Pad Thai - Bangkok Street Food Finds its Way to My Kitchen

Incredible and delicious food is relished and experienced far and wide throughout Thailand but the city streets of Bangkok stand out as a foodies' paradise. Locals and tourists go for the delicious and perfectly prepared food and enjoy one of the country's finest dining experience that  is very affordable street level cuisine. The more popular ones have tables and roll-up doors and open-air kitchens where you can watch your food prepared in minutes. I learnt some favorite dishes from my last visit there and my number one choice is Pad Thai. I have seen it prepared and served in a variety of ways and chose the ones I liked the best. Here is how it found its way to my kitchen.

The most popular pad thai is made with tamarind sauce. It is made with 1/2 cup each of tamarind pulp, palm sugar and fish sauce. Boil with 1 1/2 cups of water until reduced to thick soup and strain. You will only need about 4 tablespoons of the sauce for a pad thai for 4 and you can save the rest for another cooking. You can use thick soy sauce and white vinegar if you can't get tamarind. Here are the ingredients you need to cook in this sequence and order I have tried with good results.

Sautee finely diced garlic and red onions in some peanut oil until fragrant then add diced salted radish, all 3 tablespoon each. Stir for one minute more.

Throw in 8 shrimps and sautee for 2 minute then add grilled tofu about 1 cup. You can add more if you like.

Stir fry for 1 minutes more on high heat. Add more oil if needed.

At this point you can add the rice noodles that have been soaked for 20 minutes or so, about half a pound.  Add a cup of water to steam the noodles soft. Toss with two wooden spoons to mix well. Test the noodles for doneness. Then push the noodles to one side to make space for the eggs to fry.

Break the 2 eggs and fry them to make scrambled bits. Then toss with the noodles well.

Add 4 tablespoons of the tamarind sauce and toss. Taste and add more seasoning if needed.

Toss in cilantro, bean sprouts and garlic chives, at least a handfull of each.

Stir and toss a couple more times and turn off heat and mix half a cup of roughly chopped roasted peanuts for crunch. The pad thai is now ready to serve. Here are a couple of ways of  serving  it from one of the most popular street pad thai place in Bangkok.

Scramble 2 eggs and swirl in a hot wok then put a serving of pad thai in the middle and wrap it with the thin omelette.

 Hold down a plate to cover the omelette and flip the the wok to properly remove it without tearing.

Serve it any way you want and garnish it with any raw vegetable you prefer like green onions, lettuce or cucumber. Squeeze some lime juice or sprinkle toasted chili flakes for zest and spicy flavor. Enjoy!