I’ve mentioned before that my favorite Thai dish is pad see ew, and the idea had been bouncing around my head that I should make my own, when I serendipitously came across a tempting recipe, so I set off for Chinatown after work today for the ingredients and implements.
First stop, the tiny but well-stocked Bangkok Center Grocery, which specializes in food from Thailand but also other parts of Asia. I purchased sesame oil from Japan, rice vinegar from Taiwan, black soy sauce and dry rice noodles from Thailand, and my favorite, hailing from Bangkok itself, Squid brand fish sauce, the large bottle illustrated with a vibrant yellow squid but actually made with anchovy extract, sugar and salt. (“Salt crystals may appear naturally in high quality fish sauce,” notes the label. “These salt crystals are harmless.”)
By coincidence, when I’d told a coworker of mine earlier today where I was headed after work, he revealed he was preparing a highfalutin buffalo wing recipe for a Super Bowl party and was having trouble finding sriracha, a popular Thai garlic-chili red sauce. So as a favor, I picked him up a bottle of Thai-authentic Sriraka Panich brand. (“I like that the word ‘panic’ appears in the name of a hot sauce,” he told me later.) If I hadn’t boned-up on sriracha at Wikipedia beforehand, I’d have mistakenly instead bought the best-selling U.S. brand, Huy Fong, which is made here, doped with preservatives and apparently considered ghetto-fabulous by Thai people. After ringing-up my purchases, the clerk individually wrapped my bottles in pages from a Thai newspaper.
A short walk up Mulberry Street and I hit the Asian food and houseware emporium New Kam Man (200 Canal St.), where I’ve shopped before for tea and quirky mugs. It’s a far less touristy and more practical version of Pearl River. Upstairs is dedicated to food, mostly packaged goods, although if you’re in the mood for whole dried shark fin, there are several large glass apothecary jars, nestled on a high shelf, filled with this cartilaginous treat.
Here I bought the recipe-recommended brand of oyster sauce I couldn’t find at Bangkok Center, Lee Kum Kee. I’d have chosen a bottle of this regardless. On its label, a smiling Chinese mother and son row a canoe across a lake, only the boat also contains a small bounty of oysters, each the size of a Radio Flyer wagon. On each side of this scene, a posse of uncaught giant oysters rears from the water, shells parted as if to shriek, “You’ll never make it to shore alive!”
I also bought a cylindrical tin of Roland brand grapeseed oil hailing from France. I thought the mention of this oil of which I’d never heard was a “foodie” pretension of my recipe until I did some research and learned that the oil has a high smoke point and little aroma which makes it a prime candidate for hot wok action.
Which brings me to my final purchase, a wok, which I selected from the wok aisle downstairs at New Kam Man in the midst of all flatware, glassware and teapots. I selected a no-brand steel model with sturdy handles, deep and measuring about 14" across, for a mere $10.50. While I was down there, I grabbed a box of five pairs of lacquered wood chopsticks in vibrant colors and cheesy geisha illustrations for $4.95.
Now that I’m prepared for pad see ew, other than buying an egg, garlic, Chinese broccoli and pork loin, which can be more easily procured uptown, you should be reading soon how the recipe unfolds. Excitement!