My favorite Thai dish, out of the thousands I’ve eaten, is Pad Ga Prao Muu or stir fried pork with holy basil. One of the staple Thai dishes, it’s nothing more than pork stir fried with some holy basil and garlic, and served over white rice. Top it with a fried egg and you’ve got the same dish millions of Thais eat every week. Recently though, I discovered Pad Ga Prao Muu at my local Tesco Lotus in Bangkok and since then I’ve eaten it about 75 times and, no, I’m not joking.
Unlike supermarkets in the west, most supermarkets in Thailand serve fresh food that they’ve actually made on the premises. It’s then packaged in a styrofoam container, wrapped in cling film and sold for a cheap price.
Pad Ga Prao Mu is one of the dishes my local Tesco Lotus on Pahonyothin Road in northern Bangkok sells. It’s made right there at the back of one of the counters, and then is ladled into a styrofoam container to be put out for sale as soon as it’s cooked. What’s even better though, is the incredibly cheap price.
For one portion of Pad Ga Prao Muu, which includes a large serving of white rice, a normal-sized serving of stir fried pork with basil, a fried egg and a couple of slices of cucumber, I normally pay 28 baht (around 92 cents). This week, Tesco Lotus in Bangkok has Pad Ga Prao Muu on sale — for only 25 baht. That’s 83 cents.
Not only is it one of the tastiest, freshest and most filling Thai meals out there, it’s also an incredibly cheap meal.
If you love tasty Thai food at a cheap price, check out your local Bangkok Tesco Lotus, as they probably have the same sale. And, by the way, they also sell Pad Ga Prao Gai — stir fried chicken with holy basil and, yes, it’s just as delicious.
By the way, if you want to cook Pad Ga Prao Muu yourself, here’s an excellent recipe for it.
Or, if you’d like to try Pad Ga Prao Muu at one of the best food courts in Bangkok you can do that too.
Special Note — March 3rd, 2013 — Unfortunately, I can no longer recommend buying Tesco’s Pad Ga Prao Muu. They’re obviously trying to cut costs as the last four I’ve bought from them (two on two separate days) have been made with extremely low-quality, gristly meat and even a few little bones. They don’t taste particularly nice either.Yuk!
