I first tasted this Thai delicacy back in 2012 when I was a guest speaker at the ASEAN Librarians’ Workshop. I was in good company then, yet my thoughts wandered to my Mama, who was also attending a conference somewhere in the district. I wondered if she, too, was as fortunate as I was, to have a spoonful of coconut milk–infused sticky rice and a slice of golden mango.
That first taste whisked me back to childhood: to afternoons at my Nanay Leony’s sari-sari store, eating ripe mangoes and finishing it off with a slice of biko, glutinous rice simmered in coconut milk.
I found it strange, then, how Thailand’s most famous dessert could mirror my own childhood comfort food. Bringing this home to my family decades later feels like a continuation of experiences and cultures, a shared sweetness that reminds me: we may be different, but we are all the same.
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