Kanom Pang

[Abra]

I've had a request to make a fluffy, light Thai raisin bread with just a little cinnamon. Would any of you happen to have a recipe? It's evidently eaten with crispy fried pork.

[Austin]

The bread you describe is probably available at the numerous "bakeries" here in Thailand, but it certainly is not known as something you eat with fried pork! The traditional accompaniment to fried pork is sticky rice. To make authentic Thai-style bread, use the cheapest flour and margarine or oil (not butter!) you can find, and add about twice as much yeast as necessary to make it as soft and light as possible!

Austin

[Abra]

Well, it's a Thai person who asked, and she says she always eats it with crispy, fried pork. I'm baffled, though, because I've Googled it to a faretheewell and can't find a recipe.

[Austin]

Hmm... Odd, doesn't sound familiar to me at all. Like I said, there are so-called bakeries here, but actually raisin-cinnamon bread is a bit of a rarity, and to consider it an accompaniment to fried pork? Sounds a bit bizarre to me!

Did you tell you the Thai name of either the bread or the particular kind of fried pork?

Austin

[Abra]

Just kanom pang, and I think na moo. I know that's not very specific, but any help you can come up with, I'll really appreciate!

[Austin]

Khanom pang just means "bread" and naa moo means something like "pork topping", which makes me think it might be a particularly disgusting (sorry, it's true!) snack they have here that takes sweet, light bread (w/ raisins if you desire) topped with, as we call it, "fluffy pork", cotton-candy-like strands of meat. Ugh...

Austin

[Austin]

Abra: I'm thinking of leaving my house today (been sick lately), in which case I'll stop by one of the numerous "bakeries" around and buy what I think is the bread you're describing and post a pic of it at my blog, RealThai.

But I won't eat it!

Austin

Edited December 24, 2005 by Austin (log)

[Abra]

That sounds just like what she described! Do you know anyone who would be willing to give you a recipe for that bread? Tum knows how to make the pork, it's just that she doesn't bake.

Funny, it sounds tasty to me. Like bacon on raisin toast, which I think is good.

[Austin]

Abra: Hi again. Was shopping earlier and went into a couple bakeries, but couldn't find exactly what I think you're describing (I did find something similar though, a "Danish" topped with fluffy pork and generously slathered with sweetened condensed milk! Mmmm....).

I'll keep looking, and when I do find it I'll show a pic of this, and other Thai-style "baked treats" that are certain to open your eyes to world of baking you'll probably think should not be allowed to exist!

Austin

[OnigiriFB]

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what you're talking about but I really don't recall such a thing. Umm.... is your friend from Bangkok? Or another part of Thailand? I'm just wondering if this is a regional treat. How long ago had she eaten this treat? It's been 10 years since I've been back so could be a new thing I'm not familiar with. Or if it's been awhile it could be something that not offered anymore?

Good luck looking for it Austin. I like the blog, keep up the good work.

[Abra]

She is from Bangkok, and eats it every time she goes home. She's even described eating it during the whole plane ride back and bringing so much that she still had to turn some into Customs when she arrived. She seriously loves the stuff, but she's never mentioned the condensed milk thing!

Your website has some beautiful shots, Austin.

[Austin]

Thanks for the compliments guys, and keep checking in on the blog, I'm updating it daily.

We'll solve this mystery soon!

Austin

[Ptipois]

I saw something interesting yesterday in Nonthaburi (a few miles North of Bangkok), at a bakery near the market. They have all sorts of beautiful mooncakes there. However I saw something that could resemble what you're looking for: squarish pastries that looked like bread, with a few raisins stuck on top. I looked closer and I'm pretty sure they were raisins. Unfortunately I passed by these too quickly to take a picture, but I may be going back there in a few days and I'll make sure I shoot them in due form.

Also, I didn't see any crispy or fluffy pork nearby, and there sure is an enormous array of victuals at that market (including some you don't see often in Bangkok, I believe).

Beautiful blog, Austin

Edited December 29, 2005 by Ptipois (log)

[Abra]

Thanks, Ptipois!

[Austin]

Hi Abra,

I think I've found something similar, but not exactly what you're looking for. Unfortunately there are no raisins, but there is a generous coating of "pork floss" and the bread is sweet and soft as you described. I've posted a pic and description at my blog (sorry, I can't be bothered to go through Image Gullet, and I think this is a topic on which I would like to expand in the future!).

Cheers!

Austin

[Abra]

Looks like a breaded chicken breast! Austin, what makes this disgusting to you? You'd eat bacon on raisin toast, right? Or does that also sound disgusting?

Happy New Year, and I'm looking forward to more on Thai baked goods.

[Ptipois]

Looks like a breaded chicken breast!  Austin, what makes this disgusting to you?  You'd eat bacon on raisin toast, right?  Or does that also sound disgusting?

Happy New Year, and I'm looking forward to more on Thai baked goods.

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Well the principles of Thai taste (always a little sweet in the salty and a little salty in the sweet) are very interesting and play a large part in what is one of the most delicious cuisines in the world - but sometimes, when it comes to bread and baking (a concept that is initially not in their culture), their association of sweet and savory goes... well, a bit overboard.

I saw some baked stuff with raisins yesterday at the Tops (a good-quality food supermarket) near the Sathorn pier.. But I looked closer and I think they were some sort of muffins. I still haven't seen anything resembling kanom pang. But I'm still searching.

