One must-not-miss in Bangkok: khao niew moon (sticky rice with coconut creme) from the legendary 80-plus years-old Sor Boonprakob, where Bangkokians have been lining up for their dessert since the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V).
Only the freshest, sweetest mangoes - the most popular is 𝘯𝘢𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘬 𝘮𝘢𝘪 (Thai: น้ำดอกไม้) - are used here, to accompany their perfectly steamed, coconut milk-enriched sticky rice.
This is will known as 𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘰 𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘨 (Thai: ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง), i.e. sticky rice with mangos.
One can also opt for the sangkaya (steamed coconut-duck’s egg-palm sugar pudding) as an accompaniment for the sticky rice. This is the popular 𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘰 𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘬𝘢𝘺𝘢 (Thai: ข้าวเหนียวสังขยา)
Address
Sor Boonprakob
1474 Charoen Krung Soi 44 (Soi Talat Luang), 10500 Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +662 235 3442.
Opening hours: 8am till sold out, usually by 12 noon.
Open daily 5am-6pm. BTS Saphan Taksin
Back to Sor Boonprakob for my sticky rice with coconut creme (khao niew moon) fix last Sunday. We also bought a tub of egg-palm sugar custard (sangkaya) which went well with the sweet-salty sticky rice, served with some salted coconut creme spooned over it:
Customers passed the take-out counter in an almost endless stream, many grabbing a lunch-box or two of the sticky rice with mango (𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘰 𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘮𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘨 / ข้าวเหนียวมะม่วง) or the sticky rice with custard (𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘰 𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘬𝘢𝘺𝘢 / ข้าวเหนียวสังขยา). Business is brisk and, although the shop opens till early evening (up till 7pm), its sticky rice and mango usually sells out before noon, so do go early.
Another must-have from the shop is their dense baked coconut cake known as khanom babin. This cake, like many Thai desserts, were introduced by the Portuguese in the 17th-century. In Portugal, a similar kind of pudding, Queijadas de Coimbra, is flavoured with cheese, whereas the Thai version substitutes that for coconut.
Would want to try the pudding even though I’m sensitive to coconut milk.
Where would Thai cuisine be without chillies and garlic? It was the Portuguese who introduced both to Thailand. Love both Portugal and Spain, besides the fact that they have made tremendous culinary contributions to the world.