Authentic pad Thai tucked inside an egg shell
Mimico’s Nimman restaurant offers the hearty dish with ketchup or red-hued crab oil
It’s a dish so well-known, ubiquitous and beloved among locals that it’s practically Canadiana.
Just try and find a Torontonian who hasn’t dived headlong — at some point in their lives — into a heaping plate of hot pad Thai.
Everyone loves the dish, says Thaiborn Chaowana Chaijaroenphinitkul ,30,( he is better known as “Ping”). In town, he says, it is often made “to match the taste of Canadian people.”
That means its sweetness and mild, reddish hue is achieved, at many restaurants and outlets, by adding ketchup, he says — which is not a traditional element of the dish.
Though, the dish itself differs in its native land among families and restaurants, he says, and ingredients can run the gamut.
To capture everyone’s imaginations, the pad Thai at Valanimman Thai Cuisine, the west-Toronto restaurant Ping co-owns with family (it is better known simply as “Nimman”), is offered two ways: One is made with ketchup. And the other is made with imported crab oil the colour of sun-dried tomato paste — which gives the dish its authentic sunset hue, sour turnip and tamarind sauce for the tang and sweetness.
But the pad Thai Hor Kai, which translates to: “pad Thai wrapped in egg” is special in its own right. Once stir-fried together, the noodles, proteins and veggies are then tucked inside a wide, thin shell of egg skilfully swirled and fried along the sides of a large wok.
Customers to this hidden Thai gem at 2451Lake Shore Blvd. W.(it’s at the back of Seaway Plaza) order it often, says Ping. “Almost every bill” is going to list it, he says.
“They like it,” Ping says of how customers react. “When you put the plate down they say ‘wow, what is this?’ Some people say ‘where is my pad Thai? Oh! It’s inside the egg and you have to cut it open.’ ”
They might even giggle like children discovering a hidden treasure.
This eggy dish is the real Thai deal, according to Ping, and in Thailand it is served at special Thai restaurants.
But the egg envelope is also a great way to market a familiar dish — which makes sense since Ping graduated with a marketing degree from Assumption University in Bangkok before immigrating to Canada in 2011, he says. Once here, he decided to open a restaurant.
Good thing he came from a cooking family. Ping spent a lot of time in the kitchen with his mom learning the culinary traditions, basics and beyond, he says, which have now formed the basis for the authentic dishes on Nimman’s menu.
Toronto’s ever-growing food scene and an increasing openness to more and different flavours is behind the pad Thai in egg as well, he says.
I must say, the flavours in Ping’s dish aren’t radically different from the pad Thais we’re used to — however, the sweetness of Nimman’s dish is pleasantly more subtle; the flavours are deeper and more complex, the noodles are thinner and lighter, and the egg shell forms a delicate and delicious pouch.
Nimman elevates the humble pad Thai from university food to adult fare. And once you go Nimman’s pad Thai Hor Kai you just can’t go back!
Be sure to pair it with a strong, sweet iced coffee. Need something Sourced? Email mhenry@thestar.ca