Google’s ‘Pad Thai’ doodle

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You may have noticed today’s Google Doodle, which “celebrates Pad Thai.” Having lived in Thailand for 13 years, I consider myself something of an afic
[See the full post at: Gogole’s ‘Pad Thai’ doodle]

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Elly, JohnW

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Thanks for the links and advice, Woody.

I sure will look for this sriracha sauce.

I love thai food and I would enjoy seeing some recipes from you. I encourage you to write that book. Am I wrong or like with the italians, it seems to be all about the right fresh ingredients, which can make it kind of a challenge to do in some places in America due to limited availability?

 

 

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wdburt1

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Absolutely right.

The fresh stuff has to be fresh – really fresh – and the other stuff has to be authentic.

What amazes me is how much truly Thai food is available in the US now. Everything from manao – the sweet lime that’s integral to Thai cooking – to lemon grass to real Phud Thai noodles to green papaya. We have to drive to Atlanta to get some of it, but much of it’s available in local Asian grocery stores.

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wdburt1

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We sure learn a lot here at AskWoody!

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with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I’ve had some good Pad Thai in Toronto. Even though I’m Chinese and my parents were from Hong Kong, we never really ate much Southeast Asian cuisine. Probably worth changing my diet.

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woody

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pam pam pad thai

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Hmmm… I have fond memories of enjoying thai sticks some 40 years ago…

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BobbyB

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Mmmm. Tasty Thai food.  I lived in Chicago for 25 years and now I’ve been in Boulder, Colorado for 15 years, and I MISS GOOD THAI FOOD!  I especially miss being able to step off the El train, get some gai pad krapow (or pad kra pao gai?) (minced chicken with basil, chiles & garlic) to go, and get back on the train and go home to experience one of the heavenliest cuisines in the world.  I would watch the chef use his “Thai food processor” (two cleavers wielded with a rat-tat-tat synchronicity) and attempt to duplicate the dish at home, but I could not match the flavors.  The food inspired me to purchase an enormous mortar & pestle from Thailand which I still use on a regular basis.  Your article has given me motivation to try to make this dish again.  As you note, the authentic ingredients are more accessible now.

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My wife uses our mortar & pestle almost every day. Fresh herbs and spices mashed by hand… it really makes a difference.

Phad kraphao ผัดกะเพรา usually moo – pork – but sometimes gai – is a staple around here (say “pud kru-POW” more or less).

Phad means stir fry, just like in Phad Thai. Krapao is a specific kind of basil, commonly called “holy basil” in English.

I have Phad Kraphao several times a week. Put it on Thai Jasmine rice (“kao hohm mahlee”) top it with a Thai style fried egg (“kai dao”) and some chili-with-fish-sauce (“naam plaaa prik”) and you have a GREAT meal.

ProTip: Eat it with a spoon.

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Norio

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Thanks for the clarifications; I need them.  I’m sure I am mangling the language and spellings and not using the terms correctly.

But, that’s one of the wonderful things about food–it communicates a culture without having to know the lingo.

Hand-mashing ingredients does make a difference.  There are many chefs that believe making a pesto with a food processor ruins it, and that the only way is to use a mortar & pestle.  Food scientists have found that the fat in oil gets transformed when processed, so there might be a factual basis for this preference.

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AlexEiffel

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Thanks for the links!  I will check out the sauce.

I had a number of business trips to Thailand and a longer one-month TDY.  The one place we stayed served Pad Thai for breakfast in many variations.  It was a great way to start the day.  I remember those breakfasts and the incredible rack of New Zealand lamb served at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Bangkok.

The tailor shops in Bangkok are wonderful.  After their shirts I could never wear a store-bought dress shirt (or suit) again.  Returning on vacation is one of my bucket list items.  Your post was a most excellent wway to start the day and forget for a while the travails of the MS empire.

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woody

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@woody, nice interlude between the recurrent tales of Windows woes.

It was interesting to read the part about how “Phud Thai” is pronounced, with a straight “p” sound instead of the “f” sound that the “ph” combination might suggest to English speakers.

This reminds me of the difficulties that TV news anchors had when reporting on the 2004 tsunami. Shown on a map was a place called Phuket and, knowing nothing about the Thai language or how it’s transcribed into English, I was wondering how they were going to pronounce that on the air. The “ph” and the “u” seemed to present plenty of opportunity for embarrassment and distraction.

I was surprised to hear a “p” sound instead of an “f” sound, and a long “u” (oo) instead of a short “u” as in “puck-et.” OK, so with “poo-ket” they dodged those bullets (mostly). But having established that phonetic transcription rule (irrelevant “h”), there was another place that they showed on the map as “Phee Phee Island,” and I *REALLY* wondered how they would get around that one, given the established “no h” pronunciation rule…

The solution was to cheat, pronouncing THAT one “fee-fee.”

I see that the island’s name is now transcribed as “Phi Phi.”

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AlexEiffel

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The “h” after a consonant in English transliterations is a weird bird. For example, the word “Thai,” without the (obligatory) tonal rise at the end, is pronounced just like the English word “tie.”

I’m no expert, and Thai transliterations run all over the place, but I’ve read that the “h” is meant to denote an aspirated consonant – “p” is supposed to indicate a soft p, but “ph” is for a p that pops.

Phi Phi, which is just off of Phuket, was a favorite weekend getaway. Yes, it’s pronounced “pee pee.” There’s no embarrassment — sounds in one language are interpreted very differently from sounds in another.

I have a niece who wore a T-shirt that says “Phuket” to school. Her teachers asked her to not wear it again. This after the tsunami, when the name “Phuket” was on television about a bazillion times.

Just don’t ask about pumpkin.

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Cybertooth

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