Mangos with what?

Now, that was a surprise.  It’s like eating celery with peanut butter.  Independently they are OK but together, Whao!  The flavors seem to complement each other and works pretty well.

Well, the same experience happened to us when we finally tasted the mangos with sticky rice.  

We had seen it served in street food carts and restaurants but we always thought that it doesn’t make sense to “waste” the wonderful flavor of a ripe mango.  As matter of fact, we have tasted some of the best mangos that I have tasted here in Thailand.  They are just sweet, creamy and without a thread of fiber.  You can eat them by spoonful as if you were eating ice-cream, they are that smooth.   The mangos come in a wide variety.  We have seen them at the grocery store and at the fruit markets.  A few days ago we tried to learn more about the variety and a lady at the supermarket helped us with her explanation of which ones were good with chili and which ones you needed to add sugar mixed with chili and of course, which ones were good with sticky rice.

Still, we never thought that we wanted to ruin the wonderful fruit by adding anything else.  That was until a coworker of B brought her some rice and sticky rice to the office.  What was B going to do with that in front of her and not eat it.  She came back with her report to me: simply delicious!  I was astonished and surprised first that my wife was eating “street” food and second that she actually liked the combination.

So, at our next opportunity, “Mango with Sticky Rice”. 

I was sold too.  In addition to the sticky rice, there was another “secret’ Ingredient that made the whole thing blend together.  It is some sweeten coconut milk cream that is put on top of the whole thing and it mixes in with the rice and on top of the mango.  You put the three together and bingo! You got yourself a winner.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be such a good combination.  Now, I’m afraid that I may not want to go back to just plain old mango.  Hopefully not as they are still delicious, but the sticky rice combination does bring in some additional flavor that makes me wonder if we’ll survive without it.