Deceptively Simple

Here are more notes from my brodeo who is still cooking his heart out in Northern Thailand. Turned out like most everything with food - an unplanned experience made the most sense in the end:

The eureka moment came as I was walking down a street after class yesterday and stopped and watched a street vendor cook Pad Thai. Pad Thai, as we all know, is a noodle dish with egg and bean sprouts and is very common at all Thai restos in Ottawa. This lady, cooking Pad Thai on a corner in a makeshift kitchen/cart that would never pass a health inspection in Canada, was serving up simple pad Thai for about 80 cents Canadian. She had bags of basil and other herbs taped to a pole with all of the other ingredients seemingly haphazardly placed. She took a little plate and placed all the ingredients on it, fired her wok, and threw it all in, grabbing from nowhere a bottle of fish sauce, and squeezed in a few squirts. Fresh herbs were pulled from the bags and an egg from a flat was cracked and stirred into the mix. Under a minute it was done.

After watching this street side display, I realized that Thai cuisine is deceptively easy to prepare. It can not be mastered with a cookbook or a week-long class, it can only be truly prepared where it originates. Anything less, is just a version.