This long cooking time gives the soup its distinctive flavour and aroma.
In 2020, third-generation owner Nattapong Kaweeantawong stated that the soup has never been thrown away after a day’s cooking, and it is preserved overnight and used to cook the next day’s soup.
Kaweeantawong explained to NPR that the pot is cleaned daily, but I wonder how you can clean a pot with soup still in it? “Lots of people think we never clean the pot,” he says. “But we clean it every evening. We remove the soup from the pot, then keep a little bit simmering overnight.”
However, the original soup is still always in the mix.
Wattana Panich is a small restaurant located near a busy street, occupying two floors of a shophouse that the family bought decades ago.
The restaurant attracts crowds due to its large pot, about five feet in diameter and 2 1/2 feet deep, filled with chunks of beef. The pot is placed near the sidewalk along a busy street.
What’s in the soups
The popular dish includes ingredients such as stewed and raw beef, tomatoes, garlic, cinnamon, black pepper, cilantro root, and around a dozen Chinese herbs.
The soup has never had a set recipe for its ingredients, so the chef constantly tastes it to determine what needs to be added.
The soup is made by cooking the beef for around seven hours, absorbing all the flavours, and then removing it from the pot to allow it to absorb the flavours.
The soup must be very delicious because the restaurant has amassed many awards, including two Michelin stars. The Michelin Star is one of the highest awards that can ever be given to a restaurant.
