Pan Fried Wide Rice Noodles

Monday, October 1st, 2007

Filed Under Mains, Noodles, South East Asia 


I love Thai food- well, who doesn’t?  Whenever I go to a new Thai restaurant, the one dish I judge them by is Pad Kee Mao, a dish made with wide rice noodles, meat, veggies and a variety of sauces and spices. Good restaurants always get it right, but I’ve been disappointed at a number of places with the oily, soggy noodles with zero flavor! And usually if they get this one wrong, they pretty much get all the dishes wrong. So these days I don’t even give a second chance to the restaurants who mess up Pad Kee Mao.

Some restaurants call this dish Drunken Noodles. Typhoon!, one of the top Thai restaurant in our area has the world’s best Drunken Noodles. :) Okay, I agree I haven’t tasted all the drunken noodles in the world, but there is no way anyone can make this better than them. It is perfection, really! Don’t be scared by the name Drunken Noodles, there is no alcohol in it. I actually did a little search about the origin of the name, and came across this in WikiPedia which I thought was really funny.

No one is sure where the name of this dish comes from. Some believe it is called drunken noodles because it’s an excellent hangover cure. Others believe that it is so hot that the eater has to be drunk to be able to stand it, while some are sure that it’s because one becomes drunk trying to drown out the heat with alcohol.

Still others believe that the name comes from the wide assortment of ingredients the dish contains: The chef is drunk enough to throw in a bunch of vegetables and spices without thinking it over.

The most probable explanation is that this is one of the only foods available on the streets of Thailand late at night and in the very early morning, the times when inebriated revelers are leaving places of celebration. It is very possible that the extremely “wobbly” noodles themselves give the dish its name.

Well, one of the chefs told me that the noodles are drunk with all sauces, and that is the reason for the name. Whatever it is, it is one tasty dish, that I can have anytime, drunk or not.

I built up the dish so much, now you must all be expecting a drunken noodles recipe. Sorry, but I didn’t make drunken noodles. I didn’t even want to attempt making those at home, since there is no way I can match the Typhoon noodles. Instead I made a simple pan fried noodles, which had no similarity to the real Pad Kee Mao, well except for the type of noodles used. Sorry :oops: I am all embarrassed now, but trust me, this was not bad, and it was pretty good for an express meal. The whole meal was ready in about 20 minutes including the prep work.

Ingredients

Method

Bring the rice noodles to room temperature and separate the strands by pulling them apart. Some might break, and some might be clumped together, it is totally fine.

Heat oil in a wok or large frying pan and add the noodles, salt and soy sauce. Stir fry for three to four minutes till the noodles become soft. Remove from the pan and keep aside.

In the same pan, add some more oil and add the meat if using. Stir fry on high heat till the meat is mostly cooked. Add the ginger paste and saute well.

Add the garlic, onions and the vegetables to the pan and stir fry for a few minute till the vegetables are wilted. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce and sambal oelek and keep stir frying till the vegetables are cooked and the liquid is almost absorbed.

Add the prepared noodles to the pan and toss to combine.

Remove from the heat and sprinkle the peanuts and green onions on top.

Serve hot.



Comments

34 Responses to “Pan Fried Wide Rice Noodles”

  1. Kaykat on October 1st, 2007 11:57 pm

    Totally agree with you - Typhoon’s drunken noodles are pretty awesome!

    Hey, your recipe sounds pretty tasty! And I love that you used sambal oelek - my favorite thai hot sauce :)

    Hey you know Typhoon :) does that mean you live in the Northwest?

  2. Raaga on October 2nd, 2007 12:26 am

    Looks lovely… I have to try this… once I replenish my fridge with veggies!

    No veggies in the fridge? Major clean up, huh? :)

  3. Rajitha on October 2nd, 2007 3:16 am

    aha…i’m sure u felt real bad after giving us a noodle recipe with no realtion to the drunken one..esp. when half your post was about it..good going Sig :mad:

    btw..those noodles look awesome, will make this one out..yummmm :razz:

    :oops: I know… I am :evil:

  4. sra on October 2nd, 2007 3:25 am

    Oh, I get it now, they are rice noodles which are wide! :idea: I was wondering why the rice had to be wide and if there was wide rice or whether it was wild rice and you had a cold and so called it wide rice :oops:

    lol.. yep not “wide rice” noodles, but wide “rice noodles” … though I am glad someone used my :idea: icon… I knew those will be handy :)

  5. Happy Cook on October 2nd, 2007 4:37 am

    They look great. I like thaifood ( not all of their dishes) I make once a while the green chicken. Without the fish sauce ( which is one of the main sesoning in thai kitchen) but i can’t stand the smell of the fish sauce.

