I have a problem.  I read a post by one of the premier local food bloggers, Lisa at Champaign Taste.  She was trying to make something following a recipe from the famous, award-winning Chez Pim.  It was a dish that I’ve loved having many times at restaurants–pad see ew.  Basically it’s some wide, flat rice noodles cooked up with soy sauce, broccoli, and some sort of protein.  Lisa didn’t have very good luck with the recipe.  You can read about it in her post, titled Thai Food Fiasco: An Attempt at Pad See Ew.  My problem is that I felt the need to do it right.

It’s not that Lisa did anything wrong, just that I had to see if I could do it.  I have often found myself cooking different dishes because of this very compulsion.  I’ve cooked some pretty bad things in my life, and I’m not sure if I’d be brave enough to publish the story and photos on this blog for the world to see.  As far as you know all the food I put out looks beautiful in real life and tastes even better than you imagined, right?

So, back to the pad see ew.  Lisa’s only issue was the noodles, so I was worried.  It seemed like she followed Pim’s instructions to soak them, but they just stuck together in a huge ball.  I picked the (dry) noodles that most resembeled what I’d eaten in various restaurants.  It looks like they’re similar to what Lisa was working with.

I chopped my chicken, got it marinating, then started chopping broccoli (which always makes me think of Dana Carvey) into bite-sized pieces.  According to Pim, the noodles were supposed to soak “in lukewarm water until pliable but not soft.”  This, I think is where things can go wrong.  I put my noodles in hot tap water, left them alone for a good 15 minutes, and while slightly softened, they were still quite stiff.  I came to the conclusion that they needed to be at least partly cooked (i.e. boiled) before moving on or they’d never really soften.

I boiled them for a few minutes, half the time the package said to cook them.  They were soft, but definitely still a firm “al dente.”  So, I cooked the broccoli in a pan (I don’t have a wok yet), then it was time for the noodles.  I heated the pan, added a little more oil, let it get hot, then tossed in the well-drained noodles.  I let them sit for a few seconds, then drizzled in the fish sauce and thick soy.  The noodles were sticky, but still slightly manageable.  The noodles didn’t stick together in a big ball though, I was thrilled.  Then I noticed that they did, however, stick to the bottom of the pan.  More heat (in a wok), and more oil would have probably helped, but I extracted the noodles and went on my way.

The rest of the cooking went well, just like Lisa’s did.  In finishing the dish, I needed to add far more of the sauces than what Pim suggested to get the flavor I was expecting.  Maybe my taste buds are too tired, or the recipe really is, in more ways than one, “for beginners.”

Comparing my finished dish to Pim’s, mine is definitely “wetter”, but I would imagine that had I not added the extra soy, oyster, and fish sauces it would have been too bland.  I also really needed to add more noodles, but given my trepidation about screwing them up in the first place, I’m glad I didn’t try to sneak more in without proper soaking & cooking.  All in all a good dish, but it makes me really want a wok, to get what I was really missing–wok hay, the breath of a wok.

Pad See Ew