Edited January 2, 2006 by Ptipois (log)

[Ptipois]

I think I may have found what you're looking for.

It is — just bread.

What I found is not exactly an exotic preparation, it's just white bread slices sold in plastic bags. And as Austin wrote, the bread is fluffy and light, and soft to the melt-in-your-hands limit. It is also rather sweet.

Now there is a brand that makes two kinds of flavored breads, pandan bread (bay toey) and raisin bread. I bought a couple of bags this morning from he shop around the corner. Here are the slices: pandan to the right, raisin to the left.

You can see that the pandan bread is slightly green, while the raisin bread has very few raisins. It is, though, slightly flavored with cinnamon. I believe the raisins are rolled in a little cinnamon before being added to the dough.

I think this bread corresponds rather closely to what you described. It is very light and fluffy, with a bit of cinnamon, and of course it may be eaten with crisp shredded fried pork or the weird "pork cotton candy" that you buy in small bags here.

I also tasted it, of course. This bread is actually very nice. For breakfast I made a grilled cheese sandwich using some sharp NZ cheddar with a very light smear of namprik pao (chilli paste), with a few slices of grilled Chinese garlic sausage to provide the sugary pork addition. The combination was very good indeed, though not light. I wouldn't eat that everyday. It was an experiment. I found out that the taste of this raisin bread goes very well with sweetened pork, though perhaps the Thai shredded pork specialties are a bit sweeter than that.

The bread is obviously a product of industrial baking, but if you were asked to reproduce the recipe, I'd suggest you prepare the softest, whitest bread dough you can make, with lots of yeast and sugar to make it very light and fluffy, and add a few raisins rolled in cinnamon powder. Then ask your Thai friend what exactly she means by "crisp fried pork". There are several kinds available.

[OnigiriFB]

Mmmm pandan bread! Oh man I haven't had that in ages. My favorite is the buns with pandan cream (?) inside. Any chance of a picture of those? Man between you and Austin I'm getting homesick

Personally I've never been a fan of thai desserts. We usually had fresh fruit after dinner and that was great but every once in awhile our cook would decide to make something a little fancier. Either it was something (tup tim krop, the green noodle like thing that the name escapes me, etc) in sweetened coconut milk. Or she would go get luk choop or foi tong. Way too sweet for me. The coconut milk stuff wasn't bad but I'm just big of a fan. It always amazed me for a cuisine that prides itself on being a good combination of sweet/salty/sour/bitter/hot churned out such sweet one note dessert. In Thailand's defence I'm not a big fan of american/western dessert either but some of can be tart/sweet too and there seems to be more diversity.

One of the wierdest things I've ever heard (never tried umm... not sure I'd want to) is a sugared shrimp thing that was part of royal cuisine in the early 1900s. I remember reading about in Si Pan Din (Four Kingdoms). Great book btw highly suggest you read it if your interested in what life was like in the royal court during those times. My aunt worked in the national library and got me an english translation. Can't remember the authors name but he was Mom something or other. But back to food, I mean come on sugar AND shrimp? From what I remember it was like shrimp coated with sugar.... er... *shudder*

[Ptipois]

I actually saw, the other day, a mound of prepared shrimp on a Yaowarat stall that had a weird, translucent, syrupy deep pink look. I thought: oh no, that can't be candied shrimp in syrup! That was. I've only seen them once. I think you do see some weird things on Thai markets but Thai-Chinese markets beat them all.

My roommate, looking for junk food to go with Chang beer, just decided not to buy a bag of crisp peanut bits with "cuttlefish flavor". I said: you should have bought them, they were probably very nice. I realize I am adapting to local tastes maybe more than my friends and family in Paris would probably wish me to.

To go back to breads: there's a bakery chain in Bangkok called S&P I think, it has very very nice pound cake with different flavors: marbled chocolate, vanillla, and pandan. When I pass by I always look for the pandan and vanilla slices. They have been out of them for awhile. I suppose they go very fast. They're absolutely delicious.

It's true that Thai sweets are very sweet indeed, but the traditional ones are interesting, and the newer ones are, well, worth exploring. What a land indeed... I think studying its foods could take a lifetime. And I'm only staying one month.

[OnigiriFB]

Ahhh good ole S&P I used to hang out at the one in Siam Square quite a bit when I haunted that area (hey I was a teenager and that was THE place to be). I like the pandan pound cake too. Their pandan jelly rolls are good too. *sigh* I want pandan cake. I have NEVER found it here. I think I've seen it in LA but it's probably to exotic for lil old iowa. I wonder if I could even get it here. Hrm....

Ugh... candied shrimp just sounds WRONG! But the cuttlefish peanuts sound interesting. I used to love the dried cuttlefish you find all over Thailand. It's like our version of potato chips. If I get any here I have to eat it alone at home or get some strange looks

[Abra]

Ptipois, comme c'est aimable - je l'apprecie beaucoup! Those raisins look soft, as if they'd maybe been soaked a little, maybe in a bit of cinnamon water? In any case, it corresponds exactly with the "only a little cinnamon" injunction given by my friend. Evidently, many Thais detest cinnamon and refuse to eat it at all, which I find startling, since I never heard of anyone before who rejects cinnamon.

I'll bake some bread today or tomorrow and post a picture, so you can have a virtual piece. I did get some of that fluffy pork, but for Austin's sake, I won't put it on his piece.

Yum, I love toast with nam prik pow. Actually, I love