Naturally wrapped delicious Thai food and desserts

The festive season is currently in full swing in Bangkok, fairy lights illuminate trees and walkways and Christmas jingles echo the malls. Gift wrapping stations are busy meticulously making cuts and folds wrapping presents people have bought. Seeing this made me think of all the Thai food and desserts that come carefully wrapped in all sorts of ways – each like morsels of delicious gifts! These natural wrappings, from leaves to bamboo come in all shapes and sizes and are frequently seen all over Thailand.

Food wrapped in banana leaves (Image Source | Wanlapa Kaewka)

Banana leaves – bai tong

With the tropical climate in Thailand banana trees grow abundantly throughout the country, making banana leaves an easily accessible material for use in cooking (read more about the other uses of banana leaves here). Banana leaves or bai tong in Thai are large and flexible and can be effortlessly cut, torn and folded into different shapes and sizes. With its thick waxy leaves, food can also be cooked over hot charcoal without burning and drying out. Apart from its ability to keep its contents moist, the waxy coating also gives food wrapped inside a fragrant taste and aroma, adding a unique depth of flavour.

Due to its properties, a lot of Thai desserts are wrapped and cooked in bai tong. One of the most well known is khao tom mud which translates to tied boiled rice. Bananas covered by soaked sticky rice mixed with coconut milk and black beans are rolled in bai tong and tied off with banana rope (made from the trunk of banana trees). This is then steamed until the rice is cooked and becomes a sweet and delicious dessert. Just to name a few, khanom tien, khanom sot sai and khao neow sangkaya are other desserts usually found wrapped in bai tong.

Up in the Northern and North Eastern regions, banana leaves are also commonly used in savoury cooking. Various types of mok, spicy and herbaceous mixes with fermented fish are wrapped in bai tong and grilled or steamed. I’ve recently also had the chance to try kai paam, a Northern grilled egg specialty which had such a unique taste from being grilled inside a banana leaf!

Nipa palm leaves – bai jaak

Everytime we head to coastal areas near Bangkok we start seeing more and more kanom jaak being sold at street stalls. Visitors walk out from markets with bundles of these, peeling away the leaves and happily munching on the sticky filling inside. Nipa palm trees grow abundantly in mangroves in these regions and have long stiff leaves that are utilised in many ways including as a wrapper for cooking. Two bai jaak are placed side by side to add width and secured with coconut picks, the filling of coconut meat, glutinous rice flour, sugar and coconut milk are added before the leaf is folded in from both sides and grilled over charcoal. The snack is sweet, fragrant, a little gelatinous and definitely worth trying!

Bamboo

Whack! Whack! The first thing you will probably notice about khao lam is the loud whacking of the bamboo to crack it open. Like bai tong, bamboo grows quickly and can easily be found in Thailand. Although you might be more familiar with bamboo being eaten by pandas or used as construction material, it’s what holds one of my favourite childhood desserts – khao lam! A mixture of sticky rice, coconut cream, sugar and inclusions such as beans are stuffed into the hollow bamboo and slowly roasted until cooked. My preference is for it to be roasted until the sticky rice forms a dry skin against the bamboo, creating a casing-like texture that I have to bite through.

Aside from the leaves and bamboo mentioned above, the resourcefulness of Thai people means that there are so many more plants that are being used to wrap, cook and contain food. Lotus leaves, pandan leaves and coconut shells are a few I can think of, and betel leaves for miang kam which doesn’t only wrap but is also edible!

Article by Oun V.

References
Krua | Michelin | Isaan Center