A yellow-orange curry of coconut milk and gaeng kua paste with cha-om (acacia pennata — a feathery-leafed herb with a distinctive, mildly sulphurous, slightly fermented aroma) beaten into an egg and fried into a disc, then cut and simmered in the curry. The cha-om omelette within the curry provides both protein and the distinctive aromatic of the cha-om leaf — one of the most intensely regional and polarising aromatics in the Thai kitchen. Thompson treats this as a paradigmatic example of central Thai cooking's use of fermented and strongly aromatic ingredients as primary flavour contributors.
**Cha-om (Acacia pennata):** The young, feathery leaves of the climbing acacia — available in Asian grocery stores in Thai communities. Its distinctive smell: a combination of sulphur-adjacent compounds and a slightly fermented note — described variously as 'egg-like,' 'slightly stinky,' or 'deeply savoury' depending on the perceiver. The aromatic moderates significantly when the cha-om is cooked (particularly when fried in the omelette stage). **The cha-om omelette:** 1. Beat eggs with fish sauce. 2. Stir in the cha-om leaves (removed from stems, roughly torn). 3. Fry in hot oil as a thick omelette — the cha-om inside the omelette cooks and its aromatic moderates while retaining its distinctive flavour contribution. 4. Cut the cooked omelette into sections. 5. Simmer the omelette pieces in the gaeng kua curry briefly before service.
David Thompson, *Thai Food* (2002); *Thai Street Food* (2010)