Thailand’s Signature Dish.
Think of one dish that defines Thai cuisine. The most common answer is the famous Pad Thai. These stir-fried noodles are the signature dish of Thailand that’s seen as street food and as high-end Thai fine dining. Learn the fascination Pad Thai history and it how helped shared the country.
Pad Thai History: For the People, By the People
What’s in Pad Thai?
Translating to “Thai stir-fry,” Pad Thai is a dish that embodies everything that’s delicious about Thai cuisine. It has the savory, the sweet, the sour, the bitter, and the spicy.
The dish comprises of rice noodles stir-fried in a tamarind-fish sauce together with tofu, shrimp, chicken, egg, green onions, bean sprouts, peanuts, chili flakes, and lime.
Stir-fried noodles had already existed in Thailand since the 1700s when Chinese traders brought their noodles and cooking techniques. But, this addition of fish sauce, tamarind, and lime are completely Thai.
The History Leading Up to the Creation of Pad Thai
Pad Thai was created in the 1930s by the prime minister at the time, Plaek Phibunsongkhram, who sought to unify the nation through civilization and uniformity.
Government promotions for nationalism included changing the country’s name from Siam to Thailand, recreating the national anthem, forming one main language instead of the multitude of regional dialects, supporting “sawasdee” as the official greeting, calling for a Western dress code and work schedules, prioritizing Thai products over Chinese, encouraging the use of forks and spoons instead of eating with hands, and teaching the population about exercise, a full night’s sleep, nutrition, and hygiene.
All this was to help the war efforts and to unite the country as a whole. As a result, ethnic groups were kept from warring against each other and Europe and China were kept out of occupying the country.
It is interesting to note that Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never occupied by a European power.
Included in these reforms was the prime minister’s request for making a national dish using rice noodles. This had two background meanings: 1) there would be one dish to unite the people, and 2) World War II’s military action, as well as floods, resulted in a massive rice shortage.
Prior to the war, the staple diet was a hearty scoop of rice topped with nam prik (a type of chili paste), with vegetables and salt.
Now the call for a noodle dish would protect the rice resources as it only takes 50% of rice to make noodles. Plus, with rice noodles, you can dry them and store them for long periods of time which made the noodles even more affordable.
Now for the Origins of Pad Thai
And so Pad Thai was born, but who exactly created the first dish is still unknown. At first, the name was Gway Teow Pad Thai with Gway Teow as the Chinese name for rice noodles, Pad meaning fried, and Thai referring to the Thai style. It was soon simplified to Pad Thai to promote nationalism
With this new noodle dish on hand, the government took further action. They freely gave out the recipe to all Thai restaurants to make and they provided free food carts for street food vendors, making Pad Thai Thailand’s first fast-food dish.
On top of all that, there was even a campaign created which promoted “Noodles is Your Lunch.” Pad Thai was available and affordable for everyone, from the rich to the poorest.
Many of the government’s actions to help the war effort paid off and truly supported the country. At the same time, they reduced international influence over the country. And, they created a cheap, filling, and complete dish with carbs, vegetables, and protein.
By the end of World War II, Pad Thai was well-established as the national dish, and Thai immigrants brought this beloved dish to the US and other countries where they settled to expand its popularity around the globe.
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