🤨 When dishes evolve and upset people

What did Pad Kra Pao look like before?

🙏🏼 Sawaddee Ka

People can get attached to how a dish is supposed to be and get very passionate defending their “correct” version. Sure, I get annoyed when I see a completely awful version of a Thai dish on the internet, like Rachael Ray’s pad thai Uncle Roger recently reviewed.

But sometimes, it’s people from the same culture arguing with each other over what’s the correct way. Pad kra pao or Thai holy basil stir fry, my latest recipe, is an interesting example. Here’s the video, but read on for the back story…

Growing up in Thailand I only knew of one type of pad kra pao.It had ground meat, long beans, and sometimes other veggies. It’s seasoned with oyster sauce, fish sauce, black soy sauce, and more.

But as I studied further into Thai cuisine, I read that pad kra pao started out as a much simpler dish. Seasoned only with fish sauce and sugar, and contained no vegetables. For years this felt like something only a handful of people knew about.

As the internet allowed knowledge and opinions to be passed on rapidly, I started seeing people talking about the pad kra pao with veggies with disdain. MY GOD NOT THE LONG BEANS!!! 😩

(And if you’re wondering if it should actually be pad gaprao or pad krapow, read my answer in the FAQ section of the recipe post.)

When I posted my original pad kra pao video 7 years ago…

I didn’t hear anyone complain about the long beans or black soy sauce. If I posted that recipe today, I’m pretty sure that will not be the case.

But dishes evolve, and they do for a reason, e.g. some people actually like vegetables in their pad kra pao! Let them have it! And that’s perfect. That’s why our world today is full of such a staggering diversity of food. We wouldn’t want it any other way.