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Phad sii-ew whomps Phad Thai any day of the week.

I know that phad Thai is the most popular dish outside of Thailand, and it is in fact reasonably popular inside, too. You know it -- fried rice noodles (the thin, flat kind), along with tiny dried shrimp (gung), peanuts, tamarind, egg and mung beans, and greatly improved with some lemon or lime (here it's all manaaw--they don't make the distinction). What you might not know is that a proper phad Thai also has about three heaping tablespoons of white sugar. After six months of regular phad Thai consumption from my favorite street stall, and even helping them do the mix-a-lot, I can't stand the stuff any longer. I have instead moved on to another glorious fried noodle dish: phad sii-ew. I quite like the phak (veggies only) variety, but there is also prawn (gung) or chicken (gai...not to be confused with kai, which is egg. This becomes much more confusing when you are speaking Thai, and the difference between k and g is wholly nonsensically non-existant). All it seems to be is fat, flat fried rice noodles, fish sauce (nam plaa, which is in everything, preventing even the most dedicated vegetarian from avoiding Fish and Chippocriteness), some green, leafy, bitterish vegetable, oyster sauce, a few salty beans of unknown origin and egg. There might be something else, I'm not entirely sure, and the whole thing is improved with a sprinkling of vinegar and chili (naturally). It's a delightfully plain, tasty noodle dish that is the perfect lunch. Even though it's fried, it's very light and completely delicious. I highly recommend you forego your next phad thai and request a phad sii-ew (with fat noodles) the next time you're blessedly eating Thai!