This dish and Pad see ew (see variation) are both super popular Thai street food dishes known for their smoky flavour and deliciously chewy rice noodles. The combination of light and dark soy sauces stir-fried with Chinese broccoli and meat, often pork or chicken, creates a rich, savoury taste. The only difference between the two is that the pad kee mao stir-fry starts with lots of fiery chilli and finishes with some herbaceous Thai basil, making it an ideal meal to enjoy with a cold drink, hence the nickname ‘drunken noodles’.
I’d tried lobster and fish pho at Vietnamese restaurants in the United States and was surprised (and somewhat aghast) that they simply cooked the seafood in beef pho broth. The lesson learned from those experiences was this: seafood pairs well with pho spices.
Those addictive Southeast Asian noodle salads usually star Asia’s crisp, sweet/tart green papaya or mango. So why not use our own summer peaches or nectarines? When they’re firm and slightly underripe but still fragrant, they’re ideal for salads like this.
Crisp jicama and unripe mango with hot chile and lime are naturals together. And in a salad they refresh like nothing else.