I’m a sweet girl, wouldn’t you agree? And I have a sweet tooth. Or to be honest 28 and a half so it was only fair to dedicate the entire post just to desserts.
The Thai people are not so much obsessed with sweets, as with spicy food and they are certainly not the first in the preparations of desserts, like the French or Italians, but they’re not short with sugar, that’s for sure.
Some of the basic ingredients for preparing the sweet dishes are also used in preparation of the savory ones. The desserts are usually made from rice, coconut milk or banana leaf, while some of them are made out of dozens of types of exotic fruits growing exclusively in East Asia. The others are combinations of both, like mango sticky rice that we even learned how to make in the Thai cooking class.
For all of you that don’t believe that rice can make a decent dessert, let me assure you that mango sticky rice is the best rice dessert I have ever had. The durian sticky rice is close to that 🙂
Durian is a type of tropical fruit, distinctive for its large size, strong odor, and thorn-covered rind.
The flesh of the fruit has a taste of soft banana (at least to me, Debeli can’t describe it in words) but the smell is outrageous. Something like smelly socks soaked in water. Unpleasant to that extent that durian has been banned from public transportation and hotel rooms.
On the other side, classical bananas are just fine.
Especially if made like banana roti.
Banana roti is a type of Thai pancake filled with eggs and bananas, and sprinkled with condensed milk and powder sugar. Very tasty and it would be a perfect breakfast option with a coffee except the Thai people drink tea, instead coffee.
Black or red Ceylon tea is mixed with lots of sugar, ice and condensed milk so it has nice refreshing but sweet note.
Banana roti is made of flour, water and salt dough baked on a hot pan. The eggs and sliced banana are added and baked together. Milk and sugar comes in the end. It’s best to have it warm or deep fried.
Baking plates for making banana roti is found everywhere and they are used for making majority of desserts, some of them very crispy like this colored crispy snacks that I mixed with coconut ice cream.
Coconut is one of the main ingredients in Thai cuisine. Young coconuts, around six month old, full of coconut milk is used for drinking while the meat of the older ones is used for coconut flour.
Debeli went crazy over coconut and sometimes we even had the meat shredded that can be used for making compote as well.
Taung Muan Sot or rolled sesame pancakes are made of rice flour, coconut milk and black sesame seeds and it can be eaten fresh (slightly baked) or deep-fried. If fresh, the texture is very sticky and the taste is mildly sweet. Refreshing actually.
One of my favorite desserts was small coconut kettle pancakes or Khanom Krok. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Yummy!
Mochi ice cream was one of the unusual desserts we had. This sweet and cold dessert of Japanese origin is made of sticky rice with ice cream filling. It’s stored cold like the real ice cream, but if not eaten fast it gets soft and soggy, so you have to balance the right time not to get brain freeze or soggy ice cream 🙂
The traditional flavors are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry but plum wine or green tea are among the new popular ones.
Obanyaki or imagawayaki is a type of Japanese dessert served in a various festivals. The simplest description is – a thick and filled pancake. So, is the taste.
Washing down the sweet taste of this fine desserts is possible only with dozens types of freshly squeezed fruit juices or cocktails. Not the original Thai cocktails but cheap ones, that makes the quite enough attractive.
Cheers!
SLATKO NA TAJLANDU
Šećer, kažu, dolazi na kraju, ali u našem slučaju stavit ćemo ga negdje na početak tekstualne putešestvije po Tajlandu i posvetiti cijeli tekst samo – desertima. I pićima, da ne dehidrirate 🙂
Tajlanđani zapravo nisu opsjednuti slatkim, koliko ljutim i sigurno nisu prvi u pripremi slastica, poput Francuza ili Talijana, ali ne oskudijevaju u šećeru, to je sigurno 🙂
Neke od osnovnih namirnica za pripremu slatkih jela koriste se i pripremi slanih jela, poput riže, kokosovog mlijeka ili banana lista, dok se neki deserti prave od milijun vrsta voća koji rastu isključivo na azijskom kontinentu. Ostali su kombinacija obojeg poput ljepljive riže i manga koju smo čak i naučili praviti u školici kuhanja 🙂
Za sve sumnjičavce koji misle da riža ne može biti desert, vjerujete ovoj nevjernici koja je promijenila vjeru nakon što je kušala rižu s mangom ili još bolje ljepljivu rižu s durianom.
