Original Pad Krapao
More direct, more focused and without vegetables in the wok.
Protein: minced beef or chicken
Served with: rice & fried egg
Vegetables: none in the wok dish
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ · 🌶️🌶️ on request
No. 10 · Original Pad Krapao
Few ingredients.
Few ingredients.
Full of character.
Minced beef or chicken, chilli, Krapao, rice and fried egg. Our original version deliberately focuses on what gives this dish its character – no vegetables in the wok and a deliberately focused choice of ingredients.
Beef or chickenKrapao · Holy BasilFried egg🌶️🌶️🌶️ · 🌶️🌶️ on request
Chaima heat scale: 🌶️ mildly spicy · 🌶️🌶️ spicy · 🌶️🌶️🌶️ very spicy
No. 10Chaima’s original version
CHF 26.–Beef or chicken · rice · fried egg
No vegetablesin the wok dish itself
F · C · X · W
Allergens as listed on the menu
What does this mean? →
What does “Original” mean at Chaima?
No vegetables to distract from the heart of the dish.
For us, Pad Krapao is not a vegetable dish with a little meat and basil. In our original version, minced beef or chicken, chilli, garlic, Krapao and the seasoning take centre stage.
At Chaima, rice and a fried egg are part of the complete No. 10. The composition is deliberately clear: beef or chicken, but no vegetable variation within this dish.
Guests who prefer Pad Krapao with vegetables and a choice of protein can order our separate No. 11.
Two preferences
Original Pad Krapao or Pad Krapao with vegetables?
Both dishes carry Krapao in their name, but at Chaima they are deliberately designed for two different preferences.
Pad Krapao with vegetables
For guests who want to combine Krapao flavours with vegetables and a choice of protein.
Vegetables: part of the dish
Protein: choice according to the menu
Served with: Rice
Fried egg: available as an extra
กะเพรา
Ocimum tenuiflorum · Holy Basil / Sacred Basil
Bai Krapao – the herb that gives the dish its name and its unmistakable aroma.
Not just any basil
Krapao is the heart of the dish.
กะเพรา – Krapao – is botanically Ocimum tenuiflorum, commonly known in English as Holy Basil or Sacred Basil. Thailand’s Department of Agricultural Extension lists this very plant under the name Kra Prao.
On restaurant menus, the term “Thai basil” is often used broadly. That can be confusing: Krapao is not the same as Horapha, which is also frequently called Thai basil. Their flavour and aroma are distinctly different.
Krapao · กะเพราHoly Basil · bolder, spicier, with a distinctive aroma.
Horapha · โหระพาThe other well-known Thai basil – sweeter, with a more anise-like aroma.
History · several traces
From Krapao herb to an everyday classic.
There is no reliably documented single birthplace for Pad Krapao. But there are fascinating historical traces: the herb itself is documented in Ayutthaya, and the name “ผัดกะเพรา” appears in writing in Bangkok by 1933 at the latest.
1
1687 · Ayutthaya – the herb is already there
During his mission to Siam in the reign of King Narai, Simon de La Loubère recorded that aromatic herbs such as Krapao were eaten. This is not evidence of today’s Pad Krapao – but it is an early trace of its most important ingredient in Siamese cuisine.
Show Ayutthaya on our origin map →2
1933 · Bangkok – “ผัดกะเพรา” appears by name
An advertisement for ready-made curry pastes from the “Mo Phan Thong” brand already names “ผัดกะเพรา”. The shop was located in Trok Phraya Montha on Ti Thong Road in Bangkok. The fact that the dish was advertised there suggests that it was already known before then.
Show Bangkok · Ti Thong Road on the map →3
1954 · an early concrete recipe trace
Thai PBS refers to a radio broadcast by M.L. Ying Tiw Chonlamak Phichan describing “Neua Wua Pad Krapao”: finely minced beef, chilli, garlic, fresh Krapao flowers and leaves, fish sauce and a little sugar.
4
From the 1960s onwards · more and more variations
Later cookbooks show different versions with beef, chicken and other ingredients. These sources demonstrate that historically Pad Krapao was never defined by one single rigid recipe.
