i make pad thai about every 6 weeks or so.  my last batch was documented here.  i take this ritual pretty seriously and i like to think that my version is by far the best and most authentic in town, which really under the circumstances of where i live is no huge accomplishment.

but tonight i had a very special request.  and pad thai it was going to be.  so luckily, and in keeping with ‘eating down the house‘ all i needed to pick up was cilantro, green onions, bean sprouts and a lime.  everything else was here… except the noodles.  i was running low.  so in the midst of an unusually demanding day where a trip to the international market would have been near impossible, i got a package of noodles from angela, my best friend who lives in the hood.  i did a quick drive-by between appointments and we did a hand-off worthy of a marathon relay race. 

i’m used to soaking my noodles for about 20/30 minutes in room temperature water so i didn’t bother to read the package.  i assumed that all rice sticks were created equal.  but this brand called for soaking in boiling water for 6 minutes… 

so my pad thai was al dente.  to say the very least. 

was i happy about this?  nooooo…  am i willing to let go of the fact that i totally screwed up?  um, yeah.  i guess.  between you and me, secretly i kinda liked it although this particular pad thai making event was just so not about me and my strangeness.

but the flavors were spot on.  tamarind, fish sauce, chili sauce, palm sugar, dried shrimp, salted dried radish, shallots, garlic, peanuts, peanut oil, eggs, bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro and lime.  and the best shrimp i know to buy around these parts.  take all of that and you’d be hard pressed to go too far wrong.

for dessert it was dulce de leche on a spoon with a shot of espresso. 

because you’ve just gotta keep ‘em guessing…