Pad Thai is something that I have always been afraid to make. I have purchased the partially made Pad Thai products in the market and they have been not so good. I haven’t really even known what pad thai was suppose to taste like. I haven’t eaten in many thai restaurants nor have I traveled in Asia. What is wrong with me? Every time I have eaten in a thai restaurant I feel like I get the same mixed up tasting food that I cannot really identify. While I was in State College Pennsylvania for the Ice Cream Short Course, group of us went out for thai food. I was unimpressed. I ordered pad thai because I did not know what else to order and it resembled the stir fry concoctions of my early college attempts at asian cooking.

Last weekend I flew up to Oregon to visit with my mom. An old friend who now lives in the midwest was flying out to visit her daughter at Lewis and Clark. We met and picked up her daughter and two of her friends and headed for the coast. As you know the Oregon coast can be a dreary proposition. The coast of Oregon is wild, cold and windy. Not last weekend.

It was sunny and glorious. We stayed at the home of a friend in Depoe Bay and watched the waves and the stars for two days and nights. We did something else too, we cooked pad thai. Michele had brought with her a “quick and easy” Thai cookbook. It was loaded with step by step photos and detailed easy instructions. Michele had cooked the pad thai, as well as other recipes in this book, many times. She also had the benefit of having traveled to Thailand numerous times. I was bewitched. It was so easy. We soaked the rice noodles, mixed up the sauce, sauteed and few vegetables and shrimp, presto we had pad thai, and delicious at that.

I was determined to duplicate the pad thai we ate in Depoe Bay and luckily found the exact same cookbook, photos and all, at Powell’s Books the next day. I was so happy I bought two and gave one to my other dear friend in Portland. She hadn’t experienced the lesson or the feast, but I was so enthusiastic about it that I think she is cooking it too.

Portland is an amazing place for so many reasons, but food is definitely one of them. After returning to Portland and finding The Book, we met some friends at a new Singapore style cafe called Ping. Guess what I ordered? You guessed it, Pad Thai! It was good there, not just good but great. I recommend going there. It isn’t called Pad Thai at Ping and I can’t remember what it was called. I guess in Singapore it is a different type of melange of Thai and Chinese. I took a few tastes from that dish and made a melange of my own.

As soon as I returned to Santa Cruz I gathered all the ingredients and we have been eating pad thai every night. My family is sick of it and would love another cuisine, but I am a repetitive learner and I am getting it down. I would say that I am pretty good at in now. I do not know why all the other pad thai meals that I have had were so lackluster. It is easy, fun and terrific!

Pad Thai

• 8 oz rice noodles soak for 1 to 2 hours
• 1 carrot grated the long way
• 1 cup of cabbage thinly sliced
• 1 scallion cut on the diagonal
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 2 cups of shrimp deveined and no tails
• 1 egg cracked and mixed in a bowl
• 1/2 cup fish sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 TB Paprika-not too spicy
• 4 sprigs cilantro
• 2 Tb oil

Have all your ingredients ready, it doesn’t take long to make once you start cooking.

After soaking the noodles drain them.

Put the oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the garlic and the shrimp, cook until done. Add the sauce. Add the noodles and cook until transparent, about five minutes. Add cabbage,scallion pieces and the carrots. Cook about two minutes. Add the egg and scramble. Stir this all around to mix in the noodles. Add the paprika and stir to make sure all the noodles are coated. Pour out into a serving bowl and garnish with the cilantro sprigs.

Isn’t this the easiest? I just love it. I want to open a pad thai bar. But I am still working on opening the ice cream scoop shop for now, I must calm down.

Ice Cream is coming soon, I promise

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