A history – but no invented birth certificate.
The strongest common denominator is the herb itself: Krapao gives the dish its name and identity. At the same time, the written traces show that recipes and ingredients changed over the decades.
That is why we make a careful distinction:
Ayutthaya 1687 is an early trace of Krapao being eaten as an aromatic herb. Bangkok 1933 is an early direct written reference to Pad Krapao as a dish. We do not present either of these places as the dish’s “birthplace”.
Ayutthaya 1687 is an early trace of Krapao being eaten as an aromatic herb. Bangkok 1933 is an early direct written reference to Pad Krapao as a dish. We do not present either of these places as the dish’s “birthplace”.
Our No. 10 is therefore Mrs Chaima’s deliberately focused version of Original Pad Krapao: a clear Chaima signature – not a claim that all of Thailand has always cooked the dish in exactly this way.
See the Pad Krapao traces on our origin map →Historical basis: Thai PBS Decode, “กุสุมรสจากดงกะเพรา” (2024). The map marks the historical street location at Ti Thong, not a shop premises that can still be identified today.
On the plate
Rice and fried egg are not an afterthought.
At Chaima, both are an integral part of the original version and shape the way this bold dish is eaten.
🍚
Rice
It absorbs the sauce and seasoning, turning the concentrated wok dish into a complete meal.
🍳
Fried egg
The yolk adds richness and roundness to the bold seasoning and mingles with the rice and meat as you eat.
🌶️🌶️🌶️very spicy
Mrs Chaima · our signature
Heat should support the dish – and three chillies really mean three chillies.
Original Pad Krapao is one of Chaima’s very spicy dishes. Chilli, garlic, seasoning and umami are all clearly present – yet the characteristic aroma of Krapao should never disappear behind pure heat.
At Chaima, 🌶️🌶️🌶️ really does mean very spicy. Mrs Chaima cooks this level the way she would prepare a genuinely spicy dish in Thailand. We do not automatically tone it down simply because a guest does not speak Thai or is not from Thailand.
Many of our guests appreciate exactly that. They often tell us about the same experience we know ourselves when eating Thai food in Switzerland: you explicitly order “very spicy” and end up with something that is only a little hotter than expected. At Chaima, three chillies should therefore reliably mean three chillies.
If you want the character of the dish but prefer a little less heat, Original Pad Krapao can of course also be ordered as a 🌶️🌶️ version. The heat is deliberately reduced – but not the flavour.
🌶️🌶️🌶️ = very spicyThe way Mrs Chaima understands the heat of a genuinely very spicy dish from Thailand.
🌶️🌶️ = spicyLess heat on request, with the same characteristic Pad Krapao flavour.
Allergens as listed on the menu: F · C · X · W · What does this mean? →
In brief
Questions about Pad Krapao.
Why are there no vegetables in your Original Pad Krapao?
Because in our No. 10, beef or chicken, chilli, garlic, Krapao and the seasoning are meant to take centre stage. For Pad Krapao with vegetables, Chaima has a separate version: No. 11.
Is Krapao the same as Thai basil?
Not quite. Krapao is Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum). Horapha is also often called “Thai basil”, but it is a different basil with a different aroma and flavour.
Does Pad Krapao always have to be made with beef?
No. In Thailand and internationally there are many versions made with different meats and seafood. At Chaima, No. 10 is deliberately limited to minced beef or chicken.
Is Original Pad Krapao very spicy?
Yes. At Chaima, Original Pad Krapao is served as very spicy (🌶️🌶️🌶️) by default and can also be ordered spicy (🌶️🌶️)on request. The heat should support the Krapao flavour rather than completely overpower it.
Why does Chaima serve it with a fried egg?
Because it is part of our fixed No. 10 composition. The yolk rounds out the bold seasoning and combines with the rice and meat as you eat.
Original Pad Krapao
View the menu →
Few ingredients. Full of character.
No. 10 · beef or chicken · Krapao · chilli · rice · fried egg · CHF 26.–