ผัดไทย
phàt thai
Thai
“Thailand's national dish was invented by a prime minister as a tool of nationalism — and the name literally means 'Thai stir-fry.'”
Pad Thai (ผัดไทย) literally means phàt (stir-fried) + thai (Thai/free). The dish was promoted in the 1930s-40s by Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram as part of a nationalist campaign.
Phibunsongkhram was building a Thai national identity. He changed the country's name from Siam to Thailand, promoted Thai language over Chinese, and created a 'Thai' national dish from Chinese stir-fry noodle techniques.
The irony: pad thai uses rice noodles (Chinese origin), stir-frying (Chinese technique), tamarind (Indian origin), and fish sauce (ancient Southeast Asian). The 'Thai' dish is a brilliant fusion of everything not-Thai.
But that's what makes it perfectly Thai — Thailand's genius has always been absorbing influences and making them Thai. The dish is honest about being a construct, and delicious enough that nobody cares.
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Today
Pad thai is now the default entry point to Thai cuisine worldwide. It's on every Thai restaurant menu from Tokyo to Toronto.
The nationalist invention worked better than anyone imagined: a dish created to be 'Thai' became the world's definition of Thai food.
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