Attempting Something New: Shrimp Pad Thai

I love stir-fry and eat it almost once a week because it's a quick and easy meal, but chicken and broccoli gets boring after a while. So last night I made my first foray into Thai cuisine with a Shrimp Pad Thai recipe from Joy of Cooking. I don't have the recipe in front of me right now as I type this, so I'll post it later. It turned out pretty good despite the fact that I used the skinniest rice noodles on the planet. I think I just misunderstood what the recipe called for -- next time I will use flatter noodles like you would be served if you ordered this at a restaurant. Rice stick noodles come in differing widths and thicknesses -- I bought the ones that looked like the noodles at the very top of the page when I should have bought the kind that is in the second picture just below.

I'm not sure why I get these wild hairs to cook on nights when I have no food in my kitchen, but again I found myself going to the grocery store at 7 o'clock. I ended up having to make two stops -- first at Whole Foods and then to Safeway. For some reason Whole Foods had every sprout except for bean sprouts (annoying) and their green onions left something to be desired. This was disappointing considering the main reason I choose Whole Foods over other grocery stores is because of the produce, but whatever. I will keep going because a trip to that grocery store makes me happy. Plus there is always wine and cheese to be tasted if you go at the dinner hour.

While I enjoyed what I made and was definitely pleased with myself for trying something new, this recipe was a little heavy on noodles and bordered on being too spicy. I will adjust accordingly next time. My poor little fingers were burning all evening from chopping two red chilis even after washing my hands several times. (I won't even talk about what happened when I went to take my contacts out later that evening.) It was also a lot of work for a weeknight meal -- I don't think I ate until almost 10! Making Pad Thai is not complicated, but there is a lot of prep involved, which basically all needs to be done prior to putting anything in your wok.

So for next time, I will probably just use one red chili since the recipe also calls for dried crushed red pepper flakes and black pepper on top of it. I will also get the flatter rice noodles, but use slightly less and add more sprouts. One thing I did do right: I paired my spicy din with beer. A little Stella Artois hit the spot! Did you know that Stella was a originally brewed as a Christmas beer in Belgium? It was named Stella from the star of Christmas. Random trivia for you to store away.

Readers of this blog (all three of you), has anyone ever tried making Pad Thai before? I'm interested to know about other recipes.