Details and tips for pad thai?

Question

I don't need a recipe for pad thai since they are a dime a dozen on the web. What I do need is tips. I see a frequent ingredient is ketchup. How authentic is this? Also, do rice noodles need to be boiled after soaking, or do I add directly to a pot/skillet? I do not have rice wine vinegar, but I do have all the other ingredients including fish sauce; how key is this ingredient (vinegar)? I would really like to hear from a south east asian, but all tips are appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

In Thailand, there are as many ways to make pad thai as there are cooks, geographical regions, moods, and creative entrepreneurial spirit. The following is a basic traditional pad thai recipe (if "traditional" is a word that can be applied to a fusion dish invented in relatively modern times), combining the hot, sour, sweet and salty flavors so characteristic of Thai cuisine. Variations can be made by changing the sources of these four flavors and adding personal touches to make each combination unique.

For instance, instead of tamarind and palm sugar, vinegar and granulated sugar may be used; and instead of fish sauce, light or thin soy sauce may take its place. Some noodle stalls in Thailand use a sweetened black soy sauce in combination with sugar, and ground dried chillies made with darkly roasted whole dried chillies, producing pad thai with a very different color and flavor balance than what Americans have become accustomed to. More refined eateries focus on presentation, wrapping the cooked noodles inside egg like an omelette.

Many American Thai restaurants use tomato ketchup, yielding reddish noodles coated with a thick gooey sauce, which has a flavor and color appealing to the American palate. Other restaurants use Sriracha bottled chilli sauce instead of ground dried chillies, resulting also in reddish noodles. This recipe yields noodles that are firm and chewy with the strands dry and separate (the way I like it), but if you prefer the soft and mushy texture of some restaurant noodles, precook the noodles in boiling water before stir-frying.

There are 2 type of Pad Thai, one is tomato based (hence the ketchup) and the other is tamarind based.  Both are good but I prefer the tamarind based Pad Thai.

Answer 2

I'm half Thai and learned how to make the dish from my Thai mother.  

As far as ketchup goes, I personally would never use it, but I've had some with it and it was tasty.  This is not authentic and places that do this in Thailand sometimes call it "pad American" - similar to when they put ketchup in fried rice and call it "kao pad American".

With the rice noodles, when I am using the dried kind I soak them in hot water for about 30minutes, drain, rinse with cold water, boil for about 1 minute, and rinse with cold water again.  I feel like this method keeps them from sticking all together when frying and gives them a nice texture.  You can find a fresher type of rice noodle in an Asian market (usually in the refrigerator section in a vacuum sealed bag) and you can omit the first soaking and just boil for a minute and rinse with the cool water, saving a lil bit of prep time - I also think this type of noodle tastes better.

Pad Thai is a very versatile dish and I think you would be ok omitting the vinegar, but for a truly authentic flavor I feel that it is necessary.  Thais like to experience the 5 basic flavors in their dishes.  I don't think you need to use rice wine vinegar, though.  I usually use rice vinegar, but if I happen to be out I'll use whatever kind I have lying around - coconut, apple cider, or plain white.  Just something to get that touch of bitter in there.  If I didn't have any vinegar I guess I'd throw some extra lime juice in since vinegar is really a sour- bitter taste.

Pad Thai is a great dish to experiment with and whatever you do I'm sure it'll be delicious.  Hope this helps somewhat and good luck.