Phanaeng Curry Named Best Stew in The World

[markclover]

Pretty easy to win when you don't tell anyone else to enter.

[Goat]

2 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Obviously not a stew and IMO nice but nothing to write home about. Massaman is superior but takes longer to make. As for stews, curries and casseroles they are all better the day after cooking. As for @Goatyes laksa is fantastic but it's a noodle soup so not a curry or stew. It's not too difficult to make. You can get the paste online, buy some egg noodles and make a good fish stock with some fresh fish heads the day before. 

I am lazy to cook, but owned a restaurant 20 years ago with a Malaysian chef. An authentic laksa made by a authentic Malay you cant beat. I have had a couple of Thai made ones, but nothing like the real thing.

 

I think a lot of posters here think of "stew" as something there mum made back in the 50's. They didnt make the list.

[gamb00ler]

On 3/21/2023 at 10:35 AM, BritManToo said:

Tourist food, usually not on sale in restaurants that cater to Thais.

You just can't help yourself can you?  You keep spouting this nonsense opinion.

 

Panang is real Thai food.  You are correct in that it is not often offered in the better Thai restaurants.  The reason is NOT because it isn't Thai food.  The reason is that Thai customers don't want to order such typical, home made entree when they splurge on a meal in a restaurant.  My Thai family do eat panang sold by street vendors when they want a simple meal.

 

Your isolation from the actual experience of Thai people is quite clear.

Edited March 22, 2023 by gamb00ler

[brianthainess]

On 3/21/2023 at 9:52 AM, webfact said:

Thai dishes continue to be desired delicacies among food enthusiasts around the world.

And yet these dishes are not Thai did sweet n sour come 3rd if so all three are my favorite "THAI"  go for food. 

[kwilco]

On 3/21/2023 at 9:52 AM, webfact said:

TasteAtlas

Surely this is just a totally arbitrary item intended to promote the website?

[xylophone]

On 3/21/2023 at 10:06 AM, rbkk said:

A curry is not a stew; in my book.

There's nothing like a good curry........

 

 

[kwilco]

I can't believe some of the ill-informed ideas about the words curry and stew.

I heard someone the other day who tried to tell me a mosquito wasn't an animal....its on a par with that.

[Yellowtail]

I love Phanaeng, but It's hard to believe people pay any attention to these kind of lists.  Did you see what won best picture? 

 

 

 

 

[kwilco]

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

I love Phanaeng, but It's hard to believe people pay any attention to these kind of lists.  Did you see what won best picture? 

 

 

 

 

No...but these lists are rubbish....just an advertising ploy

[richard_smith237]

3 minutes ago, kwilco said:

I can't believe some of the ill-informed ideas about the words curry and stew.

I heard someone the other day who tried to tell me a mosquito wasn't an animal....its on a par with that.

Well.. I can understand them thinking that, but technically they are incorrect of course (as you point out)....  Mosquitos fall within the Animalia Kingdom. 

The scientific classification; the Taxonomy system, runs from (1) kingdom, (2) phylum, (3) class, (4) order, (5) family, (6) genus, and (7) species.

 

And as such, the mosquito is (1) Kingdom - Animalia, (2) Phylum - Arthropoda, (3) Class- Insecta (4) Order- Diptera (5) Family: Culicidae and within that there are different (6) genus’s and within that different (7) species of mosquito.... 

 

Food has no such ‘scientific’ classification and is subject only to interpretation, history, language, cultural variation etc... there are no absolutes with food. 

[bang saen guy]

I am not sure these are Thai.

Not sure they are stews 

Why are the only stews considered are Asian?

If these are stews, then creole gumbo must be a stew and beats these by far

[richard_smith237]

On 3/21/2023 at 6:35 AM, BritManToo said:

Tourist food, usually not on sale in restaurants that cater to Thais.

Got to love these sort of blanket statements, often made by those over-confident that their experiences in their slice of Nakhon nowhere is applicable to the nation on the whole !!!..  ????

 

 

 

[kwilco]

8 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Well.. I can understand them thinking that, but technically they are incorrect of course (as you point out)....  Mosquitos fall within the Animalia Kingdom. 

The scientific classification; the Taxonomy system, runs from (1) kingdom, (2) phylum, (3) class, (4) order, (5) family, (6) genus, and (7) species.

