in search of pad see ew

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Ordering takeout thai food in Portland (normally from Thai Orchid), we always ask for an order of their pad see ew - those chewy, wide, slippery rice noodles with broccoli, baby corn and (for the vegetarian in the house) tofu, drenched in an oily, salty, sweet, almost smoky sauce. Regardless of its authenticity, I maintain that the pad see ew at Thai Orchid pdx is the best I've had, to date. We regularly have this dish for lunch at school and i've bought it at street stands and restaurants in samut prakarn and bangkok, but I've been overwhelmingly unsatisfied. The noodles i've tried are normally quite dry and sticky with a very mild soy sauce flavor (the name literally means "fried [with] soy sauce") and it's normally made with pork (sometimes chicken) and chinese broccoli, which is nothing like broccoli at home.

the one pictured here is actually a vegetarian version, and is the closest I've come to finding a replica of the T.O.pdx's recipe. It's from Tony's (yup, Tony's), a hostel and restaurant in Ayutthaya, the ancient capital city of Siam. When millie and I went to Ayutthaya we stayed at Tony's and ate several meals there after discovering that the food was cheap and authentic (aside from the lack of spiciness) and that they would serve it to us in our hammocks in the cool upstairs loft by our room.

pad see ew closeup
- nice and saucy, plenty of veggies, tofu and egg

an exasperated millie struggles to keep her hands off the food while I take pictures



contemplating our next meal up in the hammocked loft at Tony's
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