, egg and bean sprouts plus Thai coriander, lime and roasted peanuts, taste just like the pad Thai the couple enjoyed while travelling in Thailand.



“You get all the flavours — the sourness, the spiciness, the savouryness — but it’s not overbearing. It feels very authentic.”

Even though it’s Tran’s cheat meal, when calories aren’t really supposed to count, he still wants to know nutrition numbers for his favourite pad Thai — at least, he thinks he does.

“One side of me wants to know and the other side doesn’t,” he says. “If it’s not as bad as I think it is, maybe I’ll have it more than once a week.”

The guess

“I’m going to say 1,100 calories, based on your other articles,” Tran says.

In 2013, the Dish revealed the chicken pad Thai served at Salad King contained 1,114 calories, while a 2014 column found the chicken pad Thai at Thai Express had 1,030 calories.

Tran laughs when asked whether he eats every last bite of the pad Thai at Pai.

“I do, hence why I consider it a cheat meal. It’s a big portion, but at the same time, it feels very light.”

The exclusive results

Calories: 1,386

Fat: 50 grams

Sodium: 1,741 milligrams

Carbohydrates: 179 grams

Protein: 54 grams

The breakdown

This generous portion of pad Thai tips the scale at 670 grams, about 1½ pounds. Its 1,386 calories is more than double what nutrition professionals say we should aim for in a meal.
The meal’s 179 grams of carbohydrates is about 50 grams more than what Health Canada recommends healthy adults consume in a day. It’s also the same amount of carbohydrates as what’s found in 10 slices of commercial white bread.
Like most restaurant meals, this dish is salty. The 1,741 milligrams — the equivalent of ¾ teaspoon of salt — is about 600 milligrams shy of the maximum recommended daily allotment.
How does it compare to Thai-style noodles served at chain restaurants? At Milestones, the Spicy Thai Basil Noodles, made with shrimp, chicken and vegetables, has 1,080 calories. According to a staff member at a Toronto Thai Express, an order of chicken pad Thai has 890 calories.
The expert response

When it comes to nutrition, the bottom-line with this pad Thai — and other pad Thai that the Dish has reviewed — is that it’s just too much food, says registered dietitian Carol Harrison.

“It’s two meals in one,” she says. “It has double the calories that you need, double the protein and easily double the sodium.”

Harrison encourages nutrition-conscious diners to split the meal — either with their dining companion or with themselves by saving half for another meal.

That the pad Thai contains 180 grams of carbohydrates — and is primarily made up of rice noodles — means it’s not a balanced meal, she says. A balanced meal is one where your plate is half-filled with vegetables and/or fruits, one-quarter filled with lean protein and the remaining quarter filled with a grain or grain-product.

While not every meal needs to be balanced, Harrison says an easy way to recoup some nutrition points with this pad Thai is to pair a half — or a third — of the portion with a vegetable-heavy side.

“If you’re thinking you’d like to make this healthier, get half a plate of veggies in there.”

The restaurant reaction

Nuit Regular, executive chef and co-owner of Pai Northern Thai Kitchen, is a little startled at the calorie count for her famous pad Thai.

“Wow, eating pad Thai growing up . . . I’m surprised by the number.”

Regular, who is credited with revitalizing Toronto’s Thai dining scene, says people love the pad Thai served at Pai because it so closely mirrors the dish they fell in love with while travelling in Thailand. Everything about it is made from scratch, she says, including the tamarind sauce, which gives it its deep and complex taste.

On a busy day, Regular says Pai serves about 1,500 diners, including takeout meals. The restaurant encourages diners to share meals as a way for more people to try different dishes. Regular says she hears that diners say they will save half of their pad Thai for another meal but don’t always follow through on their plan.

“They say that it tastes so good it’s hard to stop.”

Diners who are drawn to Pai for the authentic Thai taste may not have health front of mind. But for those who do, Regular says she will consider offering glass noodles or congee noodles in place of the rice noodles as a way to improve the meal’s nutrition.

