There are an infinite amount of desserts around the world worth trying, and as someone who has a bit of a “food problem” I can tell you I have no problem trying most of them. But I do have a bit of a quirk: I don’t like chocolate. I’ll eat chocolate, but I really never crave any. However, the way most people feel about chocolate is precisely how I feel about coconut. And when I saw a particularly awesome coconut-filled dessert in Bangkok, I knew I had found the best dessert that my baht could buy. I’m going to go out on a limb here and venture that it is the best 80 cents you can spend on earth, and easily the best Thai dessert out there.
Which is half of a young coconut filled with coconut ice cream, young coconut pulp and coconut chunks in the coconut ice cream.
Itim Kati, coconut ice cream. The best Thai dessert.
UPDATE: Many of you have asked where to find such deliciousness. This was one of the many terrific Thai desserts that comes from a man with a cart and a bell on it. In this case, I went back to Bangkok and paid a visit to my old street near Victory Monument. Under the Rajwithi highway overpass, just near Soi 6, a coconut ice cream cart awaited us. Here’s a photo of the man in question, thanks to Dwight Turner:
Yes, there are many other desserts that can be bought on the cheap, the world over. But in terms of quantity and quality for your efforts, I’ve yet to find one as pretty and wholesome as that coconutty goodness above.
Please let the record reflect that I also have a soft spot for:
– khanom gluay (sticky rice, bananas, sugar and shredded coconut, boiled into one green gooey treat)
– khao niow mamuang (mango sticky rice, covered in coconut cream)
– khanom krok (sweet coconut rice dumplings)
– khanom piek poon (burnt coconut jelly topped with shredded coconut), and
– takoh (coconut cream, thickened with tapioca flour and served over a bed of sticky rice and taro).
Most of these are actually cheaper, at 15-30 cents each. It’s a wonder I’m not 200 pounds because – you know it! – all of these can be found in Thailand.
Back to regularly scheduled programming (read: photos of Burma and Thrillable Hours posts) shortly, but as my time in Thailand comes to a close in the next few weeks, I couldn’t let this 80 cent dessert go unseen.
-Jodi
