
Pad Thai was invented by the Thai government - wallflower
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3007657/history-pad-thai-how-stir-fried-noodle-dish-was-invented-thai
======
Mediterraneo10
A similar example is the shopska salad[0], known throughout the Balkans as a
symbol of either Bulgaria’s Shopsko region in particular or Bulgaria as a
whole, but in fact this dish under that name only goes back to the 1960s or so
and was part of a national marketing campaign. (Incidentally, tomatoes,
cucumbers and white cheese form the colours of the Bulgarian flag, which do
make this an even more apt cultural export, but I’m not sure that was
intended.)

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopska_salad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopska_salad)

~~~
emptyfile
Wow I had no idea! I did always seem suspicious that a traditional salad was
so modern.

------
notahacker
Definitely not the first or last political figure to try to make their
favourite food iconic. I think the more interesting detail buried in there is
that for all the nationalistic sentiment behind its promotion, it was
originally a Chinese diaspora dish, even incorporating the Chinese words for
noodles which are also the names of popular dishes in Malaysia/Singapore

~~~
thaumasiotes
> even incorporating the Chinese words for noodles which are also the names of
> popular dishes in Malaysia/Singapore

What words are those? Mainland mandarin uses 面 mian. (In this use, the
character has the sense "flour"; 面 is technically short for 面条 miantiao,
"flour strips". But in practice it's always 面, never 面条.)

I see the article says this:

> It was originally called kway teow pad Thai – kway teow being “rice noodles”

That "teow" is a good match for 条, but I'm stumped as to the "kway".

> it was originally a Chinese diaspora dish, even incorporating the Chinese
> words for noodles

(sorry for the overlapped quote)

The use of Chinese words for noodles doesn't really imply that the dish was
originally Chinese, similarly to how English using an Aztec word for tomatoes
doesn't imply that pizza originates with the Aztecs. I know Vietnamese is
riddled with words borrowed from Chinese; Thailand didn't have that level of
exposure, but a foreign ingredient is pretty likely to come with a foreign
name.

All I'm really saying here is that if there was an obviously indigenous noodle
dish, it would be totally unsurprising if the name of that dish referred to
noodles, and also unsurprising if the word for noodles was borrowed from China
even though the dish wasn't. Words have a lot of staying power.

~~~
powerapple
You are talking about different thing. Noodle 面条 in Chinese is wheat noodles,
not rice noodles. Kway Teow = 粿条

~~~
thaumasiotes
Thanks.

------
peteretep
> regarded his home country as backward and was determined to remake it

There's a fine tradition of Thai leadership doing this, another notable one
being Rama V, who introduced forks and spoons to replace chopsticks (which is
what you should be eating your Pad Thai with if you're trying to get the
authentic experience :-P)

~~~
ryannevius
> which is what you should be eating your Pad Thai with if you're trying to
> get the authentic experience

Really? Up here in Chiang Mai, chopsticks are the primary eating tool
available at most pad thai shops.

~~~
geomark
Fork and spoon throughout most of Thailand unless you are eating noodle soup.
Pad thai, pad si ew, mii korat are common noodle dishes that aren't soups and
it is always fork and spoon.

------
inflatableDodo
This appears to be a new version of the word 'invented' that I haven't
previously encountered.

>“He simply had this particular version of a Thai noodle that was made by his
housekeeper in his kitchen and he really liked it,” Van Esterik says.

~~~
bildung
He didn't invent the dish in itself, he invented the pad Thai _as a national
dish_.

~~~
wodenokoto
It was _chosen_ as a national dish by the government, which seems completely
uncontroversial.

------
askvictor
More recently, I believe Thailand had been paying chefs to set up Thai
restaurants overseas as a way to promote tourism. Don't have a source
unfortunately, but read it recently in some news

~~~
kevinconaway
You might have read it here on HN [0] 9 months ago

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770707](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17770707)

------
GuB-42
Pad Thai was maybe the most accessible food I have eaten in Thailand while
still being recognizable as Thai food.

The rest tends to be insanely hot, weird, or both, at least for westerners.
Definitely worth it, but the experience can be painful.

It is understandable that they selected Pad Thai as a national dish if their
plan was to build a national identity and promote tourism as well.

------
paulftw
Scmp website has way too much fancy JavaScript making my iphone lag and not
resulting in a better reading experience

~~~
saagarjha
It’s a bit busy and the progressive loading takes a while, but it’s far from
causing my iPhone to lag. What phone are you using?

