Ever the baking and culinary explorers, we were on a constant lookout for novelties during our trip. Here’s what we managed to find in Thailand...
...also called Kao Niew Mamuang : the daily "bread" for most Thais and for a good reason too! Simple, efficient, nutritious and obviously delicious!
There is no better time to eat it than now. A very juicy slice of mango paired with a very specific kind of sticky rice.
Literally "Thai fricassee", a dish so ingrained in the History of the country it has earned its rightful spot as the National dish. Rice noodles cooked in a wok, or sometimes served as a salad mixed with a multitude of fresh ingredients (Soja sprouts, cabbages...) and tasty peanut sauce.
A famous delicacy: these are kinds of sweet pancakes, baked with rice flour and coconut milk. Half cooked these tasty cushions, half sphere shaped treats are often sold in pairs, thus forming a perfect sphere.
Here’s a variation: Thai crepes. Extremely thin disks of dough, 5 to 10 cm in diameter, stuffed with candied fruits or coconut cream, and folded when hot. They keep that shape and get the perfect amount of crunch!
These make me think of a pastry from Savoie called Bugnes!
The dough is cut,
assembled in X or Y shape (this time you -do- get to chose the gender of your doughy little pastry), and then fried.
Eat and enjoy!
Most likely a recipe with Chinese roots (not even sorry for that one), the lotus rhizome (root) doughnut.
Lotus fruits are sold in the local markets. They’re concealing tiny seeds one can eat raw, once peeled. They’re said to have hidden and beneficial properties, but whatever it is, it’s definitely not the taste. It tastes...green?
The lotus root doughnut is where it gets interesting. The shape for one, a cylinder with equally spaced holes. Disk shaped and soaked in tempura dough, it’s a nourishing dish.
or to be precise: ขนมปากหม้อ
I was not able to take any pictures of that one, sadly. The lady selling them was adamant about it from what I could tell (yes, she was obviously speaking Thai), breaking the "Thai Smile" stereotype!
I did not insist, hoping to try my luck elsewhere, but I was proven wrong. I do, however, remember the theory perfectly, so here goes, brought to you by Delphine’s swift stylus:
Served with lettuce leaves:
Not sure of the spelling, prefer the word: ขนมลา
We clearly need to take another trip to Thailand just to cover their food more extensively. The last thing we remember trying was a kind of big sheets, paper thing, sold as huge disk (yes they do like disks). And when I say huge, I mean 1 meter in diameter.
I have no idea what it’s made of precisely, but it’s sweet and quite chewy!
If you have any information about it, please feel free to contact us!
Also sold in rolls:
(ขนมถังแตก) A huge pancake, very airy (think Australian crumpet), baked using rice flour, grated coconut, and tapioca, slowly cooked on both sides in a cast iron frying pan.
And, luckily for us, there are vegan versions for all of these delicious discoveries!
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