- Okay.
Hey, everyone.
Hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens.
We just arrived to Ang Thong, which is right in central...
Right in the heart of Thailand.
We're on our way today for lunch to eat at
a place called Pad Thai Ba Lek,
which is a lady.
She's 85 years old,
and she's been making pad thai for over 45 years.
So it's gonna be an honor.
We're gonna go to her restaurant.
We're gonna see her make pad thai.
Feels good to be in the countrysides, the rice fields.
Okay, we're on our way to go eat pad thai.
(emphatic, rhythmic music)
(rustling gravel)
Oh, man, the breeze under this mango tree is wonderful.
And, yeah, it was about an hour and a half
drive from Central Bangkok.
We are in the province and I think pretty close
to the city of Ang Thong,
but we're in the countryside.
It's beautiful out here.
The breeze.
The rice fields are in full green, yellow blossom.
Just a few kilometers down the road
should be the restaurant.
(door opens) (engine idling)
(door shuts) (airy, rhythmic music)
(lively rhythmic music)
(door shuts)
This is an amazing location next to a canal of water.
There's a really old...
Okay, there's a modern bridge that you can drive across.
Then there's this ancient, old, rickety, wooden bridge.
It's so peaceful.
We got a parking right under this beautiful shade tree,
and then the whole restaurant is
kind of under a shelter with tables.
I love this style of a restaurant.
(rattling)
(background conversations in foreign language)
(steaming and sizzling)
(metal scraping)
(taps) (metal scraping)
She's a legend.
She's over 85 years old, and she's still making pad thai.
She's cooking at the back of the restaurant
burning only wood so you get the wood smoke.
You can smell the aroma of the fire, the combustion,
but I kinda came around to the back
so I could see her from the front where she's cooking.
And she's right in the middle of a batch.
She makes it by a whole wok batch, all the noodles.
Just juices and sauces are just sloshing around.
Then she only uses duck eggs.
So then, when she's finishing a batch,
she adds on the duck eggs kind of into portions,
kind of like divvying out the portions.
Hopefully, we'll see the entire process from the start
after she finishes this batch.
But just the way she works like not fast,
just methodically, slowly dropping in
those duck eggs with one hand,
sloshing them around, stirring them around,
scrambling them into the pad thai noodle sloshy mixture.
(metallic clanging) (plastic ruffling)
The rice noodles are first soaked in water,
and then they're fried once.
It's dry chili?
Like dried chili, right?
She adds in dried chili as well as
hom dang, which are shallots.
And that just gives the noodles their primer,
prepares them for the real fry,
for the real slosh in all of the sauces.
And then they go into another pan to be fried again
with the eggs, with more sauce, with lard
to give it the final flavor.
Okay, she's about to start a fresh, new batch.
(tapping)
(speaking in foreign language)
(sizzling oil)
(speaking in foreign language)
(sizzles)
(speaking in foreign language)
(loud, metallic banging)
(sizzling oil)
(banging and scraping metal)
(sizzling) (scraping)
(clanks)
(laughs)
(clanks)
(speaking in foreign language)
(metallic banging)
(scraping)
The more I watch her as she makes the pad thai...
I don't even know if I would call it stir-frying
because it's such a juicy,
such a sloshy mixture of sauces and noodles.
It's so wet.
It's a wet fry.
She controls the fire here because she also mentioned to me
that she only burns wood so that she gets the flame
so that she can control the fire
but also because it's a batch, she cooks it by the batch,
it's not like a scorching...
You get the smokiness from the actual burning of the wood
but not from the heat of the wok.
But just the way she has it mastered down.
Again, she could, by all means,
make pad thai with her eyes closed.
Just the methods, the system,
the process which she has developed and practiced
for over 45 years and mastered.
That is mastery.
But then to get her batch started,
what she does is, I believe she adds in some lard,
then tosses in the noodles,
then a few scoops of a mixture of palm sugar syrup
as well as tamarind sauce and pours that in,
and it just kinda sloshes around the noodles in that sauce
in that caramelly syrup
thickness.
And that bubbles away,
but it's a really a matter of mastering the technique
and also mastering the fire and the heat
because I can guarantee that if you don't have experience,
if you don't know what you're doing,
you'll end up with like a clump, a blob of noodles
that will all stick together,
but she keeps the noodles separately.
