Pad thai

Pad thai is a stir-fried rice noodle dish widely eaten as street food in Thailand. Its core ingredients include rice noodles, shrimp, peanuts, green onions, scrambled egg, sugar, and bean sprouts, all fried together in a wok. The dish originally bore the longer name kuai tiao pad thai, later shortened. Kuai tiao itself is a Thai borrowing from Teochew Chinese, referring to a type of thick rice noodle also known as shahe fen, and cognates of the term appear in Cambodian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, and Singaporean cuisines.

Despite its now-iconic status, pad thai is not an ancient recipe. It was invented in the mid-20th century, most likely during the 1930s.

History

One widely accepted explanation ties its creation to Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram’s government during World War II, when Thailand faced rice shortages due to war and floods. To reduce domestic rice consumption, the government promoted noodles, and a new dish called sen chan pad thai (named after Chanthaburi Province) emerged, helping to shape modern Thai national identity. Another view, offered by Thai-American food writer Kasma Loha-unchit, suggests that Thai Chinese immigrants invented the dish by blending stir-fried noodle techniques from southern China with the Central Thai preference for balancing hot, sour, sweet, and salty flavors, giving it a fusion name.

Ingredients

Pad thai’s flavor profile typically comes from tamarind juice, fish sauce, dried shrimp, garlic, shallots, and sometimes palm sugar and chili pepper. It is served with lime wedges and crushed roasted peanuts, and often includes bean sprouts, green onions, garlic chives, preserved radish, or raw banana flowers. Proteins can vary to include crab, squid, or other meats. Condiments like extra chili, lime, peanuts, and fresh vegetables are commonly offered on the side.

Vegetarian versions replace fish sauce with soy sauce and omit shrimp. Since at least 2001, the Thai government has used pad thai as a form of “soft power,” launching initiatives to expand Thai restaurants worldwide, which nearly tripled their global count in seventeen years. In a 2011 CNN Go readers’ poll, pad thai ranked fifth on a list of the world’s 50 most delicious foods.