Fast food culture has made people forget what patience tastes like. Our head cook walks you through the philosophy of gaeng, Thai stew, and why time is the most important ingredient.
In Thai, gaeng describes a broad category of wet dishes, curries, soups, stews, that share one quality: liquid that has been cooked long enough to carry the flavors of everything that went into it. The word is often translated as curry, which undersells it.
The paste is the foundation
Every gaeng starts with a paste. At Bangkok Soul, our pastes are made by hand three times a week. Garlic, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime zest, shrimp paste, dried chilies soaked and squeezed, coriander root, white pepper, each ingredient pounded separately to release oils before being combined. A food processor would take three minutes. We take thirty. The texture is different. The oil release is different. The finished dish is different.
Noi says she can taste the difference between a hand-pounded paste and a blended one every single time. We believe her.
The order of things
Paste hits a dry wok first, no oil, over high heat until fragrant. Then coconut cream, not milk, added slowly to allow the fat to split and fry the paste. This is called khua, blooming. Then liquid. Then protein. Then vegetables, added in order of how long they need. Then seasoning at the very end, never before, because everything reduces and concentrates and you cannot predict the final salt level until you are nearly done.
A gaeng made this way takes two to three hours minimum. Most of that time is low-heat reducing, tasting, adjusting. It cannot be rushed without losing the layered quality that makes it worth eating.
What we want guests to understand
When something costs what it costs at Bangkok Soul, it's because a person spent most of the morning making it. Not because of the ingredient cost, most Thai ingredients are affordable, but because of the time. We think that's worth paying for. We think most guests, once they understand it, agree.
