To start with, I made this a vegan recipe so some of the ingredients were swapped out or omitted. This recipe ended up really good! It's not exactly like the stereotypical Pad Thai that you'll find in most American restaurants. It seemed to be focused much more on being authentic to the street culture Pad Thai. I was luckily able to find pretty much everything that this recipe called for at my local specialty store. I did swap out the chicken for tofu and the fish sauce for a vegan one that I found. Unfortunately I don't know of an alternative to the dried shrimp so I ended up leaving it out. I might try to add some black garlic, a single clove garlic that has been fermented and dried, because it would add some extra umami that I feel is missed when removing this. I was able to find the radish and I'm really glad that I did! You don't really taste it much but it adds a nice flavour that you don't get from anything else. The biggest thing that I would change next time that I make it is reducing the sugar. For me it was way too sweet. I can see how some people would really like the sweet level, but I prefer for my foods to be on the healthier side with less sugar. I also didn't add as much oil as the recipe called for. I didn't find that I needed that much. I might also try adding a little spice to it next time. The flavour was very sweet and kinda sour/salty but some spice would have really rounded it out! Since it was my first time making this, it did take me a very long time to get everything prepped before cooking. I think that next time it will be much quicker. Overall this recipe was delicious and I will definitely be making it on the regular!
