Thai mango and sticky rice with coconut sauce (khao neaw mamuang)

You’re intrigued. You want to know where I had the bad and the good.

Okay, the worst one was bought at the Saturday Night Market in Chiang Mai. The mango was overripe that it was already mushy, and the coconut sauce was tickened to the point that it can be scooped with a spoon and it’s still shaped like a mound.

The best one I had at a restaurant in a hotel in Bangkok. My friend, Kat, and I had been shopping at CentralWorld, and we needed a clean rest room. We crossed to the hotel next to CentralWorld, located the rest rooms, and then we stayed for a mid-afternoon snack at a cafe.

The hotel might have been Centara and the cafe might have been Chatuchak. I really can’t remember with certainty. What I do remember, clear as crystal, is that my arms ached with the weight of my shopping loot, it was humid and the mango sticky rice was divine. But then, so is mine and here’s how I make it at home.

Mango sticky rice has three components: the mango, the sticky rice and the coconut sauce. How to prepare them are all detailed in the recipe, but I have a couple of notes about the mango and the sticky rice.

You’ll need sweet ripe but not overripe mangoes (personally, I prefer the mango to be at that stage when it is almost but not quite ripe so there is still a bit of tang that contrasts so well with the sweet coconut sauce). The flesh should soft but still firm enough to be sliced. For more about mangoes in Asian cuisines, see the linked post below.

Now, the ticky rice. It’s a special rice variety. So, overcooking regular rice is not a wise substitute. In Thailand, there is a special shallow basket in which the rice is steamed so that the grains never touch the water directly. It’s not a tool that we could use everyday so we never thought of buying one.

But, no matter, a rice cooker works fine. But you can’t skip soaking the rice before cooking. That’s how to make sure that the grains retain their shape and texture after cooking in a minimal amount of water. The sticky rice will still be a bit underdone at that stage. Sweetened coconut cream is stirred in and the rice is left to soak it up and soften some more as it cools.

How to plate mango sticky rice is totally up to you. You can go rustic, street food-style or fine dining-style. Just remember that to fully enjoy this snack, you need to have enough of all three components. And toasted sesame seeds really make a lovely touch.