Foodcourt Challenge: Simply Thai

Simply awesome. I remember eating from this place 2 years ago. And nothing much has changed, still awesome. It's made to order so you know it hasn't been sitting around for god knows how long.
Ordered the same thing, it is just too good. PAD THAI!!

Pad Thai $10.90

This is almost perfect for food court food, and pretty damn good for restaurant food. The serving is huge. There were 3 massive SHELLED prawns, YES! Calamari, tempeh, fish cake all with a smoky flavour to it. Every mouthful was filled with noodles and accompaniments. Handful of crunchy beansprouts on top with some garlic chives. A mound of nuts and chilli flakes to add in to your liking. It is seasoned perfectly with a balance of sweetness. Acidity is adjusted with the lemon. Only downside is the price, but sooooooo worth it.

Seafood Tom Yum Soup $10.90

Presentation could be improved but it's from a food court. Serving is once again pretty large. Prawns, mussels, calamari, fishcake, tomato, mushrooms and thin vermicelli noodles. The soup was pretty decent, sour enough. You can get some pretty dodgy tom yum soups here, especially if it is the packaged kind. Cold day + decent tom yum soup at a food court + shopping = :). What else could you want? K仔 said it was pretty good although it isn't as spicy as what you get in Thailand, can't believe he's never had Thai food in Aus before, only in Thailand. I want to go Thailand now =]

Verdict? Definitely would come back if I feel willing to fork out the extra few dollars. Who knew such good thai food existed at the local food court.

Cooking: Tom Yum Soup and Pad Thai

Thai dinner for Friday night. I don't ever cook Thai except for the once or twice a year I make tom yum soup from a jar. That's as far as my Thai cooking experiences go. I realised I don't eat Thai very often either, probably only once or twice a year. However I do really like Pad Thai (how aussie of me), the sweet, sour and chilli goes so well with the rice noodles.

To make tom yum, by a jar of tom yum paste and follow the instructions.
For pad thai I followed trusty David Thompson's recipe I found in Gourmet Traveller (my fav magazine atm). Adjusted it a bit and added prawns and all that. Omitted a few things cos I didn't have them.
Serves 4
Ingredients: Prawns(shelled and deveined). 2 shallots sliced. 3 cloves garlic minced. 2 eggs. one pack of fresh rice stick noodles. 4 tbsp brown sugar (recipe used palm sugar which i did not have). couple of tbsp of tamarind water (to taste). Couple of tbsp of fish sauce. 2 handfuls of beansprouts (i didn't have any in mine, coles sells them for like $2 for a little bag compared to the $2 a kilo at asian supermarkets). 1/3 cup of crushed roasted peanuts. Garlic chives. Chilli Flakes.

Method: Mix sugar, tamarind water and fish sauce together, taste and adjust. Stir fry prawns until almost cooked in wok. Take out and set aside. Heat a tablespoon or two of oil. Throw in half the shallots and stir fry for 10secs add half the garlic. Add chilli flakes (about 1/4 tsp). Crack one egg into wok and stir until scrambled. Throw in half the noodles and break them up and stir fry. Once noodles have separated pour in half the sauce, half the beansprouts and half the prawns. Mix it all together. Add 2 tbsp of roasted peanuts and half the garlic chives. Mix in. Place onto serving plate. Repeat process with the rest of the ingredients.
Make in two batches so the high heat is maintained throughout the process. Also it is easier to mix the noodles together when there is less. Serve with a sprinkling of roasted peanuts, chilli flakes and a squeeze of lime.

My tom yum soup turned out very very bad. Used prawn stock so it turned out like a cross between tom yum and the malaysian har mee soup(prawn noodle soup). It was sooooo salty it was unbearable.

The pad thai was much much better. Tasted so very very nice. Probably not like what a pad thai should taste like but I liked it.