As part of my 30 Before 30 list, last Friday I endeavored to make pad thai. From the outside, this dish was slightly daunting. Strange ingredients, quick cooking steps, and an unknown outcome. This is a dish that is so representative of a culture and national cuisine, I was afraid I would totally flub it.
My love of pad thai began on a trip Aaron and I took to San Francisco. One night after a day of sight-seeing, we were starved and looking for some good grub to eat close to our hotel. We happened upon King of Thai Noodle House off Union Square. Aaron was in the mood for curry, if I recall, and I thought I would try something new and go for pad thai. We ordered it to go, paid our cash, and returned to the hotel to eat dinner and watch a movie. Maybe it was the day of walking up and down San Francisco's hills, maybe they put some special stomach-expanding sauce in the dish, but I ate about two people's worth of pad thai in about 10 minutes. So incredibly good. So good in fact that Aaron and I went back the next night and I ordered the exact same thing. Aaron ordered something that was no doubt grossly inferior to my pad thai.
Ever since then I have hesitantly ordered pad thai at a couple places and been disappointed. So, I took it upon myself to figure out how to make it at home. I used Alton Brown's recipe and gathered the ingredients from the grocery store and Asian market. Strangest ingredients are the dried shrimp (you can see their little eye balls!), tamarind paste, and palm sugar.
This is one of those dishes when, after I make it, I am not completely sure of anything. Was the tofu done? Did the rice noodles soak long enough? If I find a rejuvenated dried shrimp, will I eat it? Am I about to give Aaron and myself food poisoning?
Thankfully no food poisoning occurred, I only found one dried shrimp, and the pad thai was pretty good. It is not yet on par with King of Thai, but I know I can make it again and hone my pad thai making skills. Very filling, great reheated, and a nice break from the norm of dinners.
Although I am going to hide my bag of dried shrimp until I make it again (they stare at me!), I am sure it will not be too long until I try my hand at pad thai again.
2 comments:
I feel that I have to defend my food choices by saying that curry is awesome. Also, I really enjoyed the Pad Thai. It was a little strange to put together, but I think practice will improve that. Plus, if I recall correctly, we had to substitute vinegars since we didn't have the rice vinegar. That could make an improvement as well.
I did not question your curry. I only inferred that my pad thai was far superior to your lowly curry.
And yes, we did substitute vinegars because I lacked rice wine vinegar. I also ran out of soy sauce, so a little soy-based Asian sauce served as a supplement in the tofu marinade. Full disclosure and all, I also did not use salted cabbage because I forgot to look for it at the Asian market.
Still better than curry.
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