The UNCOMFORTABLE History of Pad Thai!

Описание: The history of pad thai is NOT what you would expect!!

Pad Thai is firmly ingrained in Thai culture now, but it’s actually a relatively new dish. While many dishes evolve over time, pad thai was NOT one of them! It was created in the 1930s by the Prime Minister of Thailand and eventual dictator known as Phibun.

Leading up to World War II Thailand had a problem: all of its closes neighbours has been colonized by the French and English and Japan was taking over China. To combat this threat, Phibun decided he had to unify an ethnically diverse country and focus on nation building, westernizing and modernizing the country along the way: the country’s name was changed from Siam to Thailand and local languages and dialects were banned from schools.

“Part of Phibun’s nation-building strategy was to develop 'Thai-ness' and impose a ‘Thai Great Tradition’ to demonstrate the strength and unity of the Thai nation,” - Penny Van Esterik

Buuuuut what was this new national Thai identity without a tasty dish to back it up?!

While all this was happening, so was WWII- and with it a shortage of rice across the country. Thai noodle dishes might be popular now, but rice itself, not rice noodles, were much more popular across Thailand at the time. However, a bowl of rice noodles uses less grain than plain rice and when the world is in the middle of a global conflict- efficiency is key.

Luckily for Phibun his housekeeper made a mean noodle dish. And if he liked it, why wouldn’t the whole country prefer it to…every other dish they already ate. You’ve got your rice noodles for efficient use of grain, throw in veggies and a cheap source of protein and it’s a nutritious meal, perfect for keeping the population healthy and ready to protect from any pesky invaders. Phibun believed the key to strengthening Thailand was to improve national pride and the national diet…and pad thai was the answer.

Phibun starts rolling out this dish across the country as part of a national campaign called “Noodle is Your Lunch”, giving out free noodle carts and distributed recipes for this new dish.

But here’s the thing: you’re a military dictator during the middle of a world war, naturally you’re very busy. You’ve created a great new dish but when it comes to naming it you finally run out of ‘inspired’ ideas. So, you tell it like it is and call it pad thai. Pad, which means stir fry and Thai for Thailand. Its name literally means Thai style stir fried noodles.

And as chef Kasma Loha puts it, “for a dish to be so named in its own country clearly suggests an origin that isn’t Thai”

Pad thai wasn’t even really considered to be a Thai dish in the country. Stir fried noodles are quintessentially Chinese and almost every ingredient in the dish isn’t native to the country.

So, there you have it: one of the most popular Thai dishes was created by the housekeeper of a military leader to promote nationalism and nutrition.

Learning that my favourite food ever was created by a military dictator blows, but it doesn’t really stop me from loving the dish now. Phibun was deposed and exiled but pad thai was too good to give up, so it lives on. Thank GOD!

Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/internati...
https://gastronomica.org/2009/02/10/f...