Pad thai, or phad thai, is a stir-friedrice noodle dish commonly served as a street food and at most restaurants in Thailand as part of the country's cuisine. It is typically made with rice noodles, chicken, beef or tofu, peanuts, a scrambled egg, and bean sprouts, among other vegetables. The ingredients are sautéed together in a wok, which creates even heat distribution. Once the dish is completed it is tossed in pad thai sauce, which gives the dish its signature tangy salty flavor with a hint of sweetness.
Ingredients
Pad thai is made with rehydrated dried rice noodles with some tapioca flour mixed in, which are stir fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, flavored with tamarind pulp, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic or shallots, red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often chopped roasted peanuts. It may contain other vegetables like bean sprouts, garlic chives, pickled radishes or turnips, and raw banana flowers. It may also contain fresh shrimp, crab, squid, chicken or other animal proteins. Many of the ingredients are provided on the side as condiments, such as the red chili pepper, lime wedges, roasted peanuts, bean sprouts, spring onion and other miscellaneous fresh vegetables. Vegetarian versions may substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce and omit the shrimp entirely.
History
Though stir fried rice noodles were introduced to Thailand from China centuries ago, the dish pad thai was invented in the mid-20th century. Author Mark Padoongpatt maintains that pad thai is "...not this traditional, authentic, going back hundreds of years dish. It was actually created in the 1930s in Thailand by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who was the prime minister at the time. The dish was created because Thailand was focused on nation building. So he created this dish using Chinese noodles and called it pad Thai as a way to galvanize nationalism." Another explanation of pad thai's provenance holds that, during World War II, Thailand suffered a rice shortage due to the war and floods. To reduce domestic rice consumption, the Thai government under Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram promoted consumption of noodles instead. His government promoted rice noodles and helped to establish the identity of Thailand. As a result, a new noodle called sen chan was created. Pad thai has since become one of Thailand's national dishes. Today, some food vendors add pork or chicken. Some food vendors still use the original recipe.
Pad thai is listed at number five on a list of "World's 50 most delicious foods" readers' poll compiled by CNN Go in 2011.
The Thai filmJao saao Pad Thai uses pad thai as a plot device as the protagonist claims she will marry whoever eats her pad thai for 100 days in a row.
On 7 November 2017, a Google Doodle featuring pad thai was displayed in the United States, Canada, Cuba, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and several countries in both Europe and South America. Google celebrated it as an initiative of Doodler Juliana. While she was researching how to prepare it, she aimed to show all the ingredients up close and with a colourful animation.