Durian je vrsta tropskog voća koji podsjeća na bodljikavi ananas izgledom, a okusom je najsličniji gnjecavoj banani. Barem meni.
Teško ga je jednostavno opisati, ali najlakše je reći da smrdi poput gnjilih čarapa. Da, smrdi. Tj ima neugodan miris. Neugodan do te mjere da je durian zabranjeno unositi u javni prijevoz, avione ili hotelske sobe 🙂
S druge strane banane su sasvim fajn same, ali i kao sastojak banana rotija npr.
Banana roti je vrsta tajlandske palačinke najčešće punjena bananama i posuta kondenziranim mlijekom i šećerom u prahu. Nešto prefino i sjajan izbor za doručak, pogotovo uz kavu, ali Tajlanđani ne konzumiraju kavu. Barem ne kao mi. Pije se crni, jako zaslađeni čaj s kondenziranim mlijekom. Uber slatko i uber prefino. Debeli ga baš nije pio, ja sam se natakala kao cisterna.
Banana roti se pravi od nedizanog tijesta spravljenog od brašna, vode i malo soli koje se potom tanko razvalja i peče na vrućoj pouljenoj ploči. Dok se peče, doda se umućeno jaje i sjeckane banane koje se urolaju u tijesto i zapeku do kraja. Pri kraju se dodaju kondenzirano mlijeko i šećer u prahu. Jesti toplo. Ili duboko prženo.
Čaj se pripravlja od cejlonskog čaja tamno crvene boje i jakog okusa.
Ploče za pečenje na kakvima se radi roti mogu se naći po svuda, a koriste se i za spravljanje vrlo prhkih slastica poput jako tankih oblatni. Prodaju se u svim bojama, a ja sam svoje umakala u sladoled od kokosa.
Kokos je jedna od bitnijih namirnica tajlandske kuhinje. Mladi kokosi, starosti oko šest mjeseci, puni kokosove tekućine (mlijeka) koriste se kao svježi napitak, dok se starijim kokosima guli meso koje se potom suši i melje.
Thong muang prave se od rižinog brašna, kokosovog mlijeka i crnog sezama a mogu se jesti svježe ili duboko pržene. Tekstura im je ljepljiva, a okus ne presladak.
Khanom Buang ili hrskave palačinkice od kokosa peku se na vrućim pločama te pune različitim punjenjem (bundeva, mrkva ili kokosom).
Moj omiljeni kokos desert, uz sladoled naravno, bile su male kokos palačinkice (khanom krok), hrskave izvana, svježe iznutra. Savršene za početak dana!
Mochi sladoled spada među neobičnije stvari koje smo probali. Ova slastica japanskog porijekla spravlja se od ljepljive riže sa hladnim slatkim punjenjem. Čuva se na hladnom, kao pravi sladoled ali kad se malo otopi da bi punjenje mogli pojesti bez glavobolje omot se zgnjeca i izgubi originalnu teksturu, pa time i okus.
Tradicionalni okusi spravljaju se od vanilije, čokolade i jagode ali iznimno popularni postali su okusi poput zelenog čaja, crvenog graha ili šljivinog vina. Ovo su izložbeni primjerci. Za gledanje. Ne za jedenje 🙂
Obanyaki ili imagawayaki je također japanska vrsta deserta ili slastice koja se pravi i poslužuje na raznoraznim proslavama. Najjednostavniji opis je – punjena palačinka debelog izgleda, a takav mu je i okus 🙂
Slatki okus tajlandskih slastica ispirao se nekim od brojnih voćnih sokova ili koktela koji nikako nisu tajlandska izmišljotina, ali bili su novčano prihvatljivi i fini. Nismo se štedjeli 🙂
Živjeli!
