Phat Woon Sen Pu — Crab Glass Noodle Casserole / ผัดวุ้นเส้นปู

Central Thai (Chinese-Thai) — the clay pot cooking technique is directly from the Cantonese and Teochew Chinese communities of Bangkok

Phat woon sen (stir-fried glass noodles) with crab is a premium Thai-Chinese preparation cooked in a clay pot (mo din) — the glass noodles are soaked until just pliable, then layered in the clay pot with fresh ginger, spring onion, coriander root, white pepper, and oyster sauce, then fresh crab pieces are placed on top and the pot is sealed and steamed-stir-fried simultaneously over high heat. The clay pot retains and equalises heat, cooking the crab and noodles simultaneously and allowing the crab juices to soak into the noodles. This dish demonstrates the Thai-Chinese technique of clay-pot cooking as a flavour amplification method.

The clay pot technique makes the crab the cooking medium as much as the ingredient — the steam from the crab pieces infuses downward into the glass noodles, turning a simple noodle dish into a crab-saturated preparation.