Classic Thai Noodle Soup - Street Style

Noodle soup or guay tiew nam ก๋วยเตี๋ยวน้ำ, is one of the poster children of Thai street food. No matter where you are in the country, you can find a shop selling some type of noodle soup near you. But this one, with clear pork broth and Asian style meatballs, is what I consider the "OG," the basic, the margherita pizza of pizzas. It's the simplest and easiest of noodle soups, and the ultimate comfort food. Make the stock in advance, and it's quick enough to put together for a weeknight meal.

If you're a fan of Vietnamese pho, you're going to love this one!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the the full recipe card below. Don't be deterred by the list of ingredients! May of the ones listed are optional but I want to give you the whole range of possiblities, and the basics that you really need are not that many!

For the Pork Stock (or chicken stock)

There are times when store bought stocks are totally fine, and this is not one of them. The pork stock is the foundation of the soup, and it really needs to be made Thai style to have the right flavour and aromatics. If you don't eat pork, you can substitute chicken bones.

• Pork neck bones or back bones, I prefer neck bones because it has more meat which you can either save for another dish of simply top the noodle soup with it. Sub chicken bones if you don’t eat pork.
• Daikon. I used to think that daikon was an optional stock aromatic, but after having made stocks with and without daikon, I now believe it is essential. It makes the stock so sweet and flavourful, and is a must have in Thailand for stocks.
• Garlic.
• Onion. Onion is not actually added to stocks in Thailand, but I love the added sweetness that it gives, and don't we always have an onion around the house anyway? 🙂
• Cilantro roots, or cilantro stems, smashed gently to bruise.

For the Broth

• Good Thai style pork stock from above.
• Soy sauce.
• Fish sauce. See my post on how to choose good fish sauce here.
• Sugar.
• Ground white pepper, to taste

Noodle Soup Components

• Noodles of your choice. The noodle soups vendors will always offer several noodle options. You can choose whichever you prefer, and I've listed them all, along with cooking instructions below.
• Asian style fish cakes/fish balls, or other types of Asian style meatballs of your choice. You can buy fish cakes at any Asian grocery stores, either fresh in the seafood counter or frozen. There are many flavours, and you can use anything you like, but try to stick with ones with fewer ingredients as they tend to be of higher quality.
  Other protein options: Because the soup is quite plain, I encourage you to use protein that is flavourful such as: the meat you picked off from the bones after making the pork stock tossed with some soy sauce and pepper, chopped leftover meats that is flavourful like a good steak or roast chicken, thinly sliced marinated pork or chicken, or ground pork cooked with some soy sauce.
• Bean sprouts.
• Fried garlic and garlic oil. Really important toppings for Thai noodle soup! You simply need to fry some chopped garlic on low heat until golden, but you can see the full recipe for fried garlic here.
• Chopped cilantro and/or green onions for garnish
• Optional: "tang chai" preserved cabbage bits. These are little bits of crunchy salted cabbage that we often add to our noodle soups. You can see them at the end of the video, but they are totally optional.

Optional Tableside Condiments:

Thai people always provide extra condiments for noodle soup so people can make it taste exactly how you want it. You can also make it “tom yum style” which is a hot and sour version (more on this below).

• Chili vinegar, the basic version is simpley chopped chilies and white vinegar. You can also blend the chilies and the vinegar together. Read more about this on my chili vinegar post.
• Fish sauce, if you want to soup to be more salty.
• Sugar.
• Roasted chili flakes, or any kind of spicy chili powder if you want to make it spicy. this is also needed for the tom yum style. You can buy or easily make your own roasted chili flakes.
• Lime, only for tom yum style, more about tom yum style below.

How to Make Classic Thai Noodle Soup

Here's a bird's eye view of the process. The full instructions are in the recipe card below, and if this is your first time, I highly recommend watching the video tutorial to ensure success!

1. Simmer pork neck bones in water for about 30 minutes, then skim off the scum.
2. Add the daikon, onion, garlic, cilantro roots/stems, and white pepper and simmer for another hour, at minimum.
3. Remove the pork bones and vegetables; the stock is now ready to use. Once the bones are cool, pick off the meat from the bones and you can season it with some soy sauce and use it to top the noodle soup, or save it for another dish.
4. If using rice noodles, soak them in room temperature water until they are fully pliable. Timing varies between noodles, more on this below.

Noodle Options and Cooking Instructions

At most Thai noodle soup vendors, you will have several noodle options and they all need slightly different preparations below. You can learn more about how to cook rice noodles properly in my post on mastering rice noodles.

• Rice vermicelli (sen mee) - The smallest of noodles and the quickest to prep. Simply soak them in room temp water for 5-15 mins (timing varies between brands) until they are completely limp, then drain. DO NOT OVERSOAK as these overcook very easily.
  To cook, blanch them in boiling water, one portion at a time, for 3 seconds.
• Small dry rice noodles (sen lek) - The most classic option. These noodles are 1.5 mm wide when dry. Soak in room temp water for 20-30 minutes or until they turn opaque white and are completely limp - they should have lost all of the kinks - and then drain.
  To cook, blanch them in boiling water, one portion at a time, for 5 seconds.
• Glass noodles (woon sen) - woonsen is thin, delicate, and has a neutral flavour and is delicious in boat noodles. Soak in room temp water for 10 minutes until softened before cooking.
  To cook, boil in hot water for 2 minutes. You can cook all of the glass noodles at once since they take a longer time to cook, then separate into portions immediately after draining.
• Fresh wide rice noodles (sen yai) - This is the noodles commonly associated with pad see ew. If cold and stuck together, microwave the noodles until they are hot and soft, so they can be peeled apart without breaking. Separate all the noodles before cooking.
  To cook, blanch them one portion at a time for literally 1-2 seconds just to heat them up and wash off the oil that's used to coat them. Do not let them linger in hot water for too long because they're already fully cooked and will quickly turn mushy.
• Wonton noodles or egg noodles (bamee) - These vary greatly between brands, so you'll have to change the cooking time according to what you've got.
  But if you have thin wonton noodles like the one shown in the pic (fresh and coated in flour), loosen the noodles and boil them in hot water for 1 minute. If you're making many portions, you can cook them all at once and separate them immediately after draining.
• Mama Instant Noodles (sen mama) - Mama are the Thai instant noodles and they are super tasty in boat noodles! Buy any flavour of mama since you won't need the seasoning packets, but make sure the noodles are the classic wheat fried noodles as shown in the pic.
  Boil the noodles in water for about 1 minute, and you can cook all portions together and separate them after draining.
• Medium size rice noodles (not pictured): These are 3mm wide rice noodles, but they are actually not offered in Thailand for noodle soups because they are meant for stir fries. But if these are what you have, soak them in room temp water for 1 hour until fully pliable, then blanch in boiling water for 8 seconds.

Advance Prep & Storage

The only thing that takes time is the pork stock, everything else is super easy to come together. So I would make the pork stock in advance, and that should be all you need to do.

You can also soak rice noodles in advance, drain, and keep them in the fridge. But do not soak rice vermicelli in advance as I find they tend to become mushy as they sit in the fridge and absorb excess moisture around them.

You can store leftover soup in the fridge for up to 1 week, and you can freeze it of course.