Making kanom tien (July 7)

In the morning, Bu and her husband, Kob, Piano, a boy named Fluk, and I went to see two Buddhist temples. They were a relatively short drive away (~20 minutes). We are living in a fairly large, flat valley, with lots of rice and sugarcane growing, and there are mountains surrounding the valley. Both of the temples were on the edge of the mountains. In the first one, we went in and lit some candles and incense, and then each hit a large gong three times. This temple was very tall, so we could climb up about six flights of stairs to a balcony with a really stunning view. On one side, there were lush green mountains, and on the other side there was an expansive view over the valley with more mountains in the distance on the other side.

At the second temple, we made a donation of about forty bottles of water to a monk there. This temple was cool and breezy, also with a nice view of the lush green landscape. We stopped at a roadside restaurant for some noodle soup for lunch before heading back to the house.

I had asked earlier this week if they could show me how to make kanom tien (coconut treat wrapped in banana leaf), so we made some this afternoon! Here is the recipe, from what I observed (some parts of it may be harder to repeat in the US):

1.     Pick about eight large banana leaves in your yard, wipe them off and then tear into squares.

2.     Get about 6 coconuts out of the yard. Chop two of them coarsely and use for making coconut milk, while finely shredding the other four.

3.     Roast about 2 cups whole peanuts in a wok until brown. Do the same with about ½ cup sesame seeds.  Set aside.

4.     Add shredded coconut to hot wok, and stir constantly. After a couple minutes, add a small amount of coconut milk and some sugar (they used brown sugar granules like the ones that come in the “Sugar in the Raw” packets). Keep stirring, and after a couple more minutes add the peanuts and sesame. Keep stirring and cooking while adding more coconut milk and sugar  to taste (total sugar ~ 1 cup). Remove from heat.

5.     Make dough: mix together sweet (glutinous) rice flour and coconut milk.

6.     Take about a walnut sized piece of dough, flatten, put a small spoonful of coconut-peanut mixture in the middle, and wrap the dough around it to form a ball.

7.     Put a small amount of oil on a banana leaf square. Fold around the dough so that you get a pyramid shape and secure the end by tucking it in (it took me a few tries to get this, but now I know how to fold the leaves).

8.     Steam for about 20 minutes.

9.     Eat!

While the kanom tien were cooking, we went to the Sunday outdoor market (this is the first market I went to when I arrived here last Sunday), to pick up a variety of foods. When we  got back we had a large snack, consisting of kanom tien, pineapple, lotus pods, kanom gon (fried dough balls filled with peas), corn, fried rice-on-a-stick, and flatbreads that look sort of like naan, but are made from rice and taste kind of sour.

So I have been here for exactly a week now! I am feeling much more settled in and familiar with the surroundings than I was a week ago. So far it has been a very good experience. People have been very welcoming and have included me in lots of different activities. It can be a bit lonely at times because the types of conversations I can have are limited by the language barrier, but people are very friendly and staying with a host family is quite an effortless way to learn a lot about the culture.