Not a Thai Food Recipe, Alas

This year of too much travel has taught me one very important thing - I'm really dumb about foods around the world. I didn't expect the Middle East to rock for food, but it did. I expected Colombia to have good coffee, but it didn't. And I expected Thailand to be my happy food place, but it was not.

I have never struggled to find vegetarian food like I did there. Which, HUH? I have been to Germany this year, you guys. While I knew that Thai isn't generally vegetarian-ready, in the States it's easy to say "skip the fish sauce" and we're good. They just put fish sauce in everything. EVERYTHING. Somewhere, there's a vegetarian who is reading this and wondering if they've been screwing up - Yes, you have. All Thai has fish something in it, even when the menu marks it as "vegetarian." You have to tell the kitchen to skip it.

But that doesn't even work in Thailand, at least as far as I could find.

So I ate a lot of dessert. And fruit. And bread. And dreamed fondly of all the vegetarian noodles and such I would have when I returned. (For what it's worth, I'm a vegetarian because I genuinely don't like the taste of meat. Any meat. Fish was one of the first things I swore off because EWWWWW. Definitely not for me. Thus, I *know* when it has snuck into something. And when there's a lot of it? ::Barf::)

Then I returned and my children had opinions and stuff. They overruled my Pad Thai dreams because they wanted Hibachi Style Noodles and WHATEVER. I'll make Pad Thai at some point this week. In the meantime, here's a repost of one of our favorite recipes because it is so good.

Unrelated fun fact - there wasn't a single post on the internet for a recipe like this when I first posted it in 2014. Now there are hundreds. Welcome to the land of really good noodles, everyone. Oh, and I saw noodles like these called "spaghetti" all over the place in Bangkok, so I wasn't crazy when I went there.

Japanese Hibachi Style Noodles (On the Cheap)

1/2 box spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds (check the spice aisle -- they're buried with the small bottles of spices)
Soy sauce to taste

1. Cook the spaghetti. I know I told you to do that in the ingredients list, but I'm just making sure we're clear. Cook it, drain it, blah, blah, blah.

2. Toss the butter in the largest skillet you own. Heat it over medium high heat until it starts to melt then throw in the spaghetti. Toss in the sesame oil, garlic, and rice vinegar while you're at it.

3. Flip and stir those noodles every few seconds to prevent burning. Cook them for about 5 minutes, then add the soy sauce and sesame seeds. By the way, I end up using about 1/4 cup of soy sauce, but you may want to use more.

4. That's it. Seriously. Kind of crazy how easy they are, right?

(FYI--the vegetables and tofu are also fried in a pan with the same ingredients. Just leave the sesame seeds out that time.)

Comments

[Hello Haha Narf]

I have sesame seeds! And spaghetti noodles!
Oh man...THANK YOU.