Drunken Noodles

Thailand. Pad kee mao is attributed to late-night street food culture — a dish made at 2am after bars close. Its heat, aromatic punch, and carbohydrate content make it an ideal recovery meal.

Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) — wide flat rice noodles stir-fried with holy basil, Thai chillies, egg, and oyster sauce at extreme heat. Spicier and more aromatic than Pad See Ew, with a characteristic heat from large fresh chillies and the distinct peppery-clove flavour of holy basil. The name refers not to alcohol content but to the dish being an ideal post-drinking late-night meal.

• Vietnamese pho xao (stir-fried flat noodles with beef); Cambodian lort cha (stir-fried rice pin noodles with egg and dark soy — the Khmer parallel); Chinese char ho fan (Cantonese stir-fried flat rice noodles with beef and soy).

Cold Chang lager, directly from the can, consumed at 2am. That is the context and the pairing. There is no more appropriate accompaniment.