Thai curry pastes (prik gaeng — literally "curry chilli") are among the most complex aromatic preparations in world cooking — each a specific combination of dried and fresh aromatics, fermented shrimp paste (kapi), and chillies that cannot be replicated by any commercial approximation. Thompson dedicates an entire chapter to establishing why fresh-pounded paste produces categorically different results from blended paste and why Thai cooking cannot be understood without this foundation.
The complete Thai curry paste system — architecture, pounding technique, and the major paste families.
THAI CULINARY TRADITION — DEEP EXTRACTION