Khao Lam Thai
“Sticky rice mixed with black beans and sweet coconut cream, packed into bamboo tubes and roasted over coals until the rice steams into a fragrant, custardy cylinder. Peeled from its charred bamboo, it is a beloved Thai roadside snack, especially in the north and northeast.”
Where it comes from
Khao lam is the sticky-rice-in-bamboo snack of Thailand and mainland Southeast Asia — glutinous rice, coconut milk and beans packed into a bamboo tube and roasted over fire until set. The bamboo both cooks and serves it.
On the plate
Peel back the bamboo and the rice comes away in a soft, sticky log, fragrant with smoke and coconut. It's gently sweet and creamy, the black beans adding earthy bites, with a faint toasty edge where the rice kissed the bamboo's inner skin.
How it works
Sealed bamboo turns the tube into a steam oven: coconut cream and the rice's own moisture cook the grains in their own vapor over coals, while the bamboo's inner membrane lends a subtle toasted aroma.
Variations
Black or white glutinous rice, with taro or coconut custard center, with red beans, savory versions
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓30 min active · 120 min waiting
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓- 1480 min
Soak glutinous rice and black beans separately for several hours.
- 25 min
Mix the drained rice and beans with sugar and a little salt.
- 38 min
Spoon the mixture loosely into clean bamboo tubes.
- 43 min
Pour sweetened coconut cream into each tube to cover the rice.
- 52 min
Plug the tube openings with banana leaf or coconut husk.
- 690 min
Roast the tubes over charcoal, turning, until the rice is cooked.
- 730 min
Let the tubes cool, then peel away the outer charred bamboo.
- 82 min
Slice or serve the fragrant rice cylinders whole.