“I’d love to do that for our customers.”

She also says her new restaurant, Kiin, located near to Pai, offers more of a fine-dining experience and lighter meals.

The reader reaction

“Ooomph,” Tran says on hearing the calorie count. “Wow. That’s definitely a cheat meal or maybe even two cheat meals — lunch and dinner.”

And though he is also shocked by the amount of carbohydrates — “that’s more than I usually eat in a day” — Tran is glad to know exactly how much he does cheat on his cheat day.

Though he said his wife disagrees.

“She said that reviewing the pad Thai was a bad idea and that sometimes ignorance is bliss.”

https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wi...-the-dish.html

[misskit]

2 tsp (10 g) paprika

Just noticed this recipe calls for paprika. It's one of the things hard to find in Thailand that is of any good quality. I bring smoked paprika back from the US or have someone buy it for me in Europe.


All the pad Thai here just has red chili flakes.

[AntRobertson]

Calories: 1,386

Fat: 50 grams

Sodium: 1,741 milligrams

Carbohydrates: 179 grams

Protein: 54 grams

That's pretty interesting actually.

It's one of the reasons I don't eat Thai food often: no idea of the calories and macros, can't be arsed working them out, and lack of consistency even if I did/could.

And that's a surprisingly high calorie count. Roughly the same as two Big Macs.

[cyrille]

Who the fuck eats 670 grams of the stuff though?

Two meals in one because...errr...it's two meals.

[Chittychangchang]

Today’s Google Doodle Is a Pad Thai Party


Bring your fish sauce, it’s time to get busy with the wok




The daily Google Doodle, that interactive/animated drawing that hangs at the top of the world’s most popular search engine, often focuses on holidays, birthdays of important people, and anniversaries of historical events. But every once in a while, the Google overlords do something special for food lovers around the globe by creating a culinary-themed illustration. And today, the search engine’s homepage features an ode to one of the world’s most delectable noodle dishes: pad thai.
In this doodle, the Google letters are in the middle of a frenzied noodle-making session, with the first O carrying a giant spoon, and an ecstatic G running towards a cookbook-wielding E. From that point, the colorful characters embark on a pad thai odyssey:
GoogleThe precise origins of pad thai — or kway teow pad thai as it’s called in Thailand — are hard to trace, but the food journal Gastronomica notes that settlers from southern China likely broughtsome rudimentary version of the stir-fried rice noodle dish to the country a very long time ago. Plaek Pibulsonggram, Thailand’s prime minster from 1938 to 1944 and from 1948 to 1957, is largely credited with popularizing the dish and establishing the basic recipe that’s still commonly used today. Tied to his efforts to modernize and to some extent re-brand Thailand, Pibulsonggram promoted pad thai by supplying his people with a standardized recipe and also encouraging vendors to use small carts as streetside noodle kitchens.

[Chittychangchang]

• By Elly Earls

28 February 2018

It was 16:00 on Maha Chai Road in Bangkok’s Old City. And although Thipsamai Pad Thai didn’t open for another hour, the queue for it was already snaking down the street. Sixty minutes in the stifling heat of Thailand’s capital, it seems, is a small price to pay for the chance to taste an original version of Thailand’s most famous dish: a sweet and spicy egg-wrapped combination of noodles, prawns and prawn-oil sauce.
Narrowly avoiding being hit by a tuk tuk full of tourists as I stepped out of my taxi, I guiltily negotiated my way to the front of the line to see if the owner, Sikarachat Baisamut, had arrived. In hindsight, given the almost military levels of precision with which he runs his restaurant, I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was right on time and ready to launch straight into his tale.

