Those Campfire Recipes - Poor Man's Pad Thai

I love easy and I love recipes that you can add to and still keep to the spirit of the dish. Poor Man's Pad Thai is one of those. The original backpacking recipe is simply a package of Top Ramen (the oriental broth flavor) and a big spoonful of peanut butter. This in itself is surprisingly filling but for those that need more you can certainly add.

Traditionally Pad Thai is a street food and varies according to what is available. According to Wikipedia, "Pad Thai or Phat Thai (Thai: ผัดไทย [pʰàt tʰāj], "fried Thai style") is a dish of stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce (Thai: น้ำปลา), tamarind juice, red chilli pepper, plus any combination of bean sprouts, shrimp, chicken, or tofu, garnished with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime, the juice of which can be added along with Thai condiments. It is usually served with spring onions and pieces of raw banana flower." Adding elements like this keep it traditional and with a little enginuity be a fun and offbeat campground treat.

Here is what we have tried.
Canned Bean Sprouts
Canned Shrimp
Canned chicken
Chives

The only thing we didn't like was the canned shrimp...good while very hot and fresh but as the dish cooled it got extremely fishy. My favorite is at it's simplest, though. Crunchy peanut butter and garnished with chives...delicious!

My favorite version, just chunky peanut butter and chives.                                                          ©Marcia Mauskopf 2011