This is our version of kway teow pad kee mao, or “drunkard’s stir-fried noodles,” a street-food favorite and a standard offering in Thai restaurants in the U.S. We use a trio of heavy-hitting, umami-rich staples—oyster sauce, fish sauce and soy sauce—to deliver big flavor, fast. Briny-sweet shrimp take the place of the more common chicken. Fresh basil, added at the end so it retains its brightness, is a defining ingredient. If you can find Thai basil, its peppery, spicy notes perfectly balance the other high-impact ingredients in the dish, but sweeter, milder Mediterranean basil is a fine stand-in. Flat, wide fresh rice noodles give pad kee mao character, but can be hard to find, so we use dried rice stick noodles. Look for ones about ½ inch wide as they come closer to the width of fresh noodles, but even ¼-inch rice sticks work. A 12- to 14-inch wok offers the space to easily toss the ingredients, but a 12-inch skillet is fine, too.

By COURTNEY HILL
45 minutes