Pad Thai Wasn't Always Thai: Four Dishes, Real Histories
Pad Thai is a 1940s government invention, massaman curry came with Persian traders, and som tam came from Laos. Where to order each one in Victoria, BC.
Four of Thailand's best-known dishes didn't start where you'd think: pad Thai was a government invention from the 1940s, massaman curry arrived with Persian traders three centuries ago, tom yum has a UNESCO heritage listing, and som tam came from Laos by way of migrant labourers. Here's where each one started, and where to order it in Victoria, BC.
Pad Thai was invented by the government in the 1940s
Pad Thai isn't ancient. It was built, on purpose, by Thailand's wartime government: after a 1942 flood wrecked the rice paddies around Bangkok, Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram's administration pushed noodles as a rice substitute and handed out free pushcarts and official recipes as part of a wider "Buy Thai" campaign to build a modern national identity (South China Morning Post; Smithsonian).
Bee Wilson has written about how national dishes rarely feel as new as they are — in The Way We Eat Now (2019), she traces how fast an invented food tradition gets adopted as though it always existed. Pad Thai is younger than poutine, and nobody in Bangkok orders it feeling like they're eating a government program. Bangkok Thai Cuisine and Kwao Thai Restaurant both still make it the way the government intended: rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, tamarind and peanuts.
Massaman curry is named for the Muslim traders who brought it
Massaman is a worn-down version of mosalman, an old word for Muslim, and the curry traces to Persian traders who settled in the Thai royal capital of Ayutthaya in the 17th century, bringing cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and cumin with them — spices no other Thai curry uses (Seasia). It was already elegant enough to appear in a royal poem by the end of the 18th century, written by the prince who later became King Rama II.
In 2011, CNN Travel's readers voted it the single best food in the world, out of fifty. keeps the cinnamon and star anise; Kwao Thai also does a , closer to the dish's original meat than the chicken most places default to.
Tom yum is old enough to have a UNESCO listing
Tom yum's sour, herbal broth — lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf — goes back further than most Thai dishes still ordered daily. A fish-based version is documented from 1889, and the now-familiar shrimp version was written down in a 1964 royal cookbook connected to Queen Sirikit's family (Wikipedia). In December 2024, UNESCO added tom yum kung to its list of the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage (Khaosod English). is built on the same three herbs that made the dish famous before most of today's Thai menu existed.
Som tam came from Laos, by way of migrant labourers
Som tam isn't originally central Thai at all. The pounded green papaya salad traces to Laos and Thailand's northeastern Isan region, where a nearly identical dish is called tam mak hoong — the name describes the method, som for sour and tam for the pounding. Isan labourers carried it to Bangkok as they migrated for work through the mid-1900s, and the city toned it down, adding sugar and peanuts to soften a dish built for a different palate (SmileThaiTours). It's now served as one of Thailand's national dishes, a long way from the farm labourers who carried it there.
Kwao Thai Restaurant makes a with prawns, peanuts and tamarind sauce, closer to the sweetened Bangkok version than the sharper Isan original.
Order for the table, not just yourself
A Thai meal is built to be shared, not plated one dish per person: a curry, a stir-fry and a soup in the middle of the table, with rice for everyone. Heat is also set per dish, not per restaurant — Bangkok Thai Cuisine's menu runs from a mild massaman to a chili-forward pad kra-pao, so a table with mixed spice tolerance can order across that range instead of everyone ordering the same thing turned down.
Order from Bangkok Thai Cuisine
Bangkok Thai Cuisine · VictoriaD1. Pad ThaiStir-fried rice noodle with egg, bean sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and carrot; seasoned with lime juice, tamarind sauce; topped with peanuts$18.99
C5. Mas-Sa-Man CurryCarrot, onion and potato simmered in massaman curry ( avoured with star anise, cinnamon, & cumin); topped with roasted peanuts & crispy shallots$18.99
S2. Spicy and Sour soup (Tom Yum)Spicy and sour broth with lemongrass, onion, carrot, broccoli, cabbage, and mushroom;topped with cilantro$18.99
C2. Green CurryBasil, bamboo shoot, eggplant, green bean, broccoli , and carrot simmered in green curry (green coloured from fresh Thai green chilli)$18.99
Good to know
Is pad Thai Thailand's national dish?+
It's treated as one today, but it's a 20th-century invention rather than a centuries-old recipe. Thailand's government promoted it in the 1940s as part of a nation-building campaign, after a flood damaged rice paddies near Bangkok and the country needed people eating less rice.
Why does massaman curry taste different from other Thai curries?+
It uses dried spices — cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise — that no other Thai curry calls for, brought by Persian Muslim traders who settled in Thailand's royal capital in the 17th century. The name massaman comes from an old word for Muslim.
Is som tam the same as a regular salad?+
Not quite. It's pounded rather than tossed, traditionally with a mortar and pestle, which bruises the green papaya and lets it take on the dressing. It originated in Laos and Thailand's Isan region before spreading to Bangkok.
Can I order mild Thai food if I don't like spice?+
Yes. Heat is set per dish rather than per restaurant, so a massaman or a yellow curry runs much milder than a pad kra-pao or a tom yum, and you can usually ask for a dish to be made less spicy when ordering.
