Thailand. I always heard Pad Thai had too many calories, too much salt but I never really investigated it until arriving in Bangkok. This is the way Pad Thai is served at The Oriental Hotel where we stayed. Really delicious.
So what is in it? Well fish sauce, tamarind paste, red chilies and rice noodles, with cilantro, lime juice, chopped peanuts, bean sprouts and maybe some protein and dried shrimp thrown in. All things I regularly have in my house. Not!
And Pad Thai was voted the #5 food in the world by 35,000 people in a CNN poll in 2011. Interestingly, Rendang was voted #1 and cheeseburgers were way down the list at #30. Rendang??? I have so much to learn as I have never even heard of this exotic food from Indonesia and I consider myself to be fairly well travelled.
So I tried making Pad Thai at home, finally locating the tamarind paste at Whole Foods, and it was really good. A restaurant portion of Pad Thai comes in at a whopping 900 calories, but my at home version was about 350 calories. The American Heart Association even recommends Pad Thai as a healthy option when eating Thai food. So just watch the portions and enjoy.