Gaeng Hang Lay appears as a signature dish in 1 Thailand cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Gaeng hang lay · Chiang Mai
A rich Burmese-influenced pork-belly curry, slow-cooked with ginger, tamarind, garlic and a dry-spice hang lay powder until sweet, sour and meltingly tender.
Gaeng hang lay is the clearest culinary trace of the two centuries Chiang Mai spent under Burmese rule. Unlike coconut-based Thai curries, it is a dry, spice-driven braise of fatty pork belly cooked long with ginger, garlic, tamarind, palm sugar and a dedicated hang lay curry powder heavy on turmeric and dried spice. The result is sweet, sour and deeply savoury, mellowing over a day or two, which is why it appears at temple merit-making and festivals cooked in vast pots. It remains a signature of the Lanna feast and a staple of the north's Bib Gourmand kitchens.
Where to eat in Chiang Mai:
- Huen Muan Jai
- Aroon Rai
- Krua Phech Doi Ngam