The Thai Noodle Tease

My friend Katina is a tease.

I know this may sound harsh, but I assure you the accusation is not levied lightly. My compliments I may be loose with, but not my criticism. Katina’s status as a tease is well earned and fully documented.

To talk to Katina is to be tantalized and tempted, enticed by grand plans and great ideas. She is a writer, after all, and her powers of description are impressive. There are amazing restaurants you simply must try, she’ll go with you. Certain dishes that must be ordered, she knows them. There are fun things to do—rollerblading on the Embarcadero, a weekend reunion in Seattle, camping in Joshua Tree. It will happen, it will be fantastic; you can’t help but get excited.

Then Katina tells you she’s booked solid for the next six months.

To be fair, Katina is a grad school friend. In the past two years since we finished our program, we've all been trying to find our feet. Trying to find time for our writing, now that we no longer have deadlines to make us do so; trying to stay connected to school friends, now that we no longer see each other every week in class, and for post-class drinking sessions at The Alley, Cato's, The Kerry House. We try to squeeze in lunches and dinners, shoehorning them in around jobs, writing, busy lives.

Last summer I managed to catch up with Katina for a dinner at Osha, one of her favorite Thai restaurants. She raved about a certain item on the menu—a dish of pan-fried noodles mixed with broccoli and chicken. It was savory and slightly sweet and very delicious. I can’t remember what I ordered that night, but it was not nearly as good as Katina’s noodles. She says she craves these noodles on a weekly basis, and she was delighted that I liked the place. Her husband doesn't like Osha nearly as much as she does, so she’s always on the lookout for an Osha buddy. We’ll go often, she promised, it will be great.

That was nine months ago.

Now Katina and I are both pretty busy, but after six months and a couple of attempts at coordinating a return visit I gave up. When a group of friends wanted to go to Osha for lunch I agreed, even though it felt like treading on Katina’s sacred territory. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been given chances. And those noodles with broccoli are addictive, I had been thinking about them for months. When we got there I barely looked at the menu, I knew exactly what I wanted. I couldn’t wait for our meal to arrive, I could practically taste the noodles. I sat up straight in my chair when our waiter brought the order, flush with anticipation. Then my face fell.

I had ordered the wrong thing.

Believe it or not, there are two broccoli and noodle dishes on the Osha menu. Instead of soft but ever so slightly browned noodles with chicken and crunchy green broccoli, moist and delicious, I got noodles and broccoli with chicken in a heavy gravy—almost a soup (Laht Nah). It's not that it was bad—my friend Liam quite liked it—it just wasn't the dish I had been waiting months and months to taste.

Shortly after that I emailed Katina and confessed the whole debacle. I said it was my penance for going to Osha without her. And by the way, I asked, what was the name of that broccoli dish?

She wouldn’t tell me. She said we’d go together, soon.

Not only that, she wouldn’t let our friend Seren tell me either.

And then she was out of town every weekend for another three months.

But last Friday the jig was up. Katina, Seren, and I had dinner at Osha and she confessed that the addictive mystery dish was actually Pad See You. Was this act of largess on her behalf motivated by the fact that I had, just the week before, pointed her in the direction of the best mango and sticky rice she has ever tasted? (you see, I am not stingy with my dining recommendations). I don’t know, but that night we had delicious noodles with broccoli, spring rolls, and a lovely pumpkin curry. And Katina told us about this amazing new restaurant that we really must try; she’ll go with us. It’ll be great.

Seren and I are looking forward to it, sometime next September.

Until then, I’m eating noodles and broccoli. You can too.



PAD SEE YOU or PAD SEE EUW

After our dinner I was on a mission to recreate this dish. I found a couple of recipes and began cooking. Two attempts and one repeat visit back to Osha later, I’ve fooled around enough to come up with a version that makes me happy. Is it as good as Osha’s noodles? I think it may be—we'll see what Katina says. Somehow I think she'll find the time for this one.

My rather slapdash research says that see euw (various other forms of spelling) is the word for soy sauce, so this dish would be noodles with soy sauce (oh, but it is so much more). I don’t know how authentic this one is, and I’m a little frightened that Pim might pop up to tell me that I have it all wrong. I started with recipes I found online, but ultimately I improvised as some of the recipes I found were awful. I don't know how this would compare to Pad See Euw in Thailand. I've been to Thailand several times, but this is not a dish I've ever tasted there. I do know, however, that it is good.

This recipe took me to an Asian specialty store for some ingredients I didn’t have on hand—dark soy sauce (thicker and a bit sweeter than what I think of as “regular” soy sauce); oyster sauce; Chinese rice wine (not mirin); fresh rice noodles; Chinese broccoli.



For the marinade:
8 oz. chicken, bone and skin removed and cut into medium cubes (you could also use beef, pork, or tofu)
2 cloves garlic, minced or mashed through a garlic press
2 tbs rice wine
2 tbs oyster sauce (nam mun hoi)
1 1/2 tsp sugar (palm sugar would be traditional, I used white sugar)
1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes—more if you like the heat

For the noodles:
1 tbs oil
8 oz wide rice noodles, preferably fresh (sen yai)*
1 egg
1 tbs dark soy sauce, plus a dash (see euw)
1 tsp oyster sauce (nam mun hoi)
1 tsp fish sauce, plus a dash (nam pla)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cups Chinese broccoli (ka na), stems and leaves cut into one-inch pieces/ribbons

Mix the garlic, rice wine, oyster sauce, sugar, and red pepper flakes. Add the chicken and let sit, covered, for a few hours.

Scramble the egg in a bowl, adding a dash (about three drops) of both soy sauce and fish sauce to the raw egg. Mix.

In another small bowl, mix the sauce for the noodles—adding the dark soy sauce, the oyster and fish sauce, and the sugar (I used 1 1/4 tsp, if you like it sweet you could go up to 1 1/2 tsp). Stir thoroughly, as the sugar will drop to the bottom, and set aside.

In a large pan or wok, add the oil and sauté the chicken at high heat. Don’t pour the chicken and marinade into the pan, rather take each piece out and add it to the pan. You want a slight crust and color on the chicken, so keep the heat high and stir as needed.

When the chicken is cooked through, move it to the side of the pan. Pour the egg into the remaining area and scramble, making sure not to stir the chicken into the egg (you don’t want the chicken coated in egg). You could remove the chicken if your pan is not large enough. When the egg is scrambled and cooked through, use your spoon or spatula to break it into smallish pieces.

Mix the egg and chicken and begin adding the noodles, one third of the noodles at a time. After each noodle addition, drizzle on some of the sauce (stir it first as the sugar will settle) and mix with the chicken. You might want to turn down the heat at this point. Add more noodles, drizzle on sauce, mix. Taste it to make sure you have the depth of flavor you want—you may prefer not to use all the sauce. Add the broccoli and stir to incorporate. When the broccoli leaves have wilted, remove from heat and serve immediately. Makes two portions.

*A note on rice noodles: I had never used fresh rice noodles before. If you can get your hands on them they really make this dish. They were soft the first day I bought them but hardened in the fridge over the next two days. A minute or so in the microwave restored them to their original soft texture. I do believe I am a convert. Of course, if you can't find them I would go with dry rice noodles, as wide as you can get them.



For Bay Area locals who want their Pad See Euw made for them:

OSHA THAI
Three locations:
819 Valencia Street (Katina prefers the noodles at this location)
149 2nd Street (recently opened and noisy at dinner, make reservations)
696 Geary Street (the food and ambiance are not as polished here)