Drunken Noodles....and My First Steps into the World of Thai Cuisine!!!

Other than Pakistani comfort foods, Thai food is my favorite. Wherever I move (I've been doing that a lot lately) my first task is to find a good Thai restaurant. I have to say that no restaurant has even come close to the one in my hometown, Sacramento. Bangkok Garden in Sacramento has the most delicious food I've ever tasted. My second favorite is in D.C., Pasara. Unfortunately, my new home, Richmond, VA has failed me with three Thai restaurants in the past month and half! Since Richmond is a less diverse place than the other cities I've lived in, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to find anything better than I've tasted already (reviews on yelp say the same thing). So I decided to try and make my favorite Thai dishes at home. This way I can control the salt and fat content and can have dishes like Drunken Noodles more often.

Thai cooking scared me. I had tried my hand at this cuisine before and though the food I had cooked smelled just like the ones at restaurants, they tasted horrible. I was a new cook and a bit naive. I went and bought and array of 'Thai Kitchen' products thinking they were authentic. I later realized that Thai Kitchen is a brand targeting people that aren't Thai food savvy. So, when I tried cooking Thai food again, I did a lot of research about the recipes and ingredients. I got a Thai cookbook and also looked at recipes online. I was surprised to find a Thai grocery store in Richmond and did all my shopping there, making sure all ingredients were authentic.

I made my favorite dish, Drunken Noodles yesterday, but sometimes my brain doesn't work when I fast so I messed up the recipe. I halved the amount of noodles, as the recipes made enough to feed six people, which is way too much for me. However, I did not half the recipe for the sauce. The resulting dish tasted authentic and delicious but was really salty. Today, I made it again, fixing my previous mistake and the result was a delicious, restaurant quality dish.

Drunken Noodles

Adapted from www.importfood.com

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1/2 pkg Wide Rice Noodles

1 C Tofu, fried (optional)

2 Chicken Breasts, cut in strips

1 Red Bell Pepper, cut in strips

1/2 Onion, cut in long slices

1 C Sweet Basil

1 1/2 tsp Garlic paste

1 Thai Red Chili, chopped

2 T Fish Sauce

2 T Golden Mountain Sauce

1 T Black Soy Sauce
1 T Palm Sugar 

Crushed Dried Thai Chilies, as needed

Oil, as needed

Soak the rice noodles in water until soft, about 10-15 minutes. In a deep pan, or a wok if you have one, heat oil and stir fry the noodles. Take the noodles out into a dish and run them through cold water so they don't stick together (you may need to separate the noodles with your hands), set aside.

In a pan, heat oil, then add garlic paste and red chilies, stir for about a minute. Add the chicken and let cook. When the chicken is cooked on the outside and is no longer pink, add the bell peppers. Now add the ingredients for the sauce: fish sauce, Golden Mountain sauce, black soy sauce, and palm sugar. Let cook until the chicken is cooked through. Add the onions and cook until the onions are crispy but cooked. Toss in the noodles, tofu, and sweet basil. Sprinkle crushed dried Thai chilies to achieve desired level of spiciness. Drunken Noodles is ready for you to enjoy!