Pad thai

File:Ang Thong (2024) - "ancient" pad thai ผัดไทยโบราณ.jpg claimed to have been a 120-year-old recipe{{cite web|url=https://mgronline.com/local/detail/9640000037240|work=MGR Online|title=ผัดไทยวัดท้องคุ้ง 120 ปีแห่งความอร่อย ส่งต่อถึงรุ่นที่ 5|trans-title=Pad Thai at Wat Thong Khung - 120 years of deliciousness, passing down to the 5th generation | date= 2021-04-20 | lang=th}}]]

Pad Thai was originally called "Kuai Tiao Pad Thai" but this was later shortened to simply Pad Thai.{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2020-09-19 |title=Pad Thai: From Foreigner-cum-resident to the Thai Roots |url=https://www.thailandnow.in.th/arts-culture/pad-thai-from-foreigner-cum-resident-to-the-thai-root/ |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=Thailand NOW |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2018-07-13 |title=The History of Pad Thai |url=https://asianinspirations.com.au/food-knowledge/the-history-of-pad-thai/ |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=Asian Inspirations |language=en-AU}} Kuai tiao ({{lang|th|ก๋วยเตี๋ยว}}) is a Thai borrowing of the Teochew word guê² diao⁵ ({{lang|zh|粿條}}), a type of thick Chinese rice noodle also known as shahe fen. The word kuai tiao has cognates in several other Southeast Asian countries where Chinese immigrants settled; with kuyteav in Cambodia, hủ tiếu in Vietnam, and kway teow in Malaysia and Singapore being analogues.{{cite web |last=Terei-Vigh |first=Kriszti |date=July 2018 |title=Kuy teav |url=https://www.196flavors.com/cambodia-kuy-teav/ |access-date=15 January 2021 |website=196 flavors}}

Although stir-fried rice noodles were introduced to Thailand from China centuries ago, the dish pad Thai was invented in the mid-20th century.{{cite web |date=2015-04-28 |title=The Truth About Pad Thai |url=http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150415-the-quest-for-the-perfect-pad-thai |work=BBC}} Author Mark Padoongpatt{{cite book |last1=Padoongpatt |first1=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hcxDwAAQBAJ |title=Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America |date=September 2017 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520293748 |edition=1st |series=American Crossroads (Book 45) |location=Berkeley |access-date=17 July 2019}} maintains that pad Thai is "...not this traditional, authentic, going back hundreds of years dish. It was actually created in the 1930s in Thailand. The dish was created because Thailand was focused on nation-building. So this dish was created using rice noodles and it was called Pad Thai as a way to galvanize nationalism."{{cite web |last1=Belle |first1=Rachel |date=16 July 2019 |title=Why there are so many Thai restaurants in Seattle |url=https://mynorthwest.com/1452089/thai-restaurants-seattle/ |access-date=17 July 2019 |website=My Northwest |publisher=KIRO Radio}}

Another explanation of pad Thai's provenance holds that, during World War II, Thailand suffered a rice shortage due to the war and floods. To reduce domestic rice consumption, the Thai government under Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram promoted consumption of noodles instead.{{cite news |last1=Pungkanon |first1=Kupluthai |date=13 May 2018 |title=All wrapped up and ready to go |url=https://www.nationthailand.com/life/30345187 |access-date=13 May 2018 |work=The Nation}} His government promoted rice noodles and helped to establish the identity of Thailand. As a result, a new noodle called sen chan pad Thai (named after Chanthaburi Province) was created. Pad Thai has since become one of Thailand's national dishes.{{cite web |author=Tapia, Semina |date=2011-08-15 |title=Thai National Foods |url=http://www.ifood.tv/blog/thai-national-foods |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605004853/http://www.ifood.tv/blog/thai-national-foods |archive-date=2013-06-05 |access-date=2013-02-23 |publisher=Ifood.tv}}{{Cite web |last=dgbrittany |date=2020-10-12 |title=The History of Pad Thai: How the Amazing Dish Came to Be |url=https://thaiginger.com/the-history-of-pad-thai-how-the-amazing-dish-came-to-be/ |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=Thai Ginger |language=en-US}}

