Nationalist Noodle · Wartime Invention

Pad Thai

Photo: Takeaway / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Pad Thai isn't an ancient recipe at all — it was engineered in the late 1930s and '40s as part of a government campaign to unify the country around a single national dish and cut rice consumption during wartime shortages.

Rice noodles are stir-fried with egg, tofu, dried shrimp and bean sprouts in a tamarind-and-fish-sauce sauce, then finished with crushed peanuts, chili flakes and a lime wedge. Cart vendors fry it to order over blazing wok heat, sometimes wrapping it in a thin egg net for the deluxe version.

Why it's made this way: Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram's government promoted noodle dishes as a patriotic, rice-saving alternative during World War II shortages, and the resulting sen chan pad thai — named for Chanthaburi province's rice noodles — went on to become the country's best-known export dish.