 

And as such, the mosquito is (1) Kingdom - Animalia, (2) Phylum - Arthropoda, (3) Class- Insecta (4) Order- Diptera (5) Family: Culicidae and within that there are different (6) genus’s and within that different (7) species of mosquito.... 

 

Food has no such ‘scientific’ classification and is subject only to interpretation, history, language, cultural variation etc... there are no absolutes with food. 

I think your the kind of bloke who thinks a joke isn't  funny until they have explained it.

Food actually does have a form of taxonomy  or family tree and a few absolutes also a clue can be in the method of cooking involved... e g. Boiling, baking, frying roasting or STEWING.

[kwilco]

12 minutes ago, bang saen guy said:

I am not sure these are Thai.

Not sure they are stews 

Why are the only stews considered are Asian?

If these are stews, then creole gumbo must be a stew and beats these by far

So...tell tasteatlas... gumbo is a stew with African origins but just saying its better is a sample of one...I expect that tasteatlas used a bigger sample...or maybe just dreamed it up in the office?

[spidermike007]

A great Penang curry ranks right up there. I love it with fresh squid. Massaman curry is a close 2nd for that class of Thai food. 

 

I think great Thai food is the only cuisine I could eat every day, and not get tired of. Still love it after all these years. It helps that I love it spicy. 

[BritManToo]

7 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

A great Penang curry ranks right up there. I love it with fresh squid. Massaman curry is a close 2nd for that class of Thai food. 

 

I think great Thai food is the only cuisine I could eat every day, and not get tired of. Still love it after all these years. It helps that I love it spicy. 

You haven't tried the Auf der Au breakfast buffet (220bht).

Then a curry at RajDarBar in LK for dinner.

 

No Thai food for me.

Edited March 22, 2023 by BritManToo

[BritManToo]

28 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

Got to love these sort of blanket statements, often made by those over-confident that their experiences in their slice of Nakhon nowhere is applicable to the nation on the whole !!!..  ????

I like Penang Curry, but I have to drive into CM to eat it.

Not sold anywhere in MaeJo/Sansai that I can find.

[JensenZ]

My tastebuds must be working well. I don't eat much Thai food, but the Thai food dishes I do enjoy the most are Panang, Massaman, and Green Curry chicken in no particular order.

[richard_smith237]

46 minutes ago, kwilco said:

I think your the kind of bloke who thinks a joke isn't  funny until they have explained it.

Food actually does have a form of taxonomy  or family tree and a few absolutes also a clue can be in the method of cooking involved... e g. Boiling, baking, frying roasting or STEWING.

I think you're the kind of bloke who makes unfunny jokes and doesn't realise they just aren’t funny... 

You’ll have to help out the reader by posting emoji’s to highlight that you’ve made an attempt to be humorous !!!... 

 

so... Is curry, currying ?...    What you have mentioned is cooking methods, there’s also steaming sautéing, blanching etc...  then there are things like saus-vide... 

 

So.. Is a curry a stew ???... I don’t think so. Stew is a western term. 

[Yellowtail]

40 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I think great Thai food is the only cuisine I could eat every day, and not get tired of. Still love it after all these years. It helps that I love it spicy. 

I don't know, I could be a vegetarian in India...

[richard_smith237]

43 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

A great Penang curry ranks right up there. I love it with fresh squid. Massaman curry is a close 2nd for that class of Thai food. 

28 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

My tastebuds must be working well. I don't eat much Thai food, but the Thai food dishes I do enjoy the most are Panang, Massaman, and Green Curry chicken in no particular order.

But not in restaurants which cater solely to Thai clientele, right ?  ????????????????????

 

 

 

On 3/21/2023 at 6:35 AM, BritManToo said:

Tourist food, usually not on sale in restaurants that cater to Thais.

[billd766]

20 hours ago, MikeN said:

A stew is "fried" to seal the juices in the meat, then liquid is added and simmered slowly with whatever vegetables and seasoning you are using. A curry (as in your typical Indian curry) is a stew using curry seasoning (although no true Indian cook would use curry powder!).

Phanang "curry" is a soup because the meat is added to the liquid, not sealed first.

Phanang and massaman are my two favourite Thai dishes but my missus, being your typical Issaan person, doesn't like either and grumbles if I make it for dinner. Should have found myself a southern girl....but they are nearly all muslim ????

