Thai Recipe – Pad Thai

Before I bore you with my lengthy introduction on Thai food culture this is what this post is actually about: how to cook a Pad Thai looking just like the one on the photo. If you are in for the food, scroll down for the recipe. If you want to beat around the bush a little read on. 

The most commonly heard Thai greeting is ‘Tan Khao Ma Rue Yung?’ which means ‘Have you eaten yet?’.

If the answer is ‘Yung‘ (not yet) you will most certainly be invited in the house and offered a meal or a snack. The importance of food and hospitality permeates Thai culture so thoroughly that to the stranger it can appear that Thais are eating and snacking constantly. Each city has a buzzing morning and night market and almost any city corner has a food cart boasting grilled meat, mango salads, fruit shakes or delicious pancakes.

Nearly all social occasions involve eating. There is no shortage of people to sit down for a meal. The extended family is very much part of the Thai lifestyle, but neighbors, friends, casual acquaintances are all invited to dine. When we visited Myo’s mom house in Trang we soon noticed that a little crowd has gathered at the front porch. Mango and sour sauce, dried jack fruit and dried banana soon appeared even though we have just arrived from a filling wedding feast.

Eating Thai style is usually a social affair that involves a group of people sitting around a table or in a circle on the floor. A typical meal is comprised of a number of dishes, either in the form of soups or served in a bite-sized pieces. A large silver bow of rice is usually the centerpiece and except for sweets all the dishes are served at the same time and can be eaten in any order desired. Ideally a Thai meal offers a combination of tastes: sweet, salty and sour, with spicy hot and bitter often as minor accents to the meal. Some of the Thai dishes we tried when feeling adventurous were way too spicy for us, especially for Kuba. (we had to use A LOT of rice to make them digestible).

On our last day in Chiang Mai we decided to sign up for a cooking class. Wasn’t sure what to expect but looking back at the experience I can say that it was a fun way to get to know Thai culture better. The kids had a blast as well and were engaged during the whole class. We cooked a lot of dishes but I will share the one that is most loved by our family (not including Raina) – Pad Thai. It is not spicy but sweet and always feels light and fresh. In a hot and unpredictable cuisine like the Thai, this dish is a safe bet. As for Raina, her culinary love decided to stay in Japan. The girl never took a liking to Thai food. She survived a month on fruits, rice and spring rolls.

We met Funny, our cooking instructor, at the morning market. Cities in Thailand have a morning market and an evening one (big grocery stores are not popular). She showed us condiments used in Thai cooking as well as different vegetables and spices. Here we are sniffing different types of basil.

Anyways, you are probably getting hungry reading the wordy text about food so I will get straight to the point before I loose you. Here is Funny’s Pad Thai recipe.