'Pye Boat Noodle' serves Thai food, but they're not cooking up your typical pad Thai. Bird Siriboon and his wife, Thon, embrace the memories of Thailand in their food.



'Pye' refers to a paddle used for small boats on the canals in Bangkok that served noodles to people along the canal - that's how they came up with the name for the restaurant. The restaurant is located on 35-13 in Astoria, Queens, and inside, it's a throwback to old Bangkok.



"We actually wanted to remake the 60s and 70s of Thailand - sort of like an old house," says Bird.



The menu features traditional dishes like papaya salad or larb, a spicy ground pork dish, but the emphasis is on street food and noodle soups, like the Sukhothai soup.



Sukhothai soup pulls a bunch of different ingredients together with thin rice noodles that cook in seconds - bean sprouts, roast pork, dried baby shrimp and ground pork - all drowned by a rich chicken broth.

 

The soup is then topped with long beans, scallions, peppers, cilantro, peanuts and fried pork skin for extra crunch. The soup is salty, sweet and spicy all at once.



"The food is so very authentic - I love everything about it," says one customer.



It's food off the beaten path that's attracting those with a craving for home.