by | 04/25/2010 · 9:53 am

Gluttony in Hua Hin

When I was 12 (bear with me here, I think I’m going somewhere), we had a Secret Santa exchange at my dorm before the Christmas holiday. I combed the mall for something I could get for Leela, a sort of serious, studious older girl who was a prefect (I think she ended up going to Brown, so studying hard does get you somewhere, people). I ended up with caramel corn, which I thought was the perfectest gift ever: sweet and crunchy, with an underside of salt.

Unfortunately, Leela didn’t like caramel corn, although I made her eat at least three handfuls before I turned away and she could chuck her present somewhere else. Poor Leela. But I thought back to that caramel corn when I traveled to Hua Hin last week to sample some edifying sticky rice desserts that play with the sweet/salt balance that Thais are so fond of.

Long before Werther’s Originals, way before Guy Martin started making ice cream out of fennel and black olives at Le Grand des Vefours, eons before Gramercy Tavern was turning out caramel tarts sprinkled with sea salt, Thais were turning sugar and salt into dessert. And this salt does not come in the form of a hit of peanut butter, or a slip of fleur de sel: shrimp, dried fish, kaffir lime leaf, cumin — these are the ingredients of many a traditional Thai dessert, including  khao niew sarapat (sticky rice with toppings and steamed in banana leaves). It is hard to find in Bangkok but readily available in the beachy (and very crowded) resort town of Hua Hin.

These sticky rice offerings, bought at the central Chatchai Market opposite the Meechai Hotel on Petchkasem road (you cannot miss this main road, mainly because you will be stuck in traffic there next to the rest of Bangkok on the weekends), involved black rice, which is mixed with coconut juice to sweeten and soften it (white sticky rice is often mixed with cumin to turn it yellow and contrast it nicely against the red or brown toppings). The toppings themselves were myriad and intriguing: minced, sweetened shrimp; sweet, sticky dried fish; sankaya (coconut milk custard); gracheek (shredded, sweetened coconut) and shredded glauy, a type of root vegetable that is apparently a bitch to prepare — it is dug out of the jungle floor and alternately washed under running water and dried for 15-20 days. If not prepared correctly, it can make you drunk. 

Black sticky rice topped with dried fish and coconut cream

The effect of the seafood-topped desserts was strange and illuminating: the salt actually enhanced the sweetness of the rice, added sugar and coconut milk, while the fishiness added a titillating savory edge.  

Black sticky rice with minced shrimp

 There are other ways to play with seafood-y desserts. Meechai, a mango sticky rice stand next to the Meechai Hotel, sells a sweetened shrimp topping you can put on your own mango sticky rice, or to eat on its own if you like it that much. While many vendors bulk up their minced shrimp with shredded coconut due to the expensiveness of the shrimp, Meechai serves it full-on, with a bit of chiffonaded kaffir lime leaf for flavor. It adds that extra bit of danger to your mango or sankaya sticky rice — even if that danger comes in the form of lines that stretch down the block for a trifling bit of dessert.

Duo of coconut milk custard and sweet shrimp toppings

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Filed under Asia, dessert, food, food stalls, Hua Hin, seafood, Thailand

by | 04/18/2010 · 3:14 pm

What happens after a bad lunch somewhere else

Chocolate cake specialist Cherubin (Sukhumvit Soi 31, +662-260-9800)

Clockwise from top left: French chocolate cakes, Chocolate cheesecake with caramel mousse, Mad about nuts cake, Chocolate brownie cheesecake, Coffee and almond cake

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, cake, dessert, food, restaurant, Thailand

by | 04/17/2010 · 2:38 pm

On summertime rice

The past few weeks have been the height of summer, and it has been too hot for most people to even think about eating (that excludes me, of course).  In the olden days (but not so olden days, because we didn’t have refrigeration until the past century), people cooled off by putting ice in their bowls of rice. This gave birth to khao chae–variously described as “summertime rice” or “cool summer rice”, but never “a bowl of rice with a giant ice cube in the middle”, which is a shame, because that is what it actually is.

The dish, which has its roots in the rice-rich Central plains, has evolved over the years into something that has become quite elaborate, with side dishes that are considered necessary to the enjoyment of this iced bowl of rice. Balls of kapi, or shrimp paste, are deep-fried; sweetened beef is deep-fried and shredded; preserved cabbage is stir-fried and mixed with egg; salted eggs are also fried; Thai shallots are stuffed with minced fish and, uh, deep-fried; a banana pepper gets similar treatment with minced pork, plus a tempura-like batter coating. Khao chae connoisseurs (yes, they do exist) judge the proficiency of the cook by the intricacy of the tempura batter netting over the pepper, and the uniformity of the fried shrimp paste balls. It is a time-consuming dish, and only served during the hot season for lunch, which is why it is easy to be disappointed.

Done well, it’s a lovely dish all the same, all about harmony and the different parts working together, unusual in these politically troubled times: the rice water is perfumed with the scent of jasmine, and the accompanying vegetables–painstakingly carved to look like leaves–not only cool you down but freshen your breath, too. That is why I was slightly shocked to learn recently that some Thais have never tried this clever, and very central Thai, dish. A shame: the first rains fell today, which means summertime rice won’ t be on the menu for another year. 

Summertime rice with the accompaniments

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, food, restaurant, rice, rice porridge, Thailand