Sunday, October 16, 2011

Sticky Thai time

I love Thai food and I have been blessed with having Thai family members.  So every chance I get, I am stuffing my face with an obscene amount of food I can't pronounce let alone know what it's called. THANK GOD for the internet. With a few descriptions of what I'm eating in Google, and either Wikipedia or a website will let me know the name. So that is exactly what I have done.

khanom tua pap

Today around 16:00, I was handed a bag of egg rolls, pad thai and (from my internet research) khanom tua pap.  It is a semisweet sticky rice with mung beans in the middle rolled in fresh shredded coconut, sprinkled with a mixture of sugar and sesame seeds. (If I am wrong, someone please correct me).  


So the outer part of the dessert is similar to mochi but is not as sweet. The mung bean is nutty yet adds texture to the stickiness of the outer part. Then comes my favorite. Coconut. I love coconut. I hated it when I was little, but not sure when, I fell in love with it. So back to the coconut on the dessert.  It adds a whole different dimension of nutty. The coconut shredded, creamy yet fresh flavor is a great compliment to the mung bean and slight sweetness of the mochi.  Then the sugar sprinkled on top layers another texture of graininess, so to speak. But it isn't in a bad way. Normally, it is served with a toasted sesame seeds and sugar, but I prefer sugar. I've seen online that there are different colors to the "mochi" portion but in reality, food coloring scares me to death. 



The next dessert that was in my goodie bag happens to be a coconut jelly. Simple coconut milk with gelatin.  It has a subtle coconut smell that is not overpowering so it is easy to eat. The texture similar to kanten (Japanese for agar- a gelatin made from seaweed).  The mold is quite eye catching but still makes me devour it in an instant. 


coconut jelly


I'll show more of my Thai dessert pictures at a later time from when I went to Thailand. 


More to come! Any suggestions to other delish Thai desserts/food, please share!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Under the weather...

I've been a little under the weather.  But my next review is already in my cupboard from Japan.  I've also discovered a supermarket I want to check out in the city so after I find something interesting there, I will share all.


Until then, explore your taste buds regardless of the weather!!