PAT: Today, I'm going to make a special version of pad thai from my hometown.

It's called Chumphon pad thai.

SETH: Chumphon pad thai.

All right.

Well, I've had pad thai maybe 500, 1,000 times, but never Chumphon pad thai.

Uh, what makes it unique?

PAT: It's a lot of the coconut cream, tamarind juice, and palm sugar, and the seafood.

SETH: All right.

So, it sounds almost like kind of a tropical version of pad thai.

PAT: Yes.

SETH: So, how do you get started here?

PAT: So we're going to slow cook and starting from the oil, and I'm going to put the coconut cream.

In the traditional pad thai, like the Bangkok pad thai is no coconut.

And now we're going to put, like, the curry paste.

This one, I imported directly, it's from my hometown.

SETH: Oh, wow.

PAT: Yeah, because different temperature, different soil.

A lot going to come out different flavor.

I want to support my local old-lady business from my hometown.

SETH: Oh, that's wonderful.

PAT: And we slow-cook it, and then we're going to add little of the red onion, and then we're going to put the shrimp to make a curry base.

SETH: We're already getting some seafood in here.

PAT: Yes.

You keep slow cooking.

This is preserved sweet radish, can get a little crunchy texture.

Now we're going to put the most important ingredient for Chumphon pad thai, it's the tamarind juice.

SETH: And tamarind's going to give it a little bit of sourness too, right?

PAT: Yes, a little bit of sour.

And in the tamarind, they have some sweetness at the end of the taste too.

SETH: An ingredient that is both sour and sweet, it seems like it's perfect for this dish.

PAT: Yes.

We use tamarind juice more than other pad thai.

And then you're going to put palm sugar, get more sweet and the good balance, and a little bit touch of the salt.

And then at the end, when everything cook well, you can add more coconut.

SETH: I'm not going to object to more coconut.

PAT: And now this is an important step.

My mom keeps telling me, like, to be the good chef, you have to taste.

Sometimes the sugar not the same sweetness, the tamarind, everything.

SETH: What do you think, chef?

PAT: I think I going to put more palm sugar.

SETH: All right.

Little sweetness works for me.

PAT: Yes.

And it's already spicy, so I'm going to put more coconut.

I want everything to be balanced between spicy, sour, and sweet.

Now, I'm going to be the last step.

SETH: One more taste?

PAT: One more taste.

Yes.

SETH: A-okay?

PAT: It's good.

Now we're going to put rice noodle, and we're going to put the shrimp and still slow cook again.

You can add fresh chives.

SETH: This is starting to look mighty good, chef.

PAT: Yes, yes.

Now we add the crab meat.

SETH: So, this is just an explosion of seafood.

PAT: Yeah.

So, now it's ready for the final step.

We are going to use one egg, and we are going to do, like, a very slim egg omelet.

Then we are going to plate... and we are going to put the shrimp and the crab meat back on top of the omelet.

We are going to put the most of the pad thai inside the omelet and wrap it.

And we serve with the crunchy peanuts, lime, fresh bean sprout, and fresh chives.

More chili, if you want more spicy.

And then we ready to enjoy the Chumphon pad thai.

SETH: All right, chef.

I've had a lot of pad thai, but it's never looked like this.

The plating is beautiful.

The cocktail is beautiful as well.

What are we drinking here?

PAT: It's a clarified whiskey cocktail.

It's have the passion fruit on top mixed with the butterfly pea from Thailand, and give it the purple color.

SETH: Oh, wonderful.

Well, cheers.

PAT: Cheers.

Oh, wow.

Mine is good, too.

SETH: You have quite the cocktail bar behind you here.

PAT: Yes.

SETH: All right, I cannot wait to try... PAT: Okay, please try that.

SETH: ...this pad thai.

PAT: You can eat one bite with some of the omelet.

SETH: Wow.

That is just out of this world.

The freshness of that sauce you made, maybe it's the tamarind, gives it that sour note that comes through.

There is a little heat in the curry paste.

PAT: Yeah.

SETH: Some really good sweetness.

It just sings.

It really does.

PAT: And then you can mix all of the topping with the noodle.

And if you want more sour, you can squeeze more fresh lime juice like this.

I love sour though.

SETH: It's almost like a deconstructed pad thai too because I see the peanuts and the bean sprouts- PAT: The crunchy peanuts and the bean sprouts.

It's all kind of fresh, so it can give you the texture of the crunchy, and it's good with the roasted peanuts and the fresh bean sprouts.

SETH: I'm going to make a little mess of this beautifully plated dish you made, chef.

PAT: Yeah.

SETH: I want to get all those flavors in one bite here.

PAT: And you can eat, like, the fresh chives.

Pick it up and eat it.

Makes you have a little bit bitter at the end of the taste.

SETH: You know, Chef, I've been eating pad thai for so long, so to suddenly have a version that just feels completely different... PAT: Yes.

SETH: ...is really something special.