Khao chae
Jasmin rice with the
various condiments
The first year we were in Bangkok we visited the small island Ko Kret, on the north edge of Bangkok on the Chao Phraya river. It was our second day in Thailand, and we were thoroughly doused in royal palaces, gleaming gold Buddha images dripping with jasmine garlands amid clouds of burning insense. All this made it hard it differentiate between the jet lag and the otherworldly feeling of the place we actually were in. On the island of Ko Kret we passed a banyan tree wrapped with layers of colored fabrics and more garlands and offerings and a concrete turbaned man on a horse. The next sight was a vendor with a wheeled cart selling an array of deep fried flowers and greens.
It was not just the flowers he was selling but the fact that around his neck hung eight or ten amulets. A stuppa in the background, the amulets in the mid-ground, the fried flowers with a sweet and spicy sauce, became more than just deep fried flowers.
As we were about to leave I noticed a woman selling what I thought were some kind of flower bulbs. I had run across a woman cooking orchid bulbs on a trek in Burma. It turned out that this Thai woman was steaming what are called buffalo nuts. Of course I had to try them as I have never seen them before. They tasted and had the texture of roasted chestnuts. These were apparently cultivated but quite a rarity. Naturally they too were tasty. The Devil Pod, also known as Bat Nut, Goat Head, Bull Nut, and Buffalo Nut, is the seed pod of Trapa bicornis, an aquatic Asian plant. Glossy and black, it averages 2 1/2 - 3 inches from tip to tip, and when dried and oiled, its surface texture is similar to that of a chestnut.
The New years throngs had arrived and it was time to get off the island. Soon we were on the ferry heading back across the Chao Phraya dodging the clumps of water hyacinth and trying to figure out where to have lunch.
Deep fried pea flowers
One of the flowers they were deep frying
This year, I wanted to revisit this place and photograph those flowers for my street food project. So Poe and I went back yesterday early in the morning before the throngs would arrive, as it was the middle of the Chinese New Years celebration.
We started our snacking with a bowl filled with an array of deep-fried flowers and vines with a sweet hot chili sauce. I was unable to differentiate the subtleties of flavors, but the textures were quite different. And after all, there are worse ways to start the day---how bad can deep-fried batter doused with a spicy, tangy sweet sauce be? Thai fried food is rarely greasy, as they fry in very hot oil and always cook small batches. Although it was the flowers that drew me, they turned out to be the least interesting of what I was to encounter.
The second encounter was with Kao Chae. This may be the most remarkable dish I’ve eaten since I first had tom kha gai 25 years ago. We sat on locally made clay stools around a small table. There were six small clay bowls. Two were filled with a couple of tablespoons of white rice, some ice chips and jasmine water. The other four dishes contained sweet shredded pork, stir-fried salted white radish, pork stuffed banana pepper wrapped in egg and tiny shrimp paste balls fried with a light egg coating. Now, I know that none of this sounds like what you want to have for breakfast. But I can assure you that having a spoon full of chilled jasmine water with a few grains of rice in it between bites of the savory side dishes was all quite remarkable. I felt giddy with delight with this discovery. Normally khao chae is eaten in the summer to cool oneself.
Next we bought some banana leaves that contained fermented rice. With them came a small square of chewy coconut sticky rice flour pudding with bits of peanuts in it. A little like having a little Noilly Prat vermouth pudding with coconut and peanut bits. Very fun.
Next came the Khao Kuai (black grass jelly).
Grass jelly is made by boiling the aged and slightly oxidized stalks and leaves of Mesona chinensis[1] (member of the mint family) with potassium carbonate for several hours with a little starch and then cooling the liquid to a jelly-like consistency.[2] This jelly can be cut into cubes or other forms, and then mixed with syrup to produce a drink or dessert thought to have cooling (yin) properties, which makes it typically consumed during hot weather. The jelly itself has a slightly bitter taste, a light iodine lavender flavor, and is a translucent black. It can also be mixed with soy milk to produce a milky white liquid with black strands in it.
Very sweet but again very tasty.
