Update (Apr 2023): Posts like these have moved to my new food-focused newsletter at
Hello and welcome back to Meal Memoirs ~ In this new section, I’ll be documenting particularly memorable experiences in the kitchen (and, hopefully, when I start dining out more, in restaurants and beyond).
Over the winter and early spring, we made a few “stretch” recipes (stuff that’s more intimidating than usual because of the sheer number of ingredients involved or a trickier process or both). There were successes (pho and Sichuan boiled beef) and one notable failure (fried chicken, attempted on a portable gas stove, out on the patio, on one of the coldest nights of the year; Jason insisted).
A more recent “stretch” endeavor was attempting pad thai for the first time, using a recipe from Hot Thai Kitchen. As with other relatively ambitious meals, the main motivation here was to eat something we love but haven’t had since before the pandemic.
I like to try stretch recipes on Friday nights, as a way to do something special and at a leisurely pace. Maybe to a fault — because the recipe’s “total time” says 40 minutes but it definitely took me around two hours. (Admittedly, I did also pause occasionally to get my phone and film short clips for this Instagram reel.)
The recipe is broken down into two main parts: first making the pad thai sauce and then preparing the noodles, protein (in this case, shrimp), and everything else so that they can all go into a skillet and eventually mix with the sauce. When I finally got to the part where the noodles are tossed with the sauce, I knew this was all going to be worth it.
The pad thai sauce is made with a few ingredients that I’ve never used before (palm sugar and tamarind paste). After combining it with the noodles, I immediately smelled that distinct sour-sweetness of pad thai. I think I overcooked the noodles a bit and the flavor was still not exactly what you’d get in a restaurant, but it was close enough to feel like a thrilling departure from our day-to-day cooking.
In the end, a lot of the satisfaction of making a stretch recipe comes from having completed it at all. The other benefit is just greater appreciation for when we do order these beloved dishes from a restaurant. Spending some money to have it come out so quickly and properly feels worth it and even a bit magical.
Thanks for reading and have a great week ~ (If you have a suggestion for a stretch recipe I should try, let me know in a direct reply to this email or in the comments!)