Thailand. Pad krapao is described as the quintessential Thai workaday dish — what a Thai person eats alone at lunch, what is ordered by Thais when visiting a country without good Thai food, and what is eaten when nothing else is available. The dish appears in every Thai lunch counter in the country.
Pad krapao (holy basil stir-fry) is the most eaten dish at Thai lunch counters. Ground pork or chicken with oyster sauce, fish sauce, dark soy, bird's eye chillies, garlic, and a generous handful of fresh holy basil (grapao) — the dish exists because of this specific basil. Holy basil is not Thai basil is not sweet basil. It has a clove-anise-pepper character that is unique and irreplaceable. Topped with a crispy fried egg (kai dao) and served over jasmine rice.
- Vietnamese bo luc lac with garlic and chilli (similar high-heat garlic stir-fry technique); Taiwanese san bei ji (three-cup chicken with Thai basil — the Taiwanese parallel using the same aromatic herb); Chinese chilli-garlic minced pork (similar flavour profile without the basil).
Chang lager or cold nam cha (unsweetened Thai tea). The dish is too spicy and aromatic for wine — cold beer or tea is the only appropriate accompaniment.