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Kwai Lui: the sweet and the buffalo
The sticky rice with coconut milk, or “Khao Nieo Moon," plays a significant role in Thai traditional dessert culture. It is served with different toppings such as mango, seasoned dried fish and so on.
The descendant of the Thai Song Dam in Sanburi District, Chainat province develops a unique Khao Nieo Moon, whose topping is a custard made fresh from the palm sugar. The steamed mung bean and taro will be braised with coconut milk and then sweetened by the local palm sugar, called Namtan Huay Krod, which is widely available in the area. Fresh ingredients, thick full-flavored toppings, and the fragrant palm sugar differentiate the local sweet from the general Khao Nieo Moon.
It is called Khao Nieo Kwai Lui, which literary means “the sticky rice overrun by a buffalo."
The dish got its strange name when the farmers gathered for the rice harvest. Without any recipe for the dessert for his friends, the farm owner cooked what he had on the farm and it turned out to be a unique local sweet. The thick messy topping resembles the mud in the rice fields that are overrun by the buffalo, hence the name.
The unique sticky rice is available at Talat Yon Yook Muang San or the retro market of Sanburi at Phraya Preak Temple. The marketplace will surprise you with local delicacies such as the century-old Kanom Chine, Pad Thai Ban Hua Koh, spicy jackfruit salad, fish cake, herbal drinks and more.
How to get there: Khao Nieo Kwai Lui is made by the Wat Mahathat Community. Call 06-4157-9367 or 09-8780-1926. Sanburi is located 110 miles north of Bangkok accessible via Highway 340.
