Phatthalung Specialty · Fermented Fish Curry

Gaeng Tai Pla (Fermented Fish Curry)

Photo: Takeaway / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Its defining ingredient is tai pla — fermented fish entrails salted and cured for a period before cooking — making this arguably the most pungent curry base in Thai cooking, and southern cooks wear the smell as a badge of pride.

Salted, fermented fish viscera is simmered into a fiery curry base with lemongrass, chilies, garlic and shrimp paste, then loaded with catfish or snakehead fish, bamboo shoots, eggplant and yardlong beans. Southern market stalls ladle it over rice, often alongside a plate of raw vegetables to cut the intensity.

Why it's made this way: Gaeng tai pla is a signature of southern Thai cooking, where fishing communities salted and fermented fish innards to preserve them and turned the result into one of the region's defining curries.