Phad Thai

Phad Thai is a very common Thai dish made from noodles, egg, chili, tofu, normally some shrimp, maybe some chicken, plus onion, fish sauce, nuts, lime... ingredients can vary. You can order Phad Thai in 10 different places and get 10 different tasting meals depending on the amount and variety of sauces added, the size and type of noodles used, type of meat added and so on... Phad Thai can be bland sometimes or it can be spicy, it can be dry or saucy. You get a lot of variety out of one dish! If bought from a street stall or roadside restaurant you're normally only going to be paying 20 - 30 Baht for your lunch - it's a cheap dish to make and thus a popular lunch all over Thailand, nearly as popular as Noodle Soup.

Close to where I work in Karon Beach, on the back road near the Baan Karon hotel, there's one of the most popular little lunchtime restaurants I have ever seen in Phuket. Every day workers in the local area flock here for lunch, and the most popular dish is Phad Thai. The restaurant does not really have a name except "the Phad Thai restaurant". They also do noodle soup with chicken or beef, a good Phad Gapraow with beef, a popular fried rice with crab. The menu is expanding - when I first ate here a couple of years ago they had only Phad Thai or Noodles and beef stew.

• Location on Google Earth





It's only a little place but it can be packed at lunchtime. You can get Phad Thai to eat there or take away - the take away is wrapped in a banana leaf. The cooking is all done by one guy, with others helping to serve noodle soup - you can see the huge bowls full of chicken and beef below - these are ladled over the noodles. The Phad Thai is cooked with quite a bit of chili, and you have extra bowls of chili sauce, prik nam pla and dried chili on the table in case it's not spicy enough for you.

 



I ate my Phad Thai in the restaurant today. Bear in mind that by Western standards this is not really a "restaurant" - a collection of tables in the dirt by the road outside someones house... but this is real local eating here in Phuket. If you want to mingle with the people, get on the back roads and get some Phad Thai right here! I tend to get food from here at least once a week as it's so cheap and close to work.... oh and very tasty!



UPDATE - August 2009 - the place has been tarted up with a concrete floor and nicer tables, but still the same food and same price (40 Baht). Just before the Baan Karon Resort on the way from Karon to Kata on Patak Road. It's not a big obvious restaurant, folks, just a small local place. Do try to find it!