My time in Thailand, although brief changed how I cook and how I eat. Since going there about a year ago I have fully embraced the cuisine which is now a staple of my diet. I vividly remember eating foods for the first time – dragon fruit, steamed broth from a side cart, whole soft shell crab. And first time food experiences – having to hang my drink on a door handle in my room after it was given to me in a little plastic bag with ice and a straw, struggling to open fresh-roasted chestnuts after confidently buying them from a vendor in Chinatown.
My boyfriend has since been back to Thailand a couple of times for kickboxing and we are constantly trying to recreate Thai cuisine in our own kitchen – often with little success. We are really lucky in Auckland to have good quality and reasonably priced Thai restaurants and specialty stores readily available to us. So it’s not really about the fact that we don’t have access to the food, it’s about the process and the understanding of the flavours and why they work together.
Thai desserts often use tapioca and this one combines the silky pearls with a Thai take on a traditional caramel sauce and fresh mango.