She knows how to control the fire,
knows how to control the different sauces
to pair with the noodles.
And then she just kinda works that in slowly.
She works it slowly.
And then I just love how she drops in the eggs.
(taps)
(banging metal)
(speaking in foreign language)
(sizzling) (metallic banging)
(scraping metal)
(loud sizzling)
(woman speaking in foreign language)
(sizzling)
(banging on metal)
(speaks in foreign language)
And then right before serving,
what she does is she takes a handful
of thua ngok, which are bean sprouts,
tosses them on top, and just folds it into the noodles
just so they slightly wilt under the heat of those noodles
and then puts it onto your plate, and that's a portion.
And I'm sure they get their banana blossoms right from here
even the green mango.
Everything is right from here.
That is a big banana blossom right there
(woman speaks in foreign language)
used to garnish pad thai.
(lively, rhythmic music)
There's a little dog underneath the table (laughs).
(woman speaking foreign language)
There's two different versions you can get, right?
Just the normal and the pi-se.
Pi-se comes with two eggs, so I got pi-se.
And I think the eggs are both kinda like
folded within your noodles.
(rattling metal)
Chopsticks eat with chopsticks (mutters).
I love these high benches with the tables,
but quickly, before I start eating,
before I taste test...
Or should I taste test first before I tell you?
Yeah, maybe I should taste this right now first
while it's hot and fresh.
But I just wanted to tell you a little bit about pad thai,
about the history of pad thai.
And also, pad thai is not...
It's not a dish that I actually eat very often.
It is one of the most well-known Thai dishes,
and it is popular in Thailand as well.
But just because there's so many other dishes,
and pad thai tends to be kinda like on the sweeter side,
it's not usually my personal favorite,
but I am very excited to try this pad thai,
one, because she's such a legend.
She makes only one dish,
and she has perfected it.
And no matter what, I respect that, and I love that.
So it is a true honor to be here, to taste her plate.
Once she dishes out your plate of pad thai from the wok,
then they sprinkle on a spoonful of crushed peanuts
and then a few...
Sometimes, it's chives,
but she's using green onions.
(background conversations in foreign language)
Mm.
Oh, wow.
(smacks)
The texture of the noodles is amazing.
It's so...
They're elastic-y.
You could probably tie something up with them,
but at the same time
(dog yelps loudly)
Whoa.
(people speaking in foreign language)
There's the little dog (mutters).
(speaks in foreign language)
At the same time, they've absorbed just the right amount of
that makham, that palm sugar, the tamarind,
the sauces, the oil.
You do taste sweet at first.
Pad thai is always on the sweeter side,
but then, at the same time, the sweetness kinda mellows out
because it's palm sugar.
It's not that sharp sugar, processed
sugar, like very sharp sweetness.
It's more of a mellow sweetness,
and the richness of those yolks, those duck yolk eggs.
You can see that the sauce is so thick.
It just coats onto your chopsticks.
It's so thick and sticky.
(child speaking foreign language)
With my chopstick (mutters).
But really quickly, just to tell you
a little about the history of pad thai,
pad thai is not an ancient dish.
It previously was not even a traditional dish of Thailand.
But it only dates back to the 1930s
when the prime minister at that time...
He was developing Thailand.
He's the one who's responsible for even
changing the name to Thailand,
Thailand to Thailand.
Back in the 1930s, the prime minister,
his house help made a noodle dish, kway teow.
And kway teow is originally
rice noodles originally from China,
which were adapted into Thailand.
But his house helper would make a type of kway teow
that maybe was her own style.
She would fry the noodles,
and the prime minister loved
the noodles so much that he said,
"Let's make this into a dish that unifies,
"that brings the people of Thailand together."
And that's why it's called pad thai.
That's why it's called stir-fried thai.
And so that's when pad thai was created
originally with Chinese roots,
but then he added many different Thai ingredients:
protein sources, the eggs,
the Thai ingredients like palm sugar, like sour tamarind,
and then balanced the flavor so that it was sweet,
so that it was sour, a little bit spicy,
some of the herbs and some of the ingredients
that you can find right in Central Thailand.
