Baan Yai Pad Thai
Address: 110 Soi Inthamara 47, แขวงรัชดาภิเษก Din Daeng, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Hours: 10 AM to 6PM daily
Phone: +66 89 681 5838
This is one of the best places for Phad Thai – piping hot noodles cooked to perfection, boldly flavoured and with a distinctive smokiness from the charcoal stove. Expect to wait in line. Come with a local since you have to write in Thai to make an order.
Deliciousness renders you speechless with every bite of Phad Thai served up, tasty and affordable, at Baan Yai Pad Thai or, as it is known around Inthamara 47, Silent Pad Thai. Almost every cook and server is hearing impaired, but that hasn’t stopped foodies from following the enticing savoury aromas from the charcoal-fired kitchen. The queue has only gotten longer now that the street food joint received a MICHELIN Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide Thailand 2020. But a one- to three-hour wait hasn’t discouraged anyone.
This restaurant wasn’t established to hire only the disabled. I’m just the only non-disabled person working at a restaurant owned by a disabled person.”
Kittichai “On” Chuenyam begins the story before his older brother, Somjet “Ae” Chuenyam, opened the famous Phad Thai shop in Inthamara 47 in Bangkok. Ae has a congenital hearing defect since birth, but he never lets his impairment handicap him. Instead, Ae did the opposite, making a living like everyone else. One of the main lines of work for the handicapped in Thailand is selling lottery tickets. But when the policy for lottery sales changed, the disabled population was the most affected.
“About seven or eight years ago, the government lowered lottery ticket prices to 80 baht each, but the cost to sell them was more than that. Ae had to look for a new job because he had a family to support. He couldn’t give up. So, he thought about what he could do, and cooking came to mind. At the time he was already making meals at home, so he decided to open a shop and prepare dishes to order. Unfortunately, that didn’t go so well, but he didn’t want to give up. He had to figure out a way to make this work.”
On continued, “Ae loves Phad Thai, but the Phad Thai today wasn’t like what he knew as a kid. It all comes ready-made or pre-packaged. Thus, he tried to make Phad Thai that tasted like what he remembered. It took Ae months to get the flavours right, with friends and relatives to taste test, to help out. Finally, he changed over to only selling Phad Thai.”
“Silent Pad Thai” didn’t start off in a shophouse similar to where it is now. Ae began with a small push cart that had one stove, one wok, and his wife, who is also hearing impaired, helping him. Ae distinguishes his dishes by reintroducing flavours from his childhood to people to enjoy. He uses a charcoal-fired stove to carefully stir-fry each order as well as to slow cook his sauce from fresh tamarind juice. The tantalising aromas from the rendered pork fat hints at his signature touch -- a pork crackling topping. That crispiness perfectly complements the tender noodles. Diners must be as patient as the cook as it takes some time to delicately create each serving of Phad Thai.