Thai cuisine is loved the world over and so the word “Pad Thai” or “Phad Thai” might not seem so unusual to most readers. However, the question is, have you actually tasted the dish or just heard about it from a friend who tried it out, or perhaps screened across and menu and overlooked the dish? Here are a few things about the dish that will leave you with a craving for it.

Pad Thai
Pad Thai | Image Credit : Takeaway, Phat Thai kung Chang Khien street stall, CC BY-SA 3.0

How it came to be

Let’s start with finding out how this dish came to be in the first place. Indeed, it is a dish that holds the identity of Thailand, however, if you thought that it goes back to ancient times, you couldn’t be more wrong! As the stories go, some say the dish was created by one of Thailand’s Prime Ministers in the early 1900s and others say the dish came about due to a rice shortage in World War II.

Ingredients

Dig into the dish and there is such an explosion of flavour inside your mouth that identifying some of the ingredients is nearly impossible. Pad Thai is prepared with rice noodles as the main ingredient along with your choice of meat (beef, pork or chicken). Moreover, dried shrimp, garlic or shallots, red chilli pepper and palm sugar, fish sauce, chopped tofu laced with tamarind sauce and eggs and more.

Preparation

Well, simply, the rice noodles are rehydrated and stir-fried with eggs and vegetables such as bean sprouts and even peanuts. Once all the flavoured ingredients are on the plate the aroma makes it absolutely irresistible!

Other info

Pad Thai is not hard to find no matter where in the world you might be. From top restaurants in Thailand to the street hawker down the road, the dish is so popular that you’ll find it anywhere. If you are staying in a property by Chatrium Hotels & Residences during a visit, hotel buffets are famous to offer the delicacy as well.