Comments on: problem solved

By: sammbelina Rox

sammbelina Rox — Tue, 15 May 2012 03:10:06 +0000

Made this tonight…overall good recipe- even for a novice cook! However, couldn’t have gotten through the prep work and shopping without my more experienced chef (ok, my husband) by my side. It seems like a breeze when reading through, but even the two of us took hours to get the ingredients and prep work out of the way. Though the cooking was fast and pretty easy.
My only piece of advice is to maybe cut back on the tamarind as it was pretty sour. Maybe the brand we used is more potent/different than what’s above? FWIW, we both strongly dislike sweet pad thai (or very sweet food in general) that’s served in some restaurants, so I think our expectations are ok. It was a lot of effort for a lot of leftover sour noodles! Le husband thinks we can cut the sour with maybe some cabbage or more egg….we’ll see how I can doctor it tomorrow…I still think this recipe is a good starting point towards getting this down.

By: Hillary M

Hillary M — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:28:51 +0000

Hello!! I made this tonight and it was soooooo delicious, honestly way better than takeout (EXACTLY the same kind of taste though which i wanted). BUT, if i may make a few suggestions as the first time i made this it was sort of disastrous. If anybody has made these suggestions already, then please disregard! ALSO, thank you so much for this beautiful recipe! It is truly amazing and i will be making it often!! I just find these tips make it a bit more fail proof!

Some tips incase anyone encounters the troubles i did the first time around:

DO NOT soak the noodles for very long. The first time they came out a big bunch of rice noodle mush – i will from now on soak them 5-10 mins max, just until they are no longer translucent, and they should definetly be harder than aldente noodles. I rinsed them through after they were done w/cold water to prevent clumping.

Add a little bit of hot water to the tamarind concentrate before you make the sauce, and adjust the sugar to your taste. Some people may find this sauce is too intense if you don’t dilute the tamarind concentrate ahead of time. You dont want your noodles TOO sour :)

Also it may be easier to incorporate the egg if the yolk is broken. I have been adding the eggs in w/the chicken once it is fully cooked and then scrambling them in w/the meat. It is nice like this as the egg leaves nice strands throughout the whole dish. The first time i made this i had a fried egg all broken up and it wasn’t as nice as i wanted it to be.

LAST but not least! When you add the noodles, take two forks to start mixing them up w/the sauce and other ingredients already in the wok (toss them up as you would a salad). I truly believe this helps prevent mushy noodles. Tossing them incorporates the ingredients better as well than a spatula can. (This tip may only be necessary if making 2+servings at one time).

Hope everyone finds these tips helpful!! Thanks again for the delicious dish and thanks to Pim too! :):)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:57:19 +0000

I’ve been coming to your site for a few years now and I don’t know how I’ve missed the translation from Pim’s recipe to an actual list of ingredients! Thank-you thank-you thank-you!

By: lauren

lauren — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:05:10 +0000

Good, but the amount of sauce required per section of noodles is too much and too strong. I solved this by putting water in the sauce before adding it and i only put a little bit of sauce in (about a tablespoon)! thanks for the recipe.

By: Karine

Karine — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:09:53 +0000

Here in Quebec we have Thai Express which makes awesome pad thai, but the dish contains enough calories to fill a day’s quota. Making it from scratch will definitely help in portion control, money saving and calorie count! Thanks so much for forwarding Pim’s recipe and posting such appetizing pictures with it!