Pad Thai
A Biography
A presentation by Ching Ki Jade Shum, Yuting Zhou and Tansha Vohra
What is kway teow pad Thai?
Essentially, the name translates to “That style stir
fried rice noodles”, and hints at its possible Chinese
origins - kway teow, in Chinese, refers to rice
noodles.
The original configuration of pad Thai includes
meat such as shrimp, pork, or chicken;
tamarind; palm sugar; fish sauce; eggs; dried
shrimp; garlic; tofu; salted radish; peanuts;
slender rice noodles; and bean sprouts.
The one element of pad Thai that remains relatively
constant are the medium-slender dried rice noodles.
Cooks can choose between sen lek or the chewier
sen chan noodles from the Chantaburi region
“Pad Thai is one basic recipe, with no specific
quantities of ingredients,” says Robert Halliday,
the former restaurant critic for the Bangkok Post.
“It’s all interpreted; you are supposed to know
how it tastes and what you should look for before
the next stage of cooking. In old Thai cookbooks
there is no such thing as quantity. That’s why you
never get the same dish.”
- Finding Pad Thai, Gastronomica
A Historical Overview of Pad Thai
● emerged in Thailand in the 1940s, after Siam was transformed to Thailand
created distributed
Recipe of Pad Thai -
Street vendors -
A crucial element in lunch
To popularise Pad Thai and become
Phibun Songkhram, convenient food
the first Prime Minister of Thailand from
1938-1944
(Greeley 2009; Van Esterik 2018)
Reasons to promote Pad Thai nationally
● Modified the way of cooking rice noodles originated from China
1 / Nationalism ● Building a new culture - ‘Thai-ness’, to promote Thai culture and modernise the nation while
confronting the Chinese influence
● Encouraged more Thais to engage in the food industry to eliminate the involvement of Chinese
2 / Economic ● used ingredients produced by Thai’s farmers
development ● Kept economy circulated with the national economic system
● Rice shortage after WWII and flooding
3 / Rice shortage ● Used noodles to substitute rice
4 / Nutrition and ● increase protein content
health ● introduce sanitary food and cooking methods
(Greeley 2009; Sinsawasdi et al. 2022; Van Esterik 2018; Wongworakul 2020)
Popularity of Pad Thai internationally
2nd Best Thai Food One of the best street food
CNN’s poll for the world’s best foods in 2017 Recommended by CNN in 2018
3rd Most frequently ordered dish
In overseas Thai restaurants
(Sinsawasdi et al. 2022)
Pad Thai Outside Thailand
—— A Global Trotter, A Shape Shifter
Pad Thai Diplomacy—— Gastrodiplomacy
❏ The Global Thai program: Since 2002, the Thai
government has funded and supported thousands of
restaurants around the world
❏ Thailand was the first country to pioneer the concept
of gastrodiplomacy
❏ Pad Thai, a relatively bland and uncomplicated dish, lent
itself to the international promotion of Thai cuisine
“Whenever we try Thai food, we try pad Thai first, because that is a way to judge how good a restaurant is.”
——Nick Srisawat, a native of Thailand, the host of Thai restaurant group in Washington, D.C.
Pad Thai Outside Thailand
—— A Global Trotter, A Shape Shifter
Form Change:
Nuances of Table Etiquette
❏ Service provision and in the presentation and
consumption
❏ Forks or chopsticks?
❏ Pad Thai should not have a place at the formal
table
Pad Thai Outside Thailand
—— A Global Trotter, A Shape Shifter
Content Change:
Ingredient and Taste
❏ The noodles is the flavoring
❏ The sauce is more corn syrup than tamarind
ditch the fish sauce.
❏ Call for some non-Thai ingredients
❏ Less spicy
“The ability to handle spicy food is seen by some Thais as a test of “Thai-ness” in its most intimate and
sociable form.”
——Michael Herzfeld , anthropologist
Any Questions?
References
● Greeley, Alexandra. 2009. “Finding Pad Thai.” Gastronomica 9(1): 78–82. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2009.9.1.78 .
● Herzfeld, M. (2011). Food, Manners, Values. Education About Asia, 16(3).
● Miranda, B. (2020). It's Local Adaptation, Silly, with Pad Thai Recipe. Available at:
https://www.chinesefoodhistory.org/post/it-s-local-adaptation-dummy-asian-258-blog-on-pad-thai .(Accessed: 21 March 2023).
● Scott,N (2017). Food and Drink , Thailand Pad Thai: The Forgotten History Of Thailand’s National Dish,
https://southeastasiabackpacker.com/pad-thai-history-thailand/
● Sinsawasdi, Valeeratana K., Holger Y. Toschka, and Nithiya Rattanapanone. 2022. The Science of Thai Cuisine: Chemical Properties and Sensory
Attributes. 1st ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003182924 .
● Sunanta, S. (2005). The globalization of Thai cuisine. In Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies Conference, York University, Toronto.
● Van Esterik, Penny. 2018. “Culinary Colonialism and Thai cuisine: The Taste of Crypto-Colonial Power.” Dublin Gastronomy Symposium 2018 – Food
and Power. Accessed 15 March, 2023, https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1140&context=dgs
● Wallace, S. (2020). Pad Thai Diplomacy. Available at: https://savdwallace.medium.com/pad-thai-diplomacy-d329313107b7 .Accessed: 21 March 2023).
● Wongworakul, Eve. 2020. “History of Pad Thai as a Symbol of Nationalism in Thailand:.” Storymaps arcgis Website. Accessed 15 March, 2023,
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d0392aa1bf6a48659b9d15fc557f7a2e