I marveled watching a woman who was making skewers of tiny green pouches ever so deftly. These were meing kam. Normally this snack is make-your-own. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try these. Wrapped in small spinach leaves they contain a mixture of chopped shallots, ginger/galangal, lime with skin, fried garlic, shredded coconut chili, and a sweet dark salty sauce. The ginger and lime rind were wonderful with the sweet paste. Tasty and weird.
We started our snacking with a bowl filled with an array of deep-fried flowers and vines with a sweet hot chili sauce. I was unable to differentiate the subtleties of flavors, but the textures were quite different. And after all, there are worse ways to start the day---how bad can deep-fried batter doused with a spicy, tangy sweet sauce be? Thai fried food is rarely greasy, as they fry in very hot oil and always cook small batches. Although it was the flowers that drew me, they turned out to be the least interesting of what I was to encounter.
The second encounter was with Kao Chae. This may be the most remarkable dish I’ve eaten since I first had tom kha gai 25 years ago. We sat on locally made clay stools around a small table. There were six small clay bowls. Two were filled with a couple of tablespoons of white rice, some ice chips and jasmine water. The other four dishes contained sweet shredded pork, stir-fried salted white radish, pork stuffed banana pepper wrapped in egg and tiny shrimp paste balls fried with a light egg coating. Now, I know that none of this sounds like what you want to have for breakfast. But I can assure you that having a spoon full of chilled jasmine water with a few grains of rice in it between bites of the savory side dishes was all quite remarkable. I felt giddy with delight with this discovery. Normally khao chae is eaten in the summer to cool oneself.
Next we bought some banana leaves that contained fermented rice. With them came a small square of chewy coconut sticky rice flour pudding with bits of peanuts in it. A little like having a little Noilly Prat vermouth pudding with coconut and peanut bits. Very fun.
Next came the Khao Kuai (black grass jelly).
Grass jelly is made by boiling the aged and slightly oxidized stalks and leaves of Mesona chinensis[1] (member of the mint family) with potassium carbonate for several hours with a little starch and then cooling the liquid to a jelly-like consistency.[2] This jelly can be cut into cubes or other forms, and then mixed with syrup to produce a drink or dessert thought to have cooling (yin) properties, which makes it typically consumed during hot weather. The jelly itself has a slightly bitter taste, a light iodine lavender flavor, and is a translucent black. It can also be mixed with soy milk to produce a milky white liquid with black strands in it.
Very sweet but again very tasty.
I marveled watching a woman who was making skewers of tiny green pouches ever so deftly. These were meing kam. Normally this snack is make-your-own. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try these. Wrapped in small spinach leaves they contain a mixture of chopped shallots, ginger/galangal, lime with skin, fried garlic, shredded coconut chili, and a sweet dark salty sauce. The ginger and lime rind were wonderful with the sweet paste. Tasty and weird.
As we were about to leave I noticed a woman selling what I thought were some kind of flower bulbs. I had run across a woman cooking orchid bulbs on a trek in Burma. It turned out that this Thai woman was steaming what are called buffalo nuts. Of course I had to try them as I have never seen them before. They tasted and had the texture of roasted chestnuts. These were apparently cultivated but quite a rarity. Naturally they too were tasty. The Devil Pod, also known as Bat Nut, Goat Head, Bull Nut, and Buffalo Nut, is the seed pod of Trapa bicornis, an aquatic Asian plant. Glossy and black, it averages 2 1/2 - 3 inches from tip to tip, and when dried and oiled, its surface texture is similar to that of a chestnut.
The New years throngs had arrived and it was time to get off the island. Soon we were on the ferry heading back across the Chao Phraya dodging the clumps of water hyacinth and trying to figure out where to have lunch.
Deep fried pea flowers
One of the flowers they were deep frying
Bougainvillea
Meing Kam finished on the skewers and in the process
The ingredients
The black grass jelly-khao huai
in the making and ready to eat
liked the jelly scoop which was made from a Chang beer can
A spicy tamarind paste often eaten with rice
The buffalo nut vendor steaming her nuts
You are definitely WISE men. What I wouldn't give to swap my ten foot snow piles for a fried pea flower or a buffalo nut! Thanks for giving me a way to transcend the New England winter. Soon to be the New England spring - which will have no discernible difference.
ReplyDeleteSue