Thai-American food writer Kasma Loha-unchit suggests that pad Thai was invented by the Thai Chinese immigrants, because "for a dish to be so named in its own country clearly suggests an origin that isn't Thai".{{Cite web |last=Quartz |first=Roberto A. Ferdman |date=2014-04-17 |title=The Non-Thai Origins of Pad Thai |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/non-thai-origins-of-pad-thai/360751/ |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} Noodle cookery in most Southeast Asian countries was introduced by the wave of immigrants from southern China settling in the region the past century. Loha-unchit states that the ethnic Chinese of Thailand were aware that "Central Thai people were very fond of the combination of hot, sour, sweet and salty flavors, they added these to their stir-fried noodle dishes and gave it a fusion name, much like Western chefs today are naming their dishes Thai this or Thai that on their East-West menus."{{Cite web |title=Pad Thai Recipe |url=http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/pad-thai-recipe.html |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=www.thaifoodandtravel.com}}

At least as early as 2001, the Thai government used pad Thai as a form of "soft power,"{{Cite web |last=Kelley |first=Ryan |title=What Is Sportswashing (and Does It Work)? |url=https://freakonomics.com/podcast/what-is-sportswashing-and-does-it-work/ |access-date=2022-06-27 |website=Freakonomics |language=en}} creating "the Global Thai Restaurant Company, Ltd., in an effort to establish at least 3,000 Thai restaurants worldwide."{{Cite web |title=The Surprising Reason that There Are So Many Thai Restaurants in America |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/paxadz/the-surprising-reason-that-there-are-so-many-thai-restaurants-in-america |access-date=2022-06-27 |website=www.vice.com |date=29 March 2018 |language=en}} The plan included numerous government agencies and resulted in nearly tripling the number of Thai restaurants globally in seventeen years.

Pad Thai is listed at number five on a list of "World's 50 most delicious foods" readers' poll compiled by CNN Go in 2011.{{cite web |date=September 7, 2011 |title=Your pick: World's 50 most delicious foods |url=http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/readers-choice-worlds-50-most-delicious-foods-012321 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111184944/http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/eat/readers-choice-worlds-50-most-delicious-foods-012321 |archive-date=November 11, 2012 |access-date=October 11, 2011 |publisher=CNN Go |df=mdy-all}}

File:Ingredients for pad thai.jpg

Pad Thai is made with rice noodles, which are stir fried with eggs and chopped firm tofu, flavored with tamarind juice, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and sometimes red chili pepper and palm sugar, and served with lime wedges and often crushed roasted peanuts.{{Cite web |last=Chongchitnant |first=Pailin |date=2019-09-27 |title=Authentic Pad Thai Recipe ผัดไท |url=https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/best-pad-thai/ |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=Hot Thai Kitchen |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Kaitlin |date=2020-09-28 |title=Pad Thai: Authentic Thai Recipe! |url=https://thewoksoflife.com/pad-thai/ |access-date=2023-03-01 |website=The Woks of Life |language=en-US}} It may contain other vegetables like bean sprouts, garlic chives, preserved radish, and raw banana flowers. It may also contain fresh shrimp, crab, squid, or other fish or meat.

Many of the ingredients are provided on the side as condiments, such as red chili pepper, lime wedges, roasted peanuts, bean sprouts, garlic chives, and other miscellaneous fresh vegetables.{{cite web|url=https://luxevoyageasia.com/7-steps-eating-pad-thai/|title=7-Steps to Properly Eating Pad Thai|date=25 May 2017|publisher=luxevoyageasia.com |access-date=2017-05-29}} Vegetarian versions may substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce and omit the shrimp entirely.

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{{reflist|30em}}

• [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-last-meal-with-rachel-belle/id1140304624 Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle: "Lauren Weedman, Pad Thai"] (podcast), KIRO Seattle

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Category:Fried noodles

Category:National dishes

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Category:Thai noodle dishes