Ever since moving back to Thailand I’ve been reminded of how much food is the Thai people’s love language. People seem to always buy snacks, fruits or food as gifts for their friends, family and loved ones. Recently I’ve found out that one of my favourite snacks is also my aunt’s – crispy coconutty wafer rolls called ‘thong muan’. Luckily for us, this snack is a popular souvenir and I always seem to come across delicious ones during my travels around Thailand. It is now a tradition that I also bring some thong muan back for my aunty when I find a tasty spot!
Thong muan (the ‘h’ is silent) literally translates to ‘golden roll’ in Thai, describing the golden brown colour of the snack. It’s slightly sweet and coconutty with an earthy aftertaste from the black sesame seeds dotted all throughout the crispy shell. Biting into one creates a satisfying crunch that becomes addictive but if not careful, creates falling pieces and a lot of mess!
A delicious stack of thong muan (Image source | HJob108)
Like many other Thai desserts with names starting with thong (gold), it is believed that thong muan also originated from the hands of ‘the Queen of Thai desserts’ – Maria Guyomar de Pina or Thao Thong Kip Ma (Thai name) over 300 years ago. During her time as a cook in the palace, Maria introduced many Portuguese cooking techniques, ingredients and desserts – especially the use of egg yolks to give desserts their golden colour. These desserts were enjoyed by the royals and quickly gained popularity in and outside of the palace.
Thong muan batter being poured onto the cooking plate (Image Source | MIW Food)
Making thong muan starts with the batter. Tapioca starch and wheat flour are slowly mixed with eggs, salt, coconut sugar and a lot of coconut cream until smooth. Once all the sugar has dissolved and no lumps are found, the batter is rested for at least 30 minutes to ensure a good mouth feel when eating. Black sesame seeds are then stirred through the batter before cooking begins. The next steps are similar to that of making waffle cones, however thong muan plates usually come with a concentric circle pattern instead of a lattice. Once the plate is preheated, batter is poured into the centre and clamped down until cooked and golden in colour. While still hot, the cooked batter is carefully rolled with the help of a rod and left to rest until fully cooled.
Nowadays most thong muan are cooked on an electric or gas stove but traditionally the metal plate would be heated on charcoal. Only a month ago I discovered a local place while on holiday that still cooked theirs on charcoal – something about the fire makes it so fragrant! My aunty even mentioned that it was the best thong muan I’ve gifted her, finishing the big tub I brought back in a few days.
Golden batter right before it gets shaped (Image Source | LongLens2020)
Apart from the common cigar-shaped thong muan, flat or folded shapes also exist – these are called thong pub or ‘golden fold’. The batter and cooking methods are exactly the same up until the shaping process where one gets rolled and the other gets folded. Today, there are many variations to the traditional thong muan. People add their own flair and creativity creating flavours such as pandan or thai milk tea and even turning it savoury by adding coriander and tiny shrimps.
Thong pub which translates to ‘golden fold’ (Image source | UFM)
Another popular variation of thong muan is thong muan sod (sod means fresh). A soft coconut roll filled with chunks of coconut meat, usually coloured and flavoured by pandan and butterfly pea. The texture is completely opposite, instead of being crunchy it is soft and stretchy and a bit mochi-like but equally as delicious! The difference in the batter comes from using rice flour instead of wheat flour and the addition of pieces of young coconut meat.
If you are a fan of coconut and black sesame then I’m sure you’ll love thong muan, whether it’s the traditional crispy version or the soft version!
Thong muan sod or fresh thong muan (Image source | aeyjaa-cooking)