I’m watching “Good Eats” Pad Thai episode. I’m not a tofu fan, so would chix work in Pad Thai?
Pad Thai has chicken, shrimp and eggs in it. I think those three have always been in the pad Thais that I’ve ordered. Tofu is only sometimes added.
In Thai restaurants catering to non-Thais you are probably right, but in the pad thai sold in small stalls and eateries in Thailand, chicken is not all that common and tofu is usually there.
Chicken is fine in pad thai though.
I watched that ep last night, too (now I’ve got to have some Pad Thai!)
Most places don’t use such big chunks of it, IIRC, so it’s more blended in. I’m not a tofu fan, either, and I don’t really notice it.
I visited a Pad Thai stall in a Bangkok shopping mall that allowed you to choose from a dozen or so ingredients. I had mine with oysters.
In the U.S. I’ve only seen it with the aforementioned chicken and shrimp, or a choice between one of those or tofu.
drunken noodles > pad thai
but yes, chicken is an acceptable substitute. to go along with what An Arky said, it would work better if you shred the chicken instead of having medallions of it.
Pad kee mao (drunken noodles), pad see ew, pad thai and the often forgotten pad kua gai all have their place in my opinion.
I have been thinking about this and I think you should at least give tofu a chance. I am not a big tofu fan, but if you use the right type, cut it up small enough and make sure it has a chance to absorb flavour, tofu is really tasty in pad thai.
Vinyl Turnip, out of interest, do you remember what mall? Siam Paragon maybe?
Sorry—this was in '93, and the name is long gone from my memory banks. It was on Sukhumvit Road, which probably isn’t much help.
I always order my phat thai, as I spell it, with chicken. The wife says with small shrimps is how most Thais take it, but then, what do they know? 
Was it a department store? I don’t recall any of the big shopping centers on Sukhumvit at that date. The Emporium didn’t open until mid-1997, and there was no Skytrain until late 1999, making going any length down Sukhumvit a huge hassle back in 1993.
Yeah, it may have been a department store—as I remember it, the pad thai place was one of several vendors selling food in a large atrium. A food court, essentially.
I know it was within walking distance of my hotel. With a bit of box-digging I could probably come up with the hotel name and what soi it was on.
I believe I’ve seen it with shrimp most often, but shredded chicken would be yummy. I’m also not much of a tofu person, but I like it in pad thai and in General Tso’s tofu.
(I also want to note that the thread title conjured up a pretty funny image of a malevolent plate of noodles, which made me think that perhaps “carniverous pad thai” would be the FSM’s answer to Satan.)
I’ve never seen phat thai with shredded chicken, only chunks.
My favorite Thai place does the pad thai with shrimps tofu and wrapped in an light omelet/crepe. It’s the only pad thai I will order in the entire city of Chicago now.
I feel I should provide a sevice at this point and let people know the phat in phat thai is pronounced exactly like the English word “pot” and not at all like the English word “pad.” In Thai linguistics, syllables can begin with the D sound but never end with the D sound. When Thais transliterate, some use the letter D at the end and others the letter T, but they’re always transliterating the same Thai letter, which in this case is one of the several T letters.
What place?
I see what you are trying to say here but nobody has been using Thai script or the phonetic alphabet. I say “pot” very differently from ผัด / “phat”. Be careful with your choice of words.
I’d probably choose the English word “putt” over “pot” as a closer approximation (with the “p” sound slightly aspirated), at least in my experience. But yeah, definitely nothing close to “pad.”
TAC Quick
3930 N Sheridan Road
Chicago
three doors south of the Irving Park Red Line stop
Ask for the thai menu.
The grilled pork neck is the greatest meat dish on the planet.
A good recipe, with variations, plus a little background on its origin.