The northern Thai city of Mae Sot seems like an unlikely place to find a particular style of phat Thai - a dish I usually associate with central Thailand. But while in the city recently, I spotted three or so shops serving a somewhat unusual version of the dish.
The local twist here is the addition of pork (for those of you familiar with northern Thai food this won't come as a surprise). The dish is served with a small pile of crispy deep-fried pork rinds and topped with a few slices of barbecued pork. Real Thai-style phat Thai isn’t generally served with any meat (other than dried or fresh, shrimp), so I appreciate the addition of protein in what is normally a pretty substantial carb blast. It's also quite simply a good dish of phat Thai: the noodles themselves aren’t gloopy or heavy, although like every dish of phat Thai I’ve ever encountered, required additional seasoning with fish sauce and dried chili.
If you’ve never been, Mae Sot’s a pretty interesting food town. There’s a couple restaurants like this serving interesting mainstream-Thai-type fare, some northern Thai food, quite a few Muslim restaurants and lots of Burmese food, particularly at the town's morning market and for breakfast.
Phat Thai Mae Sot Th Prasat Withit, Mae Sot noon-9pm
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