    Green curry chicken is my fav too, amongst all the curries… fish sauce is not that bad, after you finish cooking especially :)

  6. Asha on October 2nd, 2007 5:11 am

    I love Thai food too except Fish sauce. Looks delicious Sig. :smile:

    yeah, u are a seafood hater… I know :)

  7. Padma on October 2nd, 2007 6:58 am

    Sig, those wild noodles looks lovely but I am not able to trace them in that platter. Loved this recipe and ur new look on wordpress. I think you can have big pictures in wordpress than in blogger in 3C templates, right?

    Nice look :(Flower):

    Padma.. those wide strands are the noodles in the picture… About the 3 C templates, unfortunately both blogger and wordpress built in templates are very narrow in the middle column… I had customized my blogger templates to accomodate big pictures, and since I didn’t want to resize all my pics to fit, I customized the wordpress template as well… If you want help in increasing your blogger template width let me know… :)

  8. Laavanya on October 2nd, 2007 7:06 am

    I thought that you were going to give that super drunken noodles recipe .. :cry: but yours looks great too :(Yes):

    I got everyone going there, right? :evil: … May be I will give it a shot one of these days… but it is kind of a complicated recipe, and too many ingredients :(

  9. Siri on October 2nd, 2007 7:53 am

    The noodles looks soo yummy… thanks for sharing.. :grin:

    Thanks Siri :)

  10. richa on October 2nd, 2007 7:56 am

    i see them!!! i see them !!!emoticonssssssss :mrgreen:
    hey, those noodles look so delicious, specially with those fresh spring onions & peanuts on top :smile:

    :) yeah baby! the emoticons are here to stay… :D

  11. Rina on October 2nd, 2007 7:58 am

    Noodles look great Sig. :cool: Thanks for yet another noodles recipe. Infact I cooked Curried Shrimp Noodles last night. Waiting for the right time to publish it. As I was telling Padma, I wish somebody starts a blog event for Seafood and Non-Veg Food.

    Oh yum… curried shrimp noodles sounds yummy… waiting for the recipe… and yeah, the blog event for non-veg food will be great! :)

  12. Mishmash! on October 2nd, 2007 8:07 am

    My cooking experiments with thai cooking has not grown from pad thai :P You re quite adventurous :)

    I can’t really call this a thai dish, apart from the type of noodle used :) … I do make those thai curries sometime though…

  13. sandeepa on October 2nd, 2007 9:48 am

    Yeah right who doesn’t :wink:
    Making good use of your emoticons

    :) yeah, thats what emoticons are for… wish someone used the :(Martini): and :(Beer): too :D

  14. Sonia on October 2nd, 2007 10:20 am

    Yummy :). Will have to try this soon. Love Thai food. If you ever go to Irvine, try the Pad Thai at ‘Thai Spice’ (a small, humble looking ‘eatery’). They serve THE best Pad Thai I have ever eatern.

    Thanks Sonia… Thai Spice, duly noted for the next Irvine trip :)

  15. shilpa on October 2nd, 2007 11:15 am

    Will you believe it if I said I tried the same dish on Friday and was thinking of posting it? I used thin rice noodles(something like idiyappam) for this.
    Your picture looks great(as usual).

    Oh I can totally believe it Shilpa… it happens to me all the time… I cook something, take a picture and go bloghopping and run into the exact same dish… :) … I make this with the thin rice noodles too… :)

  16. bee on October 2nd, 2007 11:34 am

    i didn’t see any meat and was rubbing my eyes in disbelief, when i scrolled down and saw it!!! :smile:

    :D See how I downplayed the role of meat there? I didn’t want to turn off all my vegetarian friends of my blog for ever :D

  17. Suganya on October 2nd, 2007 12:40 pm

    Sig, Are you talking abt the glass noodles or wide egg noodles?

    Suganya, neither… these are rice noodles , check out this page for a picture…

  18. Puspha on October 2nd, 2007 3:41 pm

    Yummy. Looks almost like Char Kway Teow with some additional ingredients. The noodle is known as Flat Rice Noodles in English or Kway Teow in Chinese..

