Here's a veggie version of the famous Thai noodle dish. I have to stress it's only a version - I tried dozens of 'pad Thais' in Thailand and they were all different. I put some spices into this recipe, but I wouldn't say they were definitive of the dish. All the different pad thais I tried seemed to be quite varied in their constituents. I did see a load of cutely packed spice mixtures for tourists on Ko San Road - for authentic tom yam, pad thai, etc. - but even in the couple of places where I found what I thought was the best pad thai, the spice mixture varied between establishments. It's generally the case that the dish is made with thin noodles, which might give us a characteristic to hang a definition on, but on one occasion, I was offered a choice of three different types of noodles - thin noodles, thick noodles and even thicker ones. And those guys made one of the best plates of veggie pad Thai I tried in several weeks of travelling around Thailand. It was on a street corner in a village, on the island of Koh Pa Ngang, and consisted of a wee stall with a couple of woks constantly fired up and a row of tables and chairs along the sidewalk.
Koh Pa Ngang is a nice place, It's well known as a sort of party island and has been for years. I remember staying on Koh Samui about twenty years ago and going to Koh Pa Ngang for the full moon party. Nowadays they have full moon parties, half moon parties and anything else they can think up so that there always seems to be some action. It's not the whole island that's like that, just the south-west beaches, but that's the easiest part to get to and has the largest choice of budget accommodation, so that's where we stayed. Not that it's so cheap nowadays.... we spent the whole afternoon wandering around with our rucksacks looking for a reasonably-priced place to kip. The island is firmly on the 'joint ticket' route these days, which means loads of youngsters get dropped there within a very short time of arriving in Bangkok, after being led by the nose from the train to the bus and from the bus to the ferry by representatives of various tour companies. Everything probably seems really cheap compared to Europe, Australia and the US, but we found everything a wee bit pricey after the rest of Thailand. But that's what lead to me finding the pad Thai, so I canny really complain. The thing was, the restaurants were generally out of the range of our budget - even the grungy back-packer places - so we resorted to eating breakfast on the balcony of our cottage and having lunch and dinner at street stalls, two of which turned out a mean pad Thai.
Here's my version of the recipe, then. It's quite a loose set of instructions. There's not much can go wrong with this. You could alter the veg list to suit what you've got (why not try sugar-snap peas, baby corn or mushrooms) and, while I would suggest using some kind of thin wheat noodles, you can use whatever kind you like.
A pile of cooked noodles
Some broccoli florets
Thinly sliced carrot strips
A handful of bean sprouts
Some small cubes of tofu
A few sliced cloves of garlic
A piece of cinnamon stick
3 or 4 star anise pods
A few black or white peppercorns
A pinch of saffron
A handful of roasted peanuts
Red chilli powder
Soy sauce
Oil
Salt
Heat the oil in a wok or deep pan and throw in the broccoli, carrot and garlic, along with the cinnamon stick and anise pods. Stir and fry on a high heat for a couple of minutes then stir in the tofu cubes, crushed peppercorns, saffron, a little salt and a pinch of chilli powder. After a few seconds, stir in the noodles, add a splash of soy sauce, and cook until the noodles are heated through. Stir in a few bean sprouts and serve immediately.
Serve with a plate of greens (bean sprouts, green chillis, green onions, coriander), a dish of soy sauce, one of red chilli powder and one of ground/crushed/chopped peanuts.