#Drunken #Noodles – #Pad #Kee #Mao
A fiery and fragrant drunk noodle recipe that tastes like good Bangkok street food! This simple Thai Pad Kee Mao is ready in 16 minutes from start to finish.
Eating out in Southeast Asia is a life of choice!
One of my favorite things in the world is digging in one of the street food stalls bordering a dynamic, hectic and stuffy self in Bangkok.
You see, there is undeniable excitement when you dine outdoors in a city where everyone is a foodie. Taxi drivers and bank managers are face down, shoulder to shoulder on the same stand, and eat the specialty dish that makes this chef / owner outdoors.
Pad Kee Mao (ผัด ขี้ เมา), or Drunken Noodles, has long been one of my favorites for dining in Thailand. It's also a favorite when I'm sitting at home and want to put delicious spicy noodles in my belly while working on a puzzle and broadcasting Bloodline on Netflix.
The deep salty, sweet and herbaceous scent of spring sautéed noodles just screams at me to pop a Singha and go bankrupt!
And the drunk noodles are a super easy dish to make at home. Seriously, of all the easy Thai recipes on my blog, this is one of the most glorious and satisfying in my book.
Do you have 16 minutes? Yes? Then you have plenty of time to cook a noodle dish that tastes like a trip to Southeast Asia! No frequent flyer miles required 🙂
What are drunk noodles?
Drunk noodles - or pad kee mao - is a stir-fried noodle dish, usually made with large rice noodles.
Then, legions of flavors are introduced through judicious use of the salty elements - namely soy sauce and fish sauce.
Flavorings like kaffir lime leaves and basil add a super green element to this Thai noodle dish. In addition, there is a discreet sweetness just below the surface - usually due to the use of a dark, sweet Thai soy sauce.
Now, the cool thing about making drunk Thai noodles at home is that it's a food mix of a little of this, mixed with a little of that.
And, as the name suggests, the recipes for these salty and spicy noodles can seem all over the place. But there is a reason for that!
What does Pad Kee Mao mean?
Theories abound on how the pad kee mao, or the drunk noodles, first appeared.
My favorite is the one who suggests that the author of the recipe came home drunk one evening, took out the wok and prepared a sloppy dinner with the ingredients available at this late hour.
I imagine the very first mix of flavored noodles really hit the spot.
It is not often that an impromptu late evening meal after a few too many whiskeys is immortalized in the lexicon of Thai cuisine. How's that for sustainable innovation !?
And, true or not, what really strikes me about this story is how much it is part of the real human / food experience. Because, no matter how drunk noodles were invented, who didn't play with the food combinations late at night, maybe after a few glasses of wine?
I guess most of the pots we ate during our childhood were imagined by necessity or by an intrepid mind to create something new by our grandmother's neighbor's great aunt, two once kidnapped - and then crossed generations.
The only difference is the scale. Tuna Ina’s Tuna Surprise isn't on the menu when you're looking for dinner on Seamless. But the drunk noodles certainly are.