When I make it, I seal the meat (normally pork) first in a big wok, then I add coconut milk, water etc and leave it to simmer for a couple of hours.

 

Perhaps the way that I cook it is not the way that the recipe suggests, however the end result for me, is very tasty. My wife, (a Bangkok lady) cooks it differently to me and while it is tasty, I think my way is tastier.

 

Most of the recipes that I use are done the original way and then I modify it to suit my taste.

 

I am now on version 8 of making bread, and I have been baking my own bread for a few years now, and ver 8 bears little resemblance to ver 1.

 

My panang curry is on ver 5 from the original.

[billd766]

On 3/21/2023 at 4:22 PM, Menken said:

It's not a stew because nothing is stewed. It's pretty much fried and then simmered a bit.

 

 

It is absolutely delicious made correctly but like Masaman it never is.

Who defines what is correct?

 

The cook or the diner?

[billd766]

9 hours ago, Denim said:

Is this curry the same thing as the other well known curry or is it just a more flamboyant spelling ?

 

I much prefer the Lobo version.

[xylophone]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

I think great Thai food is the only cuisine I could eat every day, and not get tired of. Still love it after all these years. It helps that I love it spicy. 

I have liked spicy food since way back when (probably when I was in Nigeria at the end of the Biafran war, when whatever "meat" you got was steeped in a hot sauce, probably so you couldn't tell that it was either full of maggots or rotten) – – but I digress.

 

I have mainly stuck to farang food since I've been here with the occasional effort at cooking Thai food, but I'm leaning more towards making the majority of my meals, Thai, mainly because I do like spicy food and I can eat green chilis if I want, and I often sprinkle them on my home-made pizzas. 

 

And just to cement my thought process onto leaning much more towards cooking Thai food, just yesterday I had a chicken and mushroom pie which a friend's wife had cooked for me, and I had it with mashed potato and brussels sprouts, with some very weak chicken Bisto gravy.

 

I then realised that it was all very bland and damn near tasteless, so no more of that stuff for me, and although I do make the occasional Italian dish with some chili in it, Thai food will gradually take over my menu, apart from the fact that I do like a good tenderloin steak with some stilton on it (accompanied by a nice bottle of red wine) on occasion.

 

So I will be experimenting with more Thai dishes and the next in line will be a Panang chicken curry!!!!

 

Thank you to whoever started the thread because it's tickled my tastebuds.

[zzaa09]

6 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

You just can't help yourself can you?  You keep spouting this nonsense opinion.

 

Panang is real Thai food.  You are correct in that it is not often offered in the better Thai restaurants.  The reason is NOT because it isn't Thai food.  The reason is that Thai customers don't want to order such typical, home made entree when they splurge on a meal in a restaurant.  My Thai family do eat panang sold by street vendors when they want a simple meal.

 

Your isolation from the actual experience of Thai people is quite clear.

All of which is too common here among our distinguished forum members - very limited broad exposure and experience of a wide variety.....preferring to make things up by way of the running stereotypes sociological psycho-babble.

[Menken]

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

Who defines what is correct?

 

The cook or the diner?

The dictionary

[Yellowtail]

1 minute ago, Menken said:

The dictionary

No, the margin.

[JensenZ]

2 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

But not in restaurants which cater solely to Thai clientele, right ?  ????????????????????

No, but at restaurants that have a large Thai clientele - a good sign you're eating genuine Thai food. Are there restaurants in Pattaya or other areas of Thailand that refuse to serve foreigners?

 

Actually, seeing as you seem to be interested, I mainly eat Thai curries at home. My favourite are S&P frozen products, which I think are made in Thailand and mainly cater to Thai people.

 

I find this the most hygienic way to eat my favourite curries and the most consistent in flavour (as opposed to restaurants that have their good and bad days). Also, they are produced by experienced Thai chefs as they wouldn't be distributing millions of meals throughout Thailand to Thai people using lousy recipes. It's also very convenient to have my favourite Thai curries at my fingertips anytime I have the urge to indulge. They tend to be better than what I find in restaurants too.

[MrJ2U]

On 3/21/2023 at 10:21 AM, Goat said:

Be interesting to see how they try to negatively spin this around.

Most Thai food, unless you eat at upscale Thai restaurants in bigger cities, is nothing to write home about. 

 

Usually sinewy meats soaked in Sugar and MSG.  

 

However you get what you pay for.