Thai Cuisine

Where pad thai actually comes from

A customer at a Thai restaurant in the U.S. asks whether the pad thai is gluten free, and the server says yes — it's rice noodles. The customer orders it, eats it, and never learns that the fish sauce…

What pad means in Thai cooking

Pad in Thai is a verb, not a noun: it means "to stir-fry" — specifically, to cook something in a hot wok with a little oil, tossing it continuously. It is the same word that shows up in phat in romani…