Thailand - Pad Thai & Papaya Salad, the perfect combination

lorisolan
Feb 4, 2017
4 min read

Denver frequently ordered Pad Thai in different restaurants in Melbourne and he always raved about it. I tried it a couple of times and thought it was tasty but nothing in Melbourne comes close to the real thing you experience from the streets of Thailand. We visited five different areas in Thailand (Bangkok, Rayong, Ban Phe, Chanthaburi and Trat) and I am pretty sure we had Pad Thai and Papaya salad every single day, once if not twice. It is amazing how the same dish can taste so unique in different restaurants and food stalls.

They are both simple dishes but the flavours and freshness that hit you are so mouth watering and always leaving you wanting more.

Pad Thai is a rice noodle dish usually made with prawns, bean sprouts, egg, chillies, ginger, garlic and garnished with lime, coriander and peanuts. There are many variations but these are the base ingredients and each vendor will have their own twist.

Papaya salad is super fresh and is made with obviously papaya fruit which is grated, green beans, chillies, dried shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice and palm sugar. This can be a seriously spicy dish which makes it all the better!

Below are just images as it is very hard to get names of local restaurants and food stalls as they are mainly in Thai writing, however you cannot really go wrong with either dish from anywhere in Thailand.

Pad Thai at Amphawa Floating Market (Amphawa, Amphawa District, Samut Songkhram 75110)

This lady had all she needed on her boat to cook us up a super tasty, authentic Pad Thai. This boat was just one of the many small boats at Amphawa Floating Market, located 50km outside of Bangkok. Amphawa is the second most popular floating market next to Damnoen Saduak. It is not as large as Damnoen however it is a more local style floating market rather than a tourist spot which makes it slightly more enjoyable as not everyone is stopping for photos and getting in the way. I say this yet we are those people too!

Two variations of papaya salad in Chanthaburi

We got to Chanthaburi around lunch time and went for a walk around the town. Whatever area we ended up in, it was near impossible to find food. The very few restaurants around were either closed, could not understand what we were saying or on their lunch break and fast asleep out the front of their shop. We were pretty hungry at this stage and at out tethers end as it was a very hot day and we had walked for a few kms. Nevertheless, we stumbled across a small, cute restaurant where two ladies were sitting chatting. We decided to do our best impression of eating and they nodded and smiled and led us in to sit down. They gave us the menu which was completely in thai so we hadn't a hope. With our very little thai capabilities and their even less English ones, we thought we were going to have to get up and leave. We tried our best to use Google and this sparked something in one of the ladies and off she went to the kitchen and started chopping and cooking. We were pretty happy and excited to see what we were getting as we had no idea! Below is what we got, two of the most beautiful salads decorated with edible flowers. We were sure one was papaya salad but not 100% on the other. Who cares, it was delicious!

Pad Thai and Papaya Salad on the beach in Rayong

The beach was located right across the road from our hotel. Dotted along the edge of the road and beach were small seafood restaurants with sun loungers and tables out on the sand. They all had big buckets out front with their daily catches on display. We were approached by a man who wanted to lead us in to his restaurant and we happily obliged. There were no names on any of the frontages in so I can't recommend exactly which one we went to.The man did the ordering and drinks run while his wife did all of the cooking. We ordered our usual lunch special of pad thai and papaya salad. This was by far our favourite of both dishes since being in Thailand. The freshness and taste was unrivalled. As a result, we came back here again for dinner and lunch the next day. It was the perfect combination of incredible food and relaxing beach time, not forgetting the cold Chang beer in hand. Winning!

Local street food stalls in Nana Plaza, Bangkok

Located right near Nana Plaza train station is a popular outdoor local street food area. You cannot miss the red coloured tents lining the street. Lunch time is the best time to go for the full experience. The crowds are huge as there are a lot of offices located around the area so the atmosphere is amazing. There are many food stalls each with their aromatic smells filtering out as you walk by. We did a run to a few different ones and picked up the below - Pad Thai, Fried Rice, Fried Vegie Spring Rolls and Morning Glory which is another famous thai food dish comprising of morning glory vegetable drowned in an incredible garlic and oyster sauce dressing. All washed down with a Chang beer of course!