Easy Whole 30 Minute Shrimp Pad Thai Recipe for Dinner - Guide Recipe
My first real job was working in a Chinese restaurant. In fact I worked there for three years , straight through high school until I left for college. I started as a hostess and all I did was seat people. All. Night. Long.
After some time I proved myself proficiently skilled in arranging tables and truly mastered the phrase , "Party of two? Right this way please." It's really an art.
As much as I loved walking walking back and forth through the restaurant with stacks of menus , I was overjoyed when I was promoted to cashier. And it didn't take long for me to tackle a second position , Chef To-Go.
Okay that's not actually a real title , I just took take-out orders and packed them in addition to my cashier duties. But man , I was one heck of a chinese-food-packer. Wrapping those foldable boxes in cellophane is trickier than it looks. Trust me , I know.
And you would not believe how many people expect you to just know that they are allergic to peanuts and how dare you put them in my order.
Eventually , I became a waitress. And that was my real time to shine. At one point I swear I could carry a full tray of water glasses in one hand and five fully-dressed salad plates on the other arm all at the same time. I considered joining the traveling circus , but when they couldn't guarantee the income I was already generating in tips at the restaurant , I decided to let that dream go.
Sometimes I still wonder if I passed up my true calling in life.
I don't know the name of the chef who worked in our restaurant. I should , but I don't. Because we only called him X. I'm completely serious. X , I need a second order of the lo mein , but hold the onions!
At the end of the night when the last customers had finally wandered out and we began cleaning and resetting the place for another day , X would fix us something delicious. Sometimes he'd ask what we wanted and we would request our favorites from the menu. But other times , he'd surprise us with new creations.
One such night he presented us with a gigantic bowl of something I didn't recognize , though many of my more Asian-cuisine-savvy coworkers apparently were familiar with and loved the dish. I dished it up. Ate it. (with chopsticks p.s.) And loooooved it. Turns out it was shrimp pad thai.
Shrimp pad thai , come to mama.
I left that phase of my life long ago when I left for college , and I've had several jobs since. Sometimes I think back though and remember some of the seriously amazing dishes that X would make for the crew each night. One thing is for sure , I'll never forget that first time I tried shrimp pad thai.
I've had it many times since and I just cannot get enough. I've been dying to have it for a while and finally decided it just needed to be done. I had to make it. With real fish sauce. Because that's the legit way to do it. So I bought some fish sauce , and brought on a wave of nostalgia with this Asian beauty of a meal. If you like pad thai , you'll love this. If you've never had pad thai? Well then it's about dang time you tried it.
*Recipe adapted from; SkinnyTaste