It can't be good, we haven't sacrificed an animal

The other night, Trish and I met Dan, Sharon and the slightly younger man in Frankie's life, Benjamin (6.5 months), for dinner at a favorite noodle place of ours, Haiku. I got tofu pad thai which was so good, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind.

I searched for a recipe and found one that looked great on the Cooking Light website. It's a pay site, so I don't think it's right to post their recipe. I love their recipes. They make smart substitutions and I've rarely seen margarine used in their publication. I've rarely had a flop from them.

My attempts at pad thai have been miserable in the past but this one was quite tasty. I could taste the individual components like the soft-scrambled egg (which usually gets lost in the mixture), the sauteed tofu, the bean sprouts and the noodles were cooked perfectly, a slight bite. The best thing was the sauce composed of chilli sauce, brown sugar and fish sauce had a great salty/sweet balance and it pulled everything together nicely.

The only challenge stemmed from having a child. Used to be, I'd visit two asian markets, the local food co-op and the Big Bear to find all the ingredients for a recipe. Those days are sooooo gone. One solitary stop is the maximum allowed for a 7 month old's "schedule". Frankie is a bundle of smiling joy 95% of her waking moments, but, you don't want to push it. The ingredients, while not exotic, are varied and cannot be substituted, e.g., fish sauce, eggs, cilantro, sprouts, tofu, green onions, rice noodles, limes, chilli sauce, etc. I chose the Big Bear (our local grocery) and got it all (I had the fish sauce on hand, it lasts forever). Local big groceries, while hated by many are starting to accomodate diverse food trends. For that, we are appreciative.

I won't post the recipe, but email me and I'll send it to you (I've never been totally consistent in my ideology). The picture isn't the best, sorry.