Friday, January 26, 2007

(Never Been to) Brooklyn Pad Thai

If the food there's like what I created from Isa's Brooklyn Pad Thai, book my flight, 'm totaly there! Thai food was always easily my favorite cuisine until I realized that shrimp paste is so often found in authentic dishes. Between this killer recipe and the Thai Style soup from Vegan Planet, I have hope that not only will Thai food be back on my plate again, but I'll get to be the one to make it!

The only thing I changed was to add about 2 tablesppons of cruncy organic peanut butter to my sauce. I just couldn't see making it without it. Not sure that it even made too much of a difference overall, maybe thickened the sauce a bit, but that's totally unnecessary. This stuff is sooooooo good!


We enjoyed it with just a shared salad plate of sliced cucumber, some Ugly tomato wedges (yup, that's a type of tomato around here...the tomato that tastes like a tomato!), and our favorite, easy Mikoto Ginger Dressing with a sprinkle of remaining cilantro.
We ended dinner with a little sliced fresh mango (sigh....i cannot wait for summer and all the soft and sweet mangoes that come with it!). YUM!

The pad thai came together in a snap. The tip of making it in two batches reads like it's a pain but it's actually super fast and very efficient to do so (thank you, Isa!!! This meant that i didn't have to make the mistake of trying to get it all stirred together perfectly at once, which would have surely resulted in utter failure and a crazy mess...and i don't think i was up for another one in this meal preparation..not with having just seen myself thru the peanut oil incident*).

My little brother, the rock star (mlbtrs) called, as he often does, while he was making his own dinner and I was whipping up ours. (We're Italian, we can't help but to gab while busy in the kitchen). hehe. Halfway thru our conversation he had to cut it short as he had taken some parmesan out of the fridge (I come from, as many of you do, a loooong line of omni's), began to shake it and found the lid not to be closed, causing a snowfall of cheesy bits all over him, his floor, and likely his dogs and appliances. I laughed and we hung up. Not five seconds later, he recieved this call from me:

DGMGV: dude, I totally win.
MLBTRS: oh yeah? why's that?

DGMGV: you're little kitchen mishap that got you off the phone in a hurry?

MLBTRS: yeah, still cleaning that up.

DGMGV: well, i was laughing at you after hangin up and reached for the peanut oil, whose cap i'd already removed, and promptly knocked it over, glug-glug-glugging slippery puddles of peanut oil aaaaaall over the stovetop, down the oven, and to pool on the floor. why the hell do they make wood floors in kitchens, again? grrrrrrrr.

MLBTRS: *laughing maniacle laugh that's reserved only by little brothers for directing at their older sisters whenever they do something particularly dumb* dude, you're right. you totally win. have fun cleaning that up.
*still laughing*
DGMGV: mmm hmm, thx. told ya!


too funny.
and speaking of my little brother, the rock star....He is the front man for a really rockin band based in VA, Full Moon Circle. (mlbtrs is the one in the middle)They're currently working to release their new album and (yipee!) heading down to the sunshine state to play in April. If you like rock music (as in, this stuff totally rocks) check 'em out on their myspace http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=68763003&MyToken=c7b14833-7fd6-4036-a0b8-987962587830 and show 'em some love.

Better yet, should you live near Gainesville, Orlando, or Daytona Beach, keep an eye on their myspace for the upcoming show dates and venues.
ok, 'm done with my shameless plug for MLBTRS. back to the food! ;)

10 comments:

Brooke said...

That's okay, I forgot to put the top on my blender yesterday before I made a smoothie....strawberries EVERYWHERE! Doh!

Candi said...

The pad thai looks so good! I haven't made it yet because it looks *too* good. Lol! I would over eat that SO badly!! :P

I love the simple side salad you had with it!

Oooh, your brother is very cute. I've added them as a friend on MySpace and have been listening to Twisted Life just now. Wow...they sound polished and like they've been together for a long time!

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's funny that you made it. I was just looking at that recipe today. Glad to hear it's a winner.

aTxVegn said...

As usual, all of your foods looks fantastic. I LOVE Thai food and I'm glad to hear you're giving it another shot!

I shop at an asian market weekly and have learned to carefully read the labels.

Sorry about your peanut oil mishap. Hope it didn't take too long to clean up!

scottishvegan said...

I have become a big fan of Thai food since becoming vegan and finding a local vegan Thai restaurant. So far, I haven’t really tried to re-create anything for fear of it not living up to the restaurant’s amazing food, but perhaps I will need to get out VWaV and try this cos it looks really good!

Linda said...

that looks wonderful. nice job.

pad thai is the best and yours is plated so nicely!

Anonymous said...

I was just thinking about pad thai since we have some rice noodles sitting in the cabinet that need to be used. I agree that the VwaV recipe rocks!

What a bummer about the peanut oil. Oil's the worst thing to spill isn't it?

laura k said...

Oh, that pad thai looks killer. Awesome! I'm going to look up your brother's band on MySpace and check them out! Sorry about the peanut oil everywhere...

Nikk said...

That pad thai is my favorite recipe. It's easy to switch up and tastes okay if you happen to not have an ingredient on hand.

Tofu Mom (AKA Tofu-n-Sprouts) said...

Awesome blog and great pictures! I'll definitely be back! Don't you LOVE that Pad Thai recipe? I have it memorized now!