All over Bangkok,every noodle dishtells a savory story

April 20, 2005|Rob McKeown, Globe Correspondent

BANGKOK -- ''Yaak kin guay tiaw!"

This is a cry heard all over Thailand and it is often punctuated with a wide-eyed smile. The literal translation: ''I want to eat noodles." Day to day, the phrase pops up like an old friend demanding to be fed. If ''yaak kin guay tiaw" is a secondary Thai anthem, then chasing noodles is a national pastime.

I've traveled in Southeast Asia for seven years now, and noodles are as ubiquitous as rice, whether the communities are migrant Indian or native Cambodian, Buddhist or Muslim. Historically, noodles arrived in Thailand from China during the spice trading era, but they have been wholly transformed into what locals like to call ''things Thai." While I love the herbal zing of Vietnamese pho or the coconut milk and lush spunk of Malaysian laksa, there is no place I would rather chase noodles than in Thailand and no better place to do so than in Bangkok. Who eats them, when they are cooked, how they are seasoned -- every noodle dish is a story unto itself.

I eat pad thai only about twice a year but find myself doing so at Or Tor Kor. It's an open-air produce and cooked foods market with concrete flooring, neon strip lights, and an aluminum roof. The vendor I frequent sets up across from a stand selling fresh sugar cane, orange, and green guava juices. She has a round, sweet face that tightens when she flips the noodles about on an iron griddle.

I order mine with plump oysters and mussels from Ranong and always stand and watch as she folds them together with dried shrimp, soy, and glass noodles. The whole becomes stained a lovely shade of blush pink. Egg lovers should ask to have the noodles wrapped in a delicate sheath of omelet (say ''haw khai" to accomplish this). The result is a plump, yellow package whose sides burst with strands of noodles and green shards of spring onions. Remember to sprinkle red chile and squeeze lime and fish sauce to taste. The Thai way is very much about your ways and whims.

Iconic as it is searing hot, tom yum soup is a chameleon of a dish. In the dry climate of Esarn, the country's northeast section, where rice is farmed and livestock reared, it's all rough-and-tumble chile heat, whereas in the central regions the taste is rich with coconut milk and tamarind. But the noodle form is probably eaten with equal frequency; simply say ''guay tieo tom yum."