    Thanks Pushpa, for clarifying… I thought these were thai noodles, since the type I used are normally used for Pad Kae Mao…

  19. musy on October 2nd, 2007 8:12 pm

    Baby, i am sold! If these noodles are not yummy, which ones are? Am sure they taste equally well without meat :) The new look is grogeous than ever before and i love the smilies too :smile:

    Aren’t these MS smilies, you are really loyal Sig :grin:

    “i wish someone would use :(Martini): and :(Beer): too”

    i would, if you make an icon for sangria and daquiri ;)

    I think in this case you are right, you don’t need meat :) … And yeah baby, msn smilies… let me see if I can find a sangria icon just for you… :D

  20. musy on October 3rd, 2007 12:51 am

    Hey Sig: about Kalpavirksha: Both these trees (coconut and banana) are very useful and fit the mythic bill for “the tree that nurtures and changes lives”…..Kalpavriksha/Kalpataru, used as a noun, would specify coconut. But used as an adjective, it refers to a tree ever so useful and nurturing :).

    Thanks musie, for clarifying… :) that makes sense

  21. sandeepa on October 3rd, 2007 6:22 am

    :(Martini): :(Beer): :grin: :(Yes):

    :(Yes): Cheers! :D

  22. Dhana on October 3rd, 2007 9:26 am

    What! Drunken noodles have No alcohol in them..ack, what a waste :evil:
    Fun post!

    I know :( Guess why I ordered it the first time… :D

  23. Jyothsna on October 3rd, 2007 9:41 am

    Only now did I get the wide rice :idea: Everytime I have thai food, I dont bother with the names, just relish every morsel!!

    :) … Yeah, I don’t know most names either, but drunken noodles is hard to forget :)

  24. Mythili on October 4th, 2007 4:44 pm

    Typhoon! Rocks, totally !!! Yes, they have the world’s best Drunken Noodles. Chantanee also has an ‘alright’ version.

    Yours is gorgeousss!!! :(Flower): I love the way it looks.

    I haven’t been to chantanee in ages… guess i should give it a try…

  25. sharmi on October 5th, 2007 12:59 pm

    never tried this one. looks so yum and juicy!

    Thanks Sharmi :)

  26. Susan from Food Blogga on October 6th, 2007 1:43 pm

    Oh, how I love Thai and noodle dishes–any noodles-soft, crispy, thin, thick. You name it! Yours look perfect for my lunch right about now! Sorry I missed your switch to Wordpress. I hope you’re happy with it! You gotta love all those smiley faces, don’t ya? :)

    :) I really love wordpress Susan, and yeah the smilies are pretty cool too.. :D

  27. Archana, mama of twins on October 7th, 2007 1:09 am

    :(Martini): :(Martini): :(Martini): :(Beer): :(Beer): :(coffee): :(coffee):

    :(Yes): :D

  28. spice lover on October 11th, 2007 9:06 am

    Oh I love drunken noodles. There was a thai place by our office in Long island that had perfect portions of these for lunch. And another chinese place where they called these noodles ho fun. We moved to India like a year back and every chinese place we go to I ask them if they have the wide noodles and they seem to have no clue abt it. sigh… i got all excited thinking u had a recipe for drunken noodles. but your dish looks every bit as tasty.

  29. Amy on October 12th, 2007 7:20 pm

    Mm I love this fat rice noodles! Yum!

  30. Amy on October 12th, 2007 7:20 pm

    whoops meant to type *these

  31. Shella on October 20th, 2007 12:43 am

    The peanuts look quite a different addition. All in all, the noodles look very good.

  32. SNair on October 24th, 2007 6:57 pm

    Hi!!Same here..I always judge a Thai restaurant by their Phad Kee Mao!I’ve been looking arnd for the wide rice noodles,unfortunately didn’t find it in Uwajimaya,Bellevue.Cud u plz tell me where u bought it from? And O yeah Next time u visit Kirkland do try the PKM at Hanuman Thai.I doubt it beats the one at Typhoon but its good too.Do tell me if u liked it :smile:

    Hi S, I got it from Bellevue Uwajimaya. It is in the refrigerator, the first isle on the far right side when you enter the store. Thanks for the recommendation for Hanuman Thai, will try it soon. :)

  33. brynn on December 27th, 2007 8:23 am

    pad kee mao is the standard by which i judge all thai restaurants, too. anything less than wonderful, the restaurant is dubbed just another “T.G.I.Thaidays.”

    anyway, a very great recipe can be found here: http://www.realthairecipes.com/recipes/drunken-noodles/
    made it the last two nights and it’s come out great.

    Hi Brynn, thanks for the link… I will check it out..

  34. d on May 4th, 2008 2:04 pm

    I would suggest that instead of wilting the vegetables try and blanch them in boiling water for about two minutes until you get the bright green out of the broccoli and other greens or red out of carrots [this is what blanching does to vegetables while softening them up for the quick high power stir fry].
    you need a gas burner of some 40k BTU power [can buy it for about $100] to get the smoky flavor and the 1-2 minutes stir fry.

    Hi d, thank you so much for the tips! I will definitely try it next time.

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