Additionally, Ba Lek was also mentioning that,
originally, a traditional version or an old version
of pad thai was to be served with
ma-fuang, which is starfruit,
but then, after that, when it wasn't the season
or when there's no starfruit available,
people started using green mango.
So she still serves green mango on the table
to eat with your pad thai,
and now even one step further,
most of the time in Bangkok,
you don't even find it served with green mango.
It's rare.
I don't know if I've ever seen it served with green mango,
but it's served with just lime slices
to squeeze on lime because it's faster.
It's easier.
It's more sour.
It's less expensive.
The green mango, that is awesome.
And then, because I love sourness
and also to balance that sweetness, I'll squeeze on lime.
In addition to the fresh accompaniments,
we've also got some of the seasonings.
There's fish sauce.
There is extra sugar that you can put on.
It's already very sweet, in my opinion,
but some people even add extra sugar.
And then the main thing that I want:
(loudly opens container)
Sprinkle on a little bit of chili flakes.
Bump up the heat,
and then just kinda stir this around.
I wanna get some of that green mango for sure in this bite.
And then there's lime juice on here.
There's chili to balance the flavor.
And another reason why noodles,
especially soup noodles but also pad thai, other noodles,
are so popular in Thailand
is because they're so customizable.
I mean, that's the reason they give you
the different seasonings.
If it's not salty enough for you, you can add fish sauce.
If it's not sweet enough for you, you can add sugar.
If it's not spicy enough for you,
nobody minds if you add a lot of chili.
(loud, airy music)
Mm.
(loud bang in background)
With the green mango, it's amazing
because the noodles are so sweet,
but then, with that burst of sour green mango
and that crunch...
Mm.
That just fully complements the sweetness for me.
Then with that spicy dried chili smokiness at the end.
I'm gonna squeeze this with a little more lime
just to give it
a sharpness of lime.
(airy music)
And I'll take a time-out to chase with a banana blossom.
In Thai, it's called huapli.
It's also almost mandatory to serve with pad thai.
Normally, it's actually cooked in different dishes,
but this is one of the only dishes where you eat it raw.
And it's always available with pad thai.
(smacks)
Yeah.
It's chalky, doesn't actually have a lot of flavor,
almost like a side of milkiness
and a little bit of sweetness,
but it is kinda like chalky.
It's kinda dry, I think.
But for me, the benefit is when you're taking
a bite of pad thai and it's kinda sweet,
the banana blossom just kinda like completely cleanses,
and then that rejuvenates your taste buds
and then you can take another bite of pad thai.
(slow, airy music)
And you're like
really feel the flavors of the pad thai
even more
exuberantly
after taking a bite
of the banana blossom
(loud, rhythmic music)
She's gonna make a new batch.
(loud, rhythmic music)
Mm.
I could eat every bite with an entire 50/50 ratio
of green mango to the noodles.
Mm.
I think the green mango is what makes it for me.
(airy piano music)
(loud, rhythmic music)
And I'm getting down to my last few bites of my first plate,
but as I keep on eating it,
you can really taste the richness of it,
the amount of lard in here, the duck egg yolks.
It is rich.
It's hardy.
It's warming.
(loud, airy music)
(taps)
(loud, airy music)
I haven't even had any water yet,
but they also use the really old-style Thai cups.
I think they're made from aluminum,
and it's all self service at the front.
You can serve yourself water.
I love these cups, too.
(reverberating piano music)
(woman laughs)
As I continue to eat it, you could get the richness of it,
that lard, the eggs, the yolks.
It was very good for a plate of pad thai.
And just the history in that dish
and the history in Ba Lek herself
and how long she's been making it,
how she's mastered pad thai.
But again, pad thai just in general is not my favorite dish.
It is a little too sweet for me to eat regularly.
But that being said, I did really enjoy it.
I enjoyed this entire experience,
and just getting to taste her pad thai
that she's been making so long,
that she's been perfecting for so long.
She is a legend of pad thai.
And my utmost respect to her there.
She's so nice as well.
She's so welcoming.
And it's still completely family-run.
It's her daughters that also help.
And so that was an honor to have this chance to drive here,
to come here, to spend time, hanging out,
to watch her as she methodically, expertly,
again, mastering-ly prepared that pad thai.
And then, yeah, that was just a lot of fun
and a learning experience for me.
So that's it for this video.
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