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Pad Thai Recipe (ผัดไทย) – Part Two: The Noodles

By on June 4, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Veges

pad thai recipe

The noodles are soft enough when they can be twirled around your fingers without breaking

Different people use different yardsticks to measure the quality of Pad Thai. For me, the noodles represent that which makes or breaks this dish. True, the noodles alone don’t make a good plate of Pad Thai, but they do form the bulk of it. And when the noodles are badly cooked, they invariably drag everything down with them. In light of this, a post focusing on nothing but this ingredient is, in my opinion, entirely justified.

Many people place the highest importance on the seasonings. Pad Thai seasoned with ketchup? Blasphemy, they cry. Well, it’s not that I disagree with that. It’s just that, personally, if better choices aren’t available, I would choose ketchup-flavored Pad Thai with properly cooked noodles over perfectly-seasoned Pad Thai with mushy, gummy noodles any day. Continue Reading →

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Pad Thai Recipe (ผัดไทย) – Part One: The Pan

By on May 27, 2011 in She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Thais

pad thai recipe
One of the reasons I had not put Pad Thai [1] on this site until now is because I knew it would be a lot of work as there is so much that needs to be said about the dish. Pad Thai, like many true street dishes [2] cannot be adequately explained in one post. It’s a dish that was born out of an interesting era with an interesting history; it’s a dish that may look quick to make but actually requires pretty extensive preparation; it’s a dish that is somewhat picky about the quality of the ingredients that go into it. Unavoidably, this will have to be a series.

However, the first installment of our Pad Thai series has nothing to do with its history, ingredients, or method of preparation. I don’t know what kind of logic I’m operating on, but I’ve decided to commence the series with what in my opinion is the ideal Pad Thai pan. To me, it’s that important. Continue Reading →

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How to Prepare a Jackfruit (Kha-nun ขนุน)

By on May 20, 2011 in She Deglutenizes, She Stocks a Thai Pantry, She Thais, She Uncooks, She Veges


It used to be that once in a while hunks of fresh jackfruit would pop up randomly at some Asian and Hispanic markets in my neck of the woods causing me to mentally squeal with delight at such a rare sight. Most of the jackfruits you see in the US, according to my produce guy, come from Brazil. And though it bums me out a bit that the flesh of this cultivar is harder and much less sweet than that of the main cultivar found in Thailand, I’m too excited about having fresh jackfruits at all to complain about anything.

Nowadays, I’ve noticed that jackfruits are showing up at mainstream supermarkets in the US with higher and higher frequency. If you — perhaps out of curiosity — have bought, or are thinking about getting, a section of jackfruit, but don’t know what to do with it, I hope this post will help somewhat. Continue Reading →

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