Pad Thai across Thailand

I spent a month in Thailand during my holiday for the Chinese New Year.

Pad Thai is an cheap, delicious meal, and I happily ate it several times during my month-long trip.  Lime, garlic, peanuts, tofu… what’s not to love?  I downloaded an e-guide for eating vegetarian in Thailand, which had some helpful phrases for ordering food without fish sauce or dried shrimp, both of which are traditionally included in Pad Thai.  That little guide was helpful for me as a vegetarian.

Here’s a version of pad thai in Chiang Mai, at a little cafe run by a grandma and grandpa, across the street from the YMCA.

Pad Thai and Thai iced tea at Chattuchak (or Jattujak) Market, Bangkok’s premiere weekend market, which attracts 200,000 visitors most weekends.

Here is a pad thai street cart in Bangkok.  The woman here is making my plate of pad thai.  She had 6 kinds of noodles you could choose from.

Gorgeous and cheap pad thai on the street.  I bought it from a cart, and ate it on a plastic stool on the sidewalk, holding it on my lap.

Here I’m happy to have a lovely plate of pad thai at the Cambodian border, after a long dusty train ride through the Issan region.

Gorgeous pad thai on the Cambodian border, after a long train ride.

Channeling Jason Schwartzman on a 1910-era Thai train.

The puppy I met on Chinese New Year before eating a plate of pad thai.

Enjoyed this plate late at night after walking the streets of Bangkok’s Chinatown for Chinese New Year.  We had been eating street food like durian, but I was hungry for something a little more substantial.  This pad thai street cart offered several kinds of noodles, including these extra-wide rice noodles.  They were fresh and soft — an amazing texture paired with with the pad thai flavors.