Draft:Rat Na

= Rat Na =

Rat Na is one of the famous dishes in Thailand that normally contains rice noodles, meats, and vegetables (commonly used Chinese broccoli) with a savory thick sauce. Despite the fact that the exact year of its rise is ambiguous, its origin has been confirmed, and it is derived from China. Then, it became popular in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Laos). Moreover, the meaning “Rat” means “to pour” and “Na” means “surface”. On top of that, ingredients like rice noodles, pork, and collard greens are the fundamentals of the dish, there are other ingredients that can be put in such as carrots and more. The cooking recipe will be informed in the cooking paragraph below. As mentioned above, Rat Na is very famous in Thailand, thus, some restaurants are masters of the dish. For instance, Grandsanyod is a restaurant located at The Grand Sathorn, Bangkok, Thailand, it is the talk of the town for its Hong Kong-style Rat Na. Furthermore, as already mentioned, there are more types of Rat Na, which are  Hong Kong’s style, Cantonese’s style, and Chaochew’s style. They are different in how it has been prepared and the ingredients.

History & Etymology
Despite the fact that there is no information on the exact time when Rat Na was created, it is certain that Rat Na originates from China, where in early times, the dish was only served in luxurious restaurants. However, with its popularity and its delicious taste, Chinese people (especially in Chaozhou City) started to sell it generally. Furthermore, the Chinese word for the thick sauce in Rat Na can be called “ 羹 Geng”. On top of that, in the beginning, the dish was usually served with bok choy and a little of the gravy sauce. This is due to the fact that it was served on a banana leaf, which can be messy if served with a lot of sauce. Whereas, noodles, which were generally used as “Wide Rice Noodles” in big circular forms, the clients were the ones who needed to cut them by themselves.

It should be noted that despite the fact that back in the old days they usually served with bok choy as the preferred vegetable, it changed to using Chinese broccoli because bok choy can be quickly wilted, and the stem of Chinese broccoli is crunchier than bok choy. Plus, as time goes by, various noodles can be used such as rice vermicelli, fried rice noodles, crispy egg noodles, and much more.

Moreover, with the influence of China on Southeast Asia, the “Rat Na” dish also got passed on to the mentioned region. It became well-known in certain countries (such as Thailand, Laos, and Malaysia).

In addition, the word “Rat Na” is a Chinese word, which the meaning of it is “Rat” means to pour, whereas, “Na” can be translated as surface or topping.

Ingredients
As mentioned in the above section, this dish has been used in many countries. Thus, the ingredients can be varied depending on each country. However, while there are some ingredients that can be different, there still are some parts of the dish that need to be the same in order to prepare the dish. Therefore, this section will discuss the main ingredients, condiments, and other options that can be in the dish.

Cooking Instruction

 * 1) Combine the marinade ingredients with the pork. Put aside for a minimum of 20 minutes and up to a day. The marinade ingredients consist of fermented soybean, ground white pepper, sugar, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. However, the amount of marinade ingredients can vary depending on each recipe.
 * 2) Separate wide rice noodles, and mix them with black sweet soy sauce.
 * 3) Add a little vegetable oil, then heat a wok until it is very hot. Spread the separated wide rice noodles on the wok. Stir them quickly for a short period of time before setting them aside.
 * 4) Add some oil, and fry some garlic in the wok. Keep continuing until the garlic’s skins turn yellow and smell good. After that, put the garlic off the wok and set the garlic aside.
 * 5) Add some water and heat the wok again. Start by adding the pork to the wok, and boil till it is a little bit cooked. Turn up the heat, then add Chinese broccoli and carrots. Add some condiments. Wait until the water boils.
 * 6) Add Cassava Starch with some water, and stir the gravy until it is homogeneous.
 * 7) Place the noodles on the serving plate, then ladle the gravy.
 * 8) Top it with favorite condiments such as ground white pepper or chili flakes.

Well-known Restaurant
With its popularity in Southeast Asia, it cannot be doubted that there will be restaurants that are well-known for their Rat Na. In this Wikipedia, famous restaurants that mastered the dish will be mentioned, the restaurants are from countries around the globe.

Types
Since the dish is in many countries, there are many types of it. Thus, each type of Rat Na will be mentioned below and also discuss its uniqueness.