Pae Teaw Noodle

For lunch when in Phuket, there is a fantastic fish ball noodle soup place in Phuket Town.  It is very famous and has been open for many many years.  Yet it is a simple and basic shop house with barely any decor.  This is one place where the food speaks for itself.  It is a family run place and you can see all the generations of the family working.  From the grandmother cutting the red pork, the grandfather helping pack the orders to go, the son (or grandson), doing the cash register, the daughter (or granddaughter or daughter-in-law) taking the order and I have no clue if the woman making the soup is a relative, but to romantacise the post lets assume she is the aunt.

The first order was ba-mee (egg noodles) with fresh wonton, fish ball and deep fried shrimp.  Simple and wonderful.  The ba-mee at Pae Teaw is fresh and you actually see them arriving from a motorcycle.  The texture is always perfect and the color is lighter than normal ba-mee.  It also feels lighter when you eat it.  Probably due to less egg yolks???  The wontons are hand-made on the premise, the shrimps come out crispy hot from the kitchen in the back and their specialty, fish ball is just out of this world.  It is like eating a fresh fish rolled into ball.  

The next soup is another of their specialties;  Yen-ta-fo.  I normally do not like this soup because the red sauce that is normally used for this soup is too thick and sweet.  But, at Pae Teaw, its delicate and flavourful.  I chose to have it with sen-mee (mini rice noodles) with soup.  You can choose either heng (dry) or with soup.  

In one word; wonderful.  I honesty have no idea how to describe the taste of a yen-ta-fo.  Its very unique and the flavours are well blended.  If you find the words to describe it, please do share it with me.  This soup is full of yummy stuff; red roasted pork, deep fried wonton, deep fried shrimp, pak-boong (morning glory) and sponge mushroom (I have no idea if thats what you call that white fungus creature, but is good).  Oh, you do have to remember to remind them not to add the 'blood' in a square shape (unless you like eating blood).  

OK, as I have an empty pit of a stomach, I needed one more bowl of noodles for the road.  The last bowl was ba-mee heng, with everything!   I don't think I need to repeat all the ingredients, as you can see in the photo; it was a heavenly end to my lunch.