Pad-See-Ew

I’ve made pad-see-ew in numerous times in Thailand at my small restaurant in Khon Kaen University for college students, most of the times, that came in for a quick and easy meal all day long. And this dish was one of many popular dishes beside fried-rice, spicy chicken basil, and spicy beef balls noodle soup that I made in just a few minutes per one serving (it so-called “fast food” for Thais as for hamburger or sandwich here in the U.S., yeb! You heard it right, “fast food”). 

Pad-see-ew is a very popular in Thailand for a quick meal throughout the day. It’s easy to make, yet it’s so complicated for some of those who have never tried to make it before. Why? I’ll tell you why. Because this dish is required the highest heat when cooking with a well-seasoned steel wok (or known as a Chinese wok) on the high- heat gas stove, so you can get a toasty test quality of the burnt dark soy sauce mixed with other seasonings at the bottom of the wok. That is a key of cooking pad-see-ew.

If you attempt to use a non-stick stir-fry pan to make pad-see-ew, you will be disappointed with the result, big time, no matter how good the recipe is.   However, this is supposed to be simple as I always say to you in the first place, right?    So here's the deal…..If you really want to try this at home and do not have a steel wok but a non-stick pan, you have to let it burns (just a little) at the bottom while cooking it, so you can get the nearest result of the restaurant "flavor” for your homemade effort.   As for noodles, use fresh noodles only!    Why?  If you use other kinds of dried noodles, you will get a different product that isn’t pad-see-ew!   BUT hey!…sky’s the limit.   You can experiment with other kind of fresh noodles like linguine pasta or Udon noodles and make it you own, how’s that sound?     What I’m saying that if you want a real authentic pad-see-ew, you should definitely use this kind of flat rice noodles only!    Please don’t freak out or give up after reading this.   Thus, pad-see-ew usually calls for Chinese broccoli, but this time I like to add some color of red bell pepper and slices of carrots to make it pretty to look at, and colorful dish is very important for our daily diet, too.    Did I mention before that I love colorful dishes?    Chinese broccoli or Kai-lan can be found at most Asian supermarket but you can use regular broccoli florets or broccolini as it has the same great taste as well.     Okay, enough talking and let’s start it, shall we?

What you need:

12 oz flat rice noodle – about 1/3 of the package

2 large eggs
3 tablespoons sweet dark or black soy sauce – I use a healthy boy brand
2 tablespoons light soy sauce – I used soy sauce with mushroom, healthy boy brand
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons white vinegar
3 clove garlic, minced
½ cup onion, chopped
1 cup chicken chopped (or meat of your choice)
1 cup Chinese broccoli, chopped
½ cup carrot, thin cut crosswise - optional
½ cup red bell pepper, thin sliced – optional
4 tablespoons (or more) vegetable oil
A dash of ground white pepper

**This dish requires a fast stir-fry, so have everything prepared and ready to go for quick cooking

- Add the oil to the wok on the high heat and let it smokes up a little before adding minced garlic and quickly stir.

- Immediately add meat to the wok, stir, add chopped onion and cook until the meat is cooked through.

- Add noodles and sweet dark soy sauce, stir. Add chopped carrots and red bell pepper. Then bring the noodles and meat to the side of the pan to make room for the eggs

- Add the eggs and scramble to cook the eggs, gently fold in noodles and meat to mix well

- Add seasoning of light soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, and white vinegar and stir. Let the bottom of the wok burn a little bit while stirring it gently

- Add all the vegetables and cook another few minute, turn off the heat and add a dash of ground white pepper
- Serve immediately while it’s still hot with some dried chili flake as desire

 Enjoy!

^_^