One of Cardiff’s tastiest new takeaways is being run from a house in Roath.
Hug Paeng, a Thai takeaway which opened last week, is owned by Sranya Khaengkhan who moved to the UK from rural Thailand two years ago when she got married.
Whilst in Thailand, Sranya worked as a teacher but she decided on a career change when she moved to Cardiff to be with her new husband, who she met 11 years ago whilst volunteering for an education charity.
Speaking about adjusting to life in Cardiff, Sranya said: “I like it very much, apart from the rain!”
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For the last two years, Sranya has been working as a chef at the Vietnamese restaurant Pho in Cardiff city centre. But, the long hours have meant she’s had very little time for her family.
“I enjoyed cooking there but I worked a lot, like 60 hours a week. So, I didn’t really have time with my husband and family. After a holiday, I decided that I had to do something different.”
The idea of opening a takeaway in the heart of a community comes from when Sranya grew up in Thailand.
She said “When I was young you could just go next door to get food and eat straight away. You didn’t need to cook. It’s so easy to eat something in Thailand. So, the concept is that it’s for the locals here too, they can just walk five minutes and can get food.”
With a compact menu which includes just chicken and tofu red and green curries as well as rice and dessert, one of the things which sets Hug Paeng apart is that Sranya makes all of her spice pastes herself from scratch.
“With Thai food, the most important thing is the herbs. We import some of them from Thailand as we couldn’t find them here in Cardiff. Also, they put shrimp in a lot of instant pastes. My curry paste is 100% vegan,” said Sranya.
“It’s only me who cooks, packs and gives the orders to the customers so if I made more dishes it would be a lot! We’ll see, maybe one day I’ll add a new dish to the menu.”
Hug Paeng has already proven popular with local customers.
Sranya said: “There was a guy from Roath who ordered 10 curries on our first day. He said ‘it was the best’ and the next day he ordered another eight!”
Sranya’s warmth of hospitality is carried through into the name of the business, Hug Paeng, which means “dearly cherish” in her north eastern Thai dialect.
“In Thailand, food is one of the big parts of our culture so if you visit a Thai family, ‘how are you?’ is not the first thing they would ask, they would ask ‘have you eaten yet? They like to make sure that your stomach is full and not empty!’ she said.
If you’d like to try Hug Paeng’s Thai food, then they’re open lunchtimes and evenings from Tuesday to Saturday. You can order for collection via their website or delivery via Indie Eats.
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