People queue at Thipsamai Pad Thai well before the restaurant opens (Credit: Alisa Suwanrumpha)



It all started during World War II, he began, as we took our seats inside. Due to the high cost of rice production, Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram decided to encourage the Thai people to eat noodles and other local ingredients by creating not only a national dish, kway teow pad Thai (Thai-style stir-fried rice noodles) but even the noodles that went into it (sen Chan, named after Thailand’s Chanthaburi province). The dish’s exact contents depended on regional availability of ingredients, but generally included some combination of radish, beansprouts, peanuts, dried shrimp and egg, seasoned with palm sugar and chillies.
You may also be interested in: • How colours are saving Thai street food
• Bangkok’s disappearing street food
• The quest for the perfect pad Thai
Over time, the dish’s name was shortened to ‘pad Thai’, and Baisamut’s grandmother started selling her version of it from a boat on Phasi Charoen Canal in Samut Sakhon Province, just west of Bangkok, with help from her daughter – Baisamut’s mother – Samai.
The recipe was passed down from mother to daughter, and when Samai later moved to Bangkok, she opened one of the capital’s first pad Thai stalls with one small charcoal stove and a handful of old tables, which, in 1966, according to Samai, was declared by Phibunsongkhram himself to sell the authentic version of his beloved national dish. Sales soared, the stall became a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, and today under Baisamut’s leadership (he took over in 2012), Thipsamai Pad Thai is unrecognisable from the simple road-side operation of the 1960s – apart from one very important element.

Pad Thai’s exact contents depended on regional availability of ingredients (Credit: Alisa Suwanrumpha)



“Our mission is to preserve the original pad Thai recipe that my mother and grandmother cooked, using only the highest quality ingredients and the original cooking technique,” Baisamut told me, pressing a paper cup of iced coconut – a cool complement to the pad Thai’s tang, I was later to discover – into my hand.
Nowadays, pad Thais tend to be a stir-fried mixture of rice noodles, prawns, tofu, garlic and egg, flavoured with fish sauce, chillies and palm sugar and served with lime, coriander, beansprouts and peanuts. Thipsamai’s original or ‘superb’ version as it’s called on the menu, though, has three special, signature ingredients: sen Chan noodles, the longer, softer and more tender the better; the family’s secret prawn-oil recipe, made from fat from the heads of river and deep-sea prawns combined with Thai spices and organic herbs; and an egg-wrap so thin that customers get a sneak peek of the unique concoction inside.
Nothing is allowed into the dish until Baisamut has verified its quality, a process that usually involves several visits to the supplier, as well as switching suppliers on a seasonal basis. It was the prawns – pink, plump and juicy – that caught my eye; they’re delivered fresh daily from fishing ports in a range of coastal provinces, I was assured.

Thipsamai’s ‘original’ pad Thai must be cooked on a searing hot charcoal stove, fired with wood from mangrove trees (Credit: Alisa Suwanrumpha)



Leading me out to the kitchen, which remains on the roadside, a nod to Thipsamai’s street-food roots, Baisamut informed me that the family’s original pad Thai must be cooked on a searing hot charcoal stove, fired with wood from mangrove trees sourced from a distant province that can’t be harvested until they’re at least 12 years old. The size of the wood chunks is equally important (they must be of arm’s length) – and the fact that the high-quality iron woks need to be replaced every two weeks due to the intense heat of the charcoal-fired flames is a necessary sacrifice to preserve his grandmother’s original cooking technique.
Baisamut has also maintained the rigorous training regime he remembers from his childhood.
“When I was a little boy, my mother asked me if I wanted to be the owner of the restaurant one day, and I said ‘yes, of course!’. She told me that I needed to know how to do everything from scratch. First I had to clean the toilets, then I could step up to be a waiter and eventually I was allowed to cook pad Thai with our original prawn-oil recipe.”

