Pad Thai

I'm serious. It is my favorite food of all time.

noodles

The market in Lexington, where you can get all of these wonderful things.

noodles. soaked over night.

This is Kookie.

Me trying to cook and getting confused.

slightly less confused

sauce. yum.

beautiful

To close out the year I will post about my all time favorite food, ever. It is Pad Thai. You might have guessed that from my title.

My mother is something else, let me tell you. She got sick over the weekend. It was the same sickness that hit my sister the week before.  The week before she didn’t let Lucy (my sister) stay home. On Sunday my mom decided to stay home. That did not sit well with my sister. And therefore my mother thought it was reasonable to let my sister stay home with her. Then, out of fairness, she said I could stay home to. I waffled. Then I decided, what the hell, I’ll skip. The next morning I woke up feeling like poop. We decided it was Karma.

I had been craving Pad Thai for weeks. It is my favorite food so I can only go around a month without eating it and my month was coming to an end. (Not having it was one of the few horrible things about living in Germany. The other horrible thing was the salsa.) As a surprise my mom went out and got me Pad Thai from Jasmine Rice while I was working on a fascinating set of notes about Indian fighting elephants. Then. Right as I was inhaling my still steaming box of deliciousness, she told me that she had arranged for me to go to the restaurant for senior shadowing day. Now don’t go thinking it was out of pure love and selflessness, she had her motives. One: I require a lot of Thai food and it was breaking the bank. Two: She wanted me to actually shadow someone on shadowing day rather than go to waffle house with my friends because she had told our class thousand times to not whimp out and to actually do something. Did I mention she is my teacher? Long story.

Anyways, she and her personable self was talking to the owner and convinced her to teach me how to make Pad Thai. So on shadowing day I went to the restaurant an hour before it opened and made me some Pad Thai.

Here is what happened:

·      Me: Knocked on door (3 times- no problem, just panicking that mom was pulling some harsh elaborate prank on me to disappoint me forever). Door is opened. I say hi to the owner, Kookie. She is nice. We go back to the kitchen. I am amazed.

·      We start talking. She tells me things. Like: She started the restaurant when she lost her job in 2009, even though she always wanted to work with kids and old people. She started a restaurant because her mom made street food in Thailand and she knew how to cook. Its been going for three years. (I knew that because I have been having Pad Thai there since freshman year.) Her favorite food that she makes is Pad Se Ew, I think.  Before she opened her restaurant she worked in Thai restaurants around town to gain experience. She moved to the US in 2002. She plans on staying in Lexington because she has a family here. And she likes it here.

·      The whole time we prep and cook. This means the conversation lasted around 20 minuets, a record for someone who is uncomfortable in such social situations.

This is how to make Pad Thai:

1. Turn on the heat under the giant wok. It is very hot. Like 400 degrees hot.

2. Add the oil. Make sure it heats up to crazy temperatures. Even hotter than scalding coffee. Which is pretty damn hot and scalding.

3. Crack an egg into the oil. Then wait for it to scramble/ cook.

4. Add chicken, which has already been half cooked.

5. Then add around a serving of noodles that have been soaked in water overnight.

6. Add your sauce. Hers was made of sugar, vinegar, salt, oil, chicken broth, and 1-2 drops of yellow food coloring. It might contain other stuff that I didn’t catch, but that is what I got.

7. Next add the vegetables. Aka the tiny bits of shredded carrot and cabbage and sliced green onion.

8. If you aren’t allergic add peanuts. And if you don’t cry when you eat spicy food, add some spice.

9. Put in take out box.

10. Garnish and enjoy.

Pretty simple. But here is the devastating fact that I learned: you CAN NOT make Pad Thai at home. Well, you can but it won’t be good like it is from a restaurant. This horrible piece of news is because stoves at home don’t get nearly as hot as they should be to make it. I was upset.

So now everyone has to order his or her Pad Thai out. If you live in Lexington, you should go to Jasmine Rice because it has kick ass Pad Thai. They have other food too, and it is also good. And Kookie is super nice. If you don’t live in Lexington and you would like to sponsor a trip for me to go sample all the Pad Thai in your city, I will be willing to negotiate with you.

So here's to a great year. And many more years, like it. Full of Pad Thai.