One of the most straightforward and tasty street food meals is pad Thai. The dish’s base is rice noodles stir-fried with eggs and some tofu, shrimp, or pork. Typically, tamarind pulp, fish sauce, garlic, chili, and sugar are used to flavor it. A straightforward lime wedge or some chopped, toasted peanuts are acceptable garnishes. In a dish that often costs the equivalent of less than £1 in Thailand, these simple ingredients are combined in an explosion of flavor. Learn more about this Beverly Hills Thai favorite here:
1. It’s strongly connected with Thai culture.
It is a relatively recent dish that dates to the early 1930s, at a period of ultra-nationalism, when a democratic system replaced the nation’s absolute monarchy. Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the then-prime minister, organized a public competition to find a new national noodle dish, and the winning recipe was strikingly similar to the one we now know as Pad Thai. It wasn’t only a cooking competition; one of the goals was to reduce Chinese influence by getting people to stop eating wheat noodles, which were widely consumed at the time.
2. Political origins.
Actually, centuries before Phibun came to power in Thailand; stir-fried noodles were first consumed there. Four thousand years ago, the Chinese invented noodles, and sometime later, they began stir-frying meals in woks. Chinese traders brought stir-fried noodles to the area that is now Thailand in the 18th century. These ancient noodle recipes could be considered the forerunners of pad thai, a dish that often consists of stir-fried rice noodles with vegetables, bean sprouts, a variety of proteins, including peanuts, and savory sauces.
3. Despite that, the best Thai food in Los Angeles as we know it today not as new as you probably thought.
A very recent addition to Thai cuisine is pad Thai. Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the country’s former prime minister, brought it to Thailand in the early 1930s, at a time of extreme nationalism. He did so by a popular vote and in an effort to boost nationalism in the nation. Another story holds that it was created in response to the World War II rice shortage.
4. It’s all about balance.
The five flavors of Thai food are salty, sour, sweet, spicy, and bitter. Following traditional Thai cooking methods, Pad Thai boasts an exquisite balance of all these flavors. As a result, it puts all of them in your tongue, satisfying both your appetite and spirit.
5. It’s yummy.
According to a significant survey of foodies and Los Angeles Thai food lovers conducted by CNN, this is the case with the fifth-best meal in the world. Malaysian beef rendang took first place, followed by nasi goreng from Indonesia, sushi, and tom yam from Thailand.
6. Not 100% Thai.
Even though Pad Thai is a traditional Thai meal, many other cuisines have been included. Given that the cooking method is similar to Chinese noodles meals, some people think it was brought to Thailand by Chinese travelers. Given that the rice noodles used are comparable to those in the Vietnamese meal Pho, it might potentially have some Vietnamese influences.
7. Despite that, Thailand’s people wanted to ensure it was spread across the globe.
Thailand started a push in 2001 to open tens of thousands of Thai restaurants around the globe. They employed various tactics to do this, such as educating chefs domestically, sending them abroad, and providing loans for Thai immigrants to build restaurants abroad. And that’s how some of our favorite Beverly Hills Thai restaurants came to be!