Sikarachat Baisamut has maintained the rigorous training regime he remembers from his childhood (Credit: Alisa Suwanrumpha)



Thipsamai’s five-strong team of chefs have been spared loo-cleaning duties, but they did have to undertake a seven-step training programme before they were let loose on the restaurant’s signature dish.
Step one – cleaning and waiting tables – is followed by preparing the noodles, both getting used to the heat in front of the charcoal stove and understanding the correct noodle texture. The third phase consists of transferring the pad Thai from the pan to the plate, before it’s time to learn about all the other ingredients that go into the dish – from bean sprouts to chives to tofu – and how to prepare them.
Step five – the egg-wrapping – is the trickiest. Chefs must practise for more than three months to reach the point where they can wrap four pad Thais with one layer of egg in the space of 30 seconds. Only after that do they progress to cooking the basic version of pad Thai, which Thipsamai also serves, and finally the ‘superb’ prawn oil recipe that goes inside the egg wrap.



Bravely, Baisamut asked me if I’d like to have a go on the egg-wrapping station. I agreed; at the very least it would provide a bit of entertainment for the queue, which by this time was moving quickly, a testament to the speed of the pad Thai production line. I’m pretty sure though that the sloppy globules of scrambled egg I managed to produce would have had me immediately kicked off the course. I certainly couldn’t imagine being able to keep up with the eight-a-minute pace of that evening’s veteran egg-wrapper, who was creating perfect transparent parcels of pad Thai with just a few expert flicks of the spatula.
Watching the bright orange, prawn oil-flavoured noodles being flung into the wok, flames licking at its sides, before swiftly being transferred, now egg-wrapped, to a spotlessly clean plate and whisked off to the next hungry customer was both a feast for the senses and a lesson in how to efficiently run a restaurant.
The Michelin inspectors clearly agree. When the guide launched in Thailand in late 2017, Thipsamai Pad Thai might not have earned a star like Raan Jay Fai a few shophouses down the road, which is known for its crab omelette and drunken noodles, but it was awarded a Bib Gourmand for offering exceptionally good food at a moderate price. When my pad Thai was placed in front of me, I understood why.

Thipsamai Padthai was awarded a Bib Gourmand for offering exceptionally good food at a moderate price (Credit: Alisa Suwanrumpha)



After spearing one of the two enormous deep-sea prawns that accompanied the dish, my fork slid smoothly through the impossibly thin egg wrap, before picking up – in one go – a mouthful of tofu, chives, dried shrimp, beansprouts, coriander and those signature long, soft, tender prawn-oil flavoured noodles. Having been instructed not to add any of the condiments that typically flavour pad Thai (except a squeeze of lime, which I insisted on), I was able to appreciate the rich flavour of the prawn oil; part sweet, part spicy, part sour. Combined with the smooth tofu, the juicy prawns and the crunchy beansprouts, and washed down with what remained of my refreshing iced coconut, this truly was pad Thai at its best.
And although Baisamut had two PhDs under his belt before taking the reins of the family restaurant, it’s invoking that delight in his customers, rather than the business side of things, that gets him out of bed every morning.
“My mother built up and established this restaurant for her whole life, and before she passed away she asked me to take care of it and continue the business instead of her,” he told me, his eyes gleaming. “It’s not about the money – it’s our duty as Thai people to preserve the original pad Thai and share it with the world.”

"It’s our duty as Thai people to preserve the original pad Thai and share it with the world" (Credit: Alisa Suwanrumpha)



Dusk had fallen by the time I’d cleared my plate and reluctantly headed back out to the street to hail a taxi home. The coloured lights of the Thipsamai sign flashed and the queue continued to move. There were several hours of pad Thai making still to come that night.
As my taxi weaved its way across the city, I racked my brain as to how I could improve my egg-wrapping technique, finally admitting to myself as I was dozing off that I simply wasn’t prepared to put the hours in. I decided to leave it to the professionals, and come back for another taste next week.

BBC - Travel - Is this Thailand?s best pad Thai?

[ShrewedPunter]

I read that article today I'll have to go test out Thipsamai Pad Thai

[Chittychangchang]

Good idea, jammy git.

Post up your review mate

[Thailandbound]

Good recipe information, Chitty. I definitely will try making this at some point!

