Curry and curry paste

[Kanga Japan]

I am making a list of Thai food ingredients and have many types of curries/curry pastes included.

Is there a special Thai word for 'paste', or does the word KAENG (แกง) apply to both the curry itself and the paste (used to make the curry).

If it applies to both, it would save a lot of confusion.

Thanks for your help.

[Ohng]

Curry Paste = เครื่อง(Paste)แกงกะหรี่(Curry)

Tom Ka Paste = เครื่อง(Paste)ต้มข่า(Tom Ka)

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Ohng,

Thank you for that. I don't think it will be necessary for me to make 2 separate entries for CURRIES and CURRY PASTES.

Just enter KHRUEANG once as meaning 'paste' and KHRUEANG KAENG meaning 'curry paste'. The thing is, sometimes I have entries such as:

KAENG KHIAO WAN

PRIK KAENG KHIAO WAN

NAM PRIK KAENG KHIAO WAN

I guess that they would all mean the same thing - GREEN CURRY, although including the word NAM could make it into sort of a paste.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

[Ohng]

KENG(แกง) PAD(ผัด) TOM(ต้ม) TOD(ทอด) YANG(ย่าง), are the way how the food to be cooked.

PRIK KAENG = NAM PRIK KAENG = PASTE is the instant mixed ingredients rather than pound(ตำ) all the indredients such as chilli, salt, lemongrass together in the mortar(ครก) by yourself.

KAENG KHIAO WAN = It's just the name.

PRIK KAENG KHIAO WAN = NAM PRIK KAENG KHIAO WAN = It's the paste for cooking KAENG KHIAO WAN

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Ohng,

Thank you for that clear explanation.

I understand now. Much appreciated.

[Richard W]

Just enter KHRUEANG once as meaning 'paste' and KHRUEANG KAENG meaning 'curry paste'. The thing is, sometimes I have entries such as:

KHRUEANG means 'tool', 'machine', 'device'. The meaning gets stretched a bit in the compound KHRUEANG KAENG. I'd be very dubious about claiming that KHRUEANG on its own meant 'paste'. Thai-language.com offers the sense 'ingredients; items; stuff; material'.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Richard W,

Thank you for your comments. The word KHRUEANG (เครื่อง) seems to have multiple meanings, such as:

ingredients

utensil

utensil (as a prefix)

curry paste (khrueang kaeng)

relish (khrueang chim)

entrails (khrueang nai)

condiments (khrueang prung)

It appears to be a very 'versatile' word.

[AyG]

There's a lot of good advice from the previous posters. However, to summarise the key points:

KAENG means curry.

KHRUEANG KAENG means curry paste.

KHRUEANG does NOT mean paste. Think of KHRUEANG KAENG as a fixed expression.

To be more specific about the paste for a particular curry use expressions such as KHRUEANG KAENG KHIAO WAN (green curry curry paste).

Sometimes NAM PHRIK is used instead of KHRUEANG. The panaeng curry paste I bought this morning was described as NAM PHRIK KAENG PHANAENG, rather than KHRUEANG KAENG PHANAENG.

KHRUEANG is also used for other pastes besides curry pastes. For example, KHRUEANG TOM KHA.

[Mole]

เครื่องแกง refers to the raw ingredients which one can make into พริกแกง which is the curry paste.

เครื่อง in this context means the separate ingredients (materials).

น้ำพริก is not used to refer to raw curry paste, nor can it be used instead of เครื่อง.

You have misunderstood because your panaeng is น้ำพริกแกง-พะแนง where the important part of the word is พริกแกง. น้ำพริกแกงพะแนง or just พริกแกงพะแนง will be understood as the paste which one use to make into panaeng curry. One can not however say just น้ำพริกพะแนง to refer to the paste.

You farangs always forget that even though a Thai word may consist of several words, it is their TOTAL meaning you must look at and not always separate the individual meaning.

For example ต้มยำ doesn't mean a boiled salad.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear AyG,

Thank you for your information. I understand now that KHRUEANG KAENG means curry paste (as a fixed expression).

I understand all your other comments, except for one - that KHRUEANG does not mean 'paste'. By itself it means 'ingredients', however at the bottom of your post you say that it can be used for other 'pastes', such as KHRUEANG TOM KHA. In this case, what would it be translated as? Ingredients for Tom Kha? Would it not be in a paste form?

Sorry to drag this out, but I am not 100% sure of what you mean in this case.

Thanks for your help.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Mole,

Thank you for your comments and information. To sum up:

KHRUEANG - ingredients

KHRUEANG KAENG - ingredients used to make a curry

PRIK KAENG - curry paste

PRIK KAENG PANAENG - panaeng curry paste

NAM PRIK KAENG PANAENG - panaeng curry paste

Quite a few sites indicate KHRUEANG KAENG as being condiments, or side dishes, but this appears to be an incorrect description.

I hope that my understanding of the above is correct. I wish I could understand this as well as you Thais can, but being the foreigner I am, there are certain limits, which you seem to be quite aware of. We do the best we can - some better than others.

Thank you so much for your help.

[Ohng]

Quite a few sites indicate KHRUEANG KAENG as being condiments, or side dishes, but this appears to be an incorrect description.

KHRUEANG KAENG, It should be เครื่องเคียง KHRUEANG KIANG

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Ohng,

Thank you for that. The sites which used that description (side dishes) were all in English, without any Thai script, so it didn't occur to me that they could be referring to เครื่องเคียง (KHRUEANG KHIANG).

I appreciate you bringing that to my attention.