Salt (kluea) and Salted Chinese Radish (hua chai po)

Essential Ingredients pad thai

 Salt: (kluea)

Sea salt is used in every recipe in this book. If table salt is used instead, less is needed.

Salted Chinese Radish (hua chai po)

Hua Chai po is a dry-salted Chinese white radish (known in Japan as daikon) which may be available whole(flattened and elongated), shredded, or finely chopped. There are two varieties-salty and sweetened. In fact the sweetened kind is simply made from sugar added in the last two or three days of dry-salted preservation process.

Salt (kluea) and Salted Chinese Radish (hua chai po)

Therefore, the sweetened kind is less salty and slughtly sweetened, whereas the salty kind is very salty and need to be rinsed and drained well before use. Salted Chinese radish is used widely as a flavoring ingredient in mainstream pad thai recipes reflecting Chinese influence, but not at all in regional variants as Pad Mi Korat and Pad Mi Pak Phanang.