The name of this stall means 'rising flame', a reference to how the phat thai here is fried a small wok, which allows the flames to char the noodles. This is a substantial difference with the vast majority of phat thai, as the dish is generally made on a wide flat surface with no flames at all.
The vendor sets up at the little alleyway of 'famous' stalls at the popular Soi 38 night market, and in addition to flames, there are a few more interesting things about how he rolls. He begins the dish by flash-frying shrimp, dried shrimp and tofu in plenty of oil over a very, very hot flame. Next, the fire is turned down and dry rice noodles are moistened with a few splashes of tinned milk and seasoned with sugar, vinegar, dried chili and fish sauce. The heat is increased again and the noodles and seasonings are mixed thoroughly (shown above). After a few seconds, chopped Chinese chives and bean sprouts are tossed in and the dish is removed. In a new wok, he then scrambles a few eggs over a very high heat and when cooked, adds these to the noodle mixture. And when serving the dish, instead of the usual sliced banana flower, he uses a few sprigs of pennywort.
Unfortunately, despite all these clever variations, the result is a pretty bog standard dish of phat thai:
Not bad, but wholly unremarkable, and most sadly, lacking the smokiness that I assume was the intent of making the dish in this manner.
Oh well.
Phat Thai Fai Look Corner Thanon Sukhumvit & Soi 38 8pm-late
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