I finally made this tonight, too. *waves to CTgirl!*I had to make some substitutions because the grocery store was out of bean sprouts when I went over the weekend, so at the time I picked up a bag of shredded carrot, broccoli and something else and figured in a pinch, that could be the veg component. I'd wanted to run to the store today to grab the bean sprouts but I had a rough day and I didn't make it out today.
So - no bean sprouts, but I had other shredded veggies.
I didn't use tofu. I did use one chicken breast sliced extremely thin.
I didn't find tamarind paste. I did find cans of tamarind juice, but I didn't buy them. I ended up doing the ketchup thing.
I did use fish sauce. I did not like the smell of the fish sauce. Not at all. It was particularly offensive to me and I'm not sure why. I mixed up the sauce with the veggies/chicken and was starting to freak out because I was not happy with the smell. I had visions of having to scrap the whole pot of stink and ordering pizza, but I decided to brave a taste of a piece of chicken and was surprised that I actually liked the taste. So, I kept going with it.
I made way, way, way too many wide rice noodles for the sauce. I ended up having to pitch some of the noodles. My daughter really liked the rice noodles, btw.
I did have sriracha on the side (as opposed to mixed in) since I didn't want to set my children on fire, so we added it individually. Mr. Fro seemed to like the sriracha.
Mr. Fro had two helpings and didn't seem too bothered by the fish sauce smell so maybe it's just me. (which is very weird because I like fish and he generally doesn't.) I really never got over the smell, though, so I had a fairly small helping, which I have to say, tasted good.
I might try this again with soy sauce and fewer noodles next time. I actually liked my veggie substitute but would like to add the bean sprouts next time since I do like them.
