My Best Ever Pad Thai
My best ever Pad Thai is from a street restaurant opposite the main bus station in Kanchanaburi. Yep, it's true.
When Ben and I take the 7 hour bus journey from Bangkok to Sangkhlaburi, heading to Baan Dada, we have a quick 10 minute stopover in Kanchanaburi. Despite it being a fairly generous break by bus-journey standards, by the time we have a toilet break we are always rushing. Always.
Every time we have made this trip, we have had to sprint to our bus as it pulled away from the station. Every single time. You'd think we'd learn, but no! You'd perhaps think that we'd reassess our ability to do all we wanted in those 10 short minutes, but you would indeed be wrong. You see, on our first trip we spotted a lady making Pad Thai on the street out the front of her restaurant. We ordered and received two take-away packs, before madly dashing to the bus.
Once safely on the bus, we ate our boxes of authentic Thai take-away. And that was it. From that moment on, the first 3 hours of the trip from Bangkok to Sangkhlaburi would be spent eagerly awaiting the sight of that lovely, talented lady and her wok. We knew we were in for a stressful 10 minutes, but we didn't care about that...
The Pad Thai is honestly too good to pass up. It's worth the stressful dash to the bus before it vanishes from sight with our luggage forever. It's just worth it.
Sticky, but not overly so. Slightly sweet, but what you really get is that lovely wok flavour, combined with super fresh ingredients and generous serves of egg, tofu and all the good stuff.
In January, following on from our 12 days in Vietnam, we headed to Thailand, destination Baan Dada. It had been 15 months since our last visit, which meant it had been 15 months since our best ever Pad Thai. We were positively buzzing, incredibly excited to have it again.
We've enjoyed this blissful Pad Thai three times now, and each visit our anticipation builds. Yet we are never let down. In fact I think our lady makes it that little bit better each time. Perhaps that's how she lures hungry travellers in?... She's just doing her part to stimulate the local economy. Maybe in the end people just move to Kanchanaburi to be closer to their best ever Pad Thai? Sure, why not? It works for me!
Heidi xo