My hosts made a point to show me a Thai food vendor at the busy intersection of 6th and Blair. Housed in a brightly painted trailer, they serve up a varied menu for the fixed price of $6.50.

I haven’t had pad thai since Skagway and didn’t realise how much I was craving it until I had the noodles sitting in front of me at home! Pad thai was a comfort food for me for the better part of a decade. There were two Ottawa restaurants I’d hit, depending on the neighbourhood I was in, and also a summer street vendor at an outdoor market near where I worked in Gatineau. It’s not a food for which I have any sort of educated opinion; I just know what I like. It can’t be too eggy or fishy, and ketchupy (ew, thai restaurant off of Jarvis in Toronto!) is out of the question. I want nice gummy noodles that make me go “YUM!”

And that’s what Drum Rong Thai Street Food in Eugene serves up. I had a most satisfactory mild tofu pad thai with hints of basil and lemon, and a savoury homemade tamarind sauce. If I lived here, I’d be eating there two or three times a week.