Foodbook

Central Thailand

Pad Kra Pao

Minced meat stir-fried with holy basil, chili, garlic, and fish sauce — Thailand's weeknight default, ordered over rice with a fried egg on top.

Photograph of Pad Kra Pao

Holy basil, not Thai sweet basil.

*Kra pao* is holy basil (*Ocimum tenuiflorum*) — a peppery, clove-tinged, slightly bitter herb that's the dish's signature flavour. Thai sweet basil (*horapa*) and Italian basil are different plants and will not produce the same dish. The leaves go into the wok at the very end and wilt in seconds — long enough to perfume the dish, short enough to keep their character. Most Western Thai restaurants substitute sweet basil; the substitution is a different dish.

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4 · Plate

Central Thailand

Pad Kra Pao

Minced meat stir-fried with holy basil, chili, garlic, and fish sauce — Thailand's weeknight default, ordered over rice with a fried egg on top.

The Thai weeknight default. Pad kra pao (also romanised phat kaphrao, pad gaprao) is the dish that Thai office workers order at the rice-and-curry shop on the corner, the dish that street vendors serve in styrofoam boxes for 60 baht, and the dish that most Thai students learn to cook first. The technique is fast — 90 seconds in the wok — the ingredients are ubiquitous, and the dish is reliably good.

The dish is one of the clearest tests of a Thai restaurant abroad. If the kitchen has fresh holy basil, makes the dish to order, and includes a fried egg on top without being asked, it’s a credible Thai kitchen. If they substitute sweet basil or skip the egg, the rest of the menu will be similarly approximated. Pad kra pao is a sensitive indicator dish; most Thai diners abroad order it as a calibration check.

Fried egg on top — yolk runny.

The Thai household order is *pad kra pao kai khai dao* — pad kra pao chicken with a fried egg on top. The egg is fried in deep oil for 30 seconds until the white is lacy-crispy at the edges and the yolk is still runny, then placed on top of the rice-and-pad-kra-pao plate. The eater breaks the yolk into the meat. A *prik nam pla* — bird's-eye chili in fish sauce — on the side for those who want more heat.

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