[Chittychangchang]

In the late 1930s, Thailand’s prime minister held a public competition to find a new national noodle dish. The winning entry was a dish that combined rice noodles, vegetables, peanuts, shrimp and egg, and it was named “pad Thai” in a bid to promote Thai-ness. This vegan interpretation of that classic dish celebrates the brilliance of the original, while also bringing in something new in the form of purple sprouting broccoli. I’m not sure the former Thai PM would approve, but I hope you do.
Peanut butter and purple sprouting broccoli pad thai


Pad thai is best eaten with as many garnishes as possible, so feel free to customise yours with shop-bought fried shallots, pickled Thai radishes, beansprouts and crushed roasted peanuts as you wish. Buy sprouting broccoli with thin, tender stalks, rather than fat, woody ones. Rice noodles are fragile, so be gentle with them.
Prep 10 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 4
For the pad thai sauce
6 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
2 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tbsp brown rice syrup (or 2½ tbsp agave syrup)
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp fresh lime juice (from 2 limes)
For the tofu and broccoli
450g purple sprouting broccoli
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 birds’ eye chillies, finely chopped
225g firm tofu, drained and cut into 1.5cm x 1.5cm cubes
250g flat folded rice noodles
Rapeseed oil, for frying
6 spring onions, finely chopped
1 handful sesame seeds, for decoration
Toasted sesame oil, for drizzling
1 small handful Thai basil leaves, shredded
1 small handful mint leaves, shredded
1 lime, cut into 4 wedges
First, make the sauce by putting the peanut butter, tamarind paste and syrup in a bowl, then slowly mixing in the soy, lime juice and four tablespoons of water.

Top and tail the broccoli, and put the florets in a bowl. Chop the stalks and leaves into 1cm pieces. Put the garlic, ginger, chilli and tofu in little piles within easy reach of the hob.
Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, rinse under cold water, drain, then drizzle with a tablespoon of rapeseed oil and toss gently: use your hands, because a utensil will cut the noodles.
In a large nonstick frying pan for which you have a lid, heat two tablespoons of rapeseed oil on a medium to high flame, then fry the tofu for five minutes, turning every minute, until it’s pale gold. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli, cook for two minutes, then add the broccoli stalks and four tablespoons of water, cover the pan and leave to steam for two minutes, until the broccoli is tender. Add the broccoli heads, sauce and spring onions (reserve a handful for garnish), stir to combine, then cover again and leave for two minutes.
Turn down the heat to a whisper, add the noodles handful by handful, gently mixing them in, until coated in sauce, then turn off the heat.
Distribute the noodles between four plates and sprinkle over the sesame seeds and reserved spring onions. Drizzle each portion with toasted sesame oil, scatter over the herbs and a generous squeeze of lime, and serve immediately.

[NZdick1983]

I love Pad Thai, hard to believe it's so unhealthy though...

[Hugh Cow]

He'll have a high pressure gas setup. That can't be done at home. Most home gas rings can't reach the temperatures wok cooking requires. This recipes not bad at all, it has the sweetened radish but leaves out the Chinese chives garnish. Eggs are an abomination here although that may be just me.

Also, Pad Thai is not traditional - it was invented in the 1940s by the Dictator Plaek Phibunsongkram as he felt Thailand (a name he invented) should have a national dish of its own. As well as creating Pad Thai and Thailand he also invented the Ramwong, Sawatdi as a greeting, the constant use of Ka and Khrap, and the national costume. In fact, almost all of what people think of as traditional Thailand was created by Marshal Plaek in the 1930s and 1940s. He outlawed most genuine Siamese traditions as he felt they were not civilised.

I believe in earlier times it was also tradition for women in parts of thailand to be bare breasted.

[Chico]

When in BKK last week, went to terminal 21 5th floor and had a meal I had mix fish Pad Thai and must say one of the best dishes,I've ever had in Thailand everything was cooked to perfection. and only 109 baht

for the both of us son had a soup and two drinks and only came to 320 baht, will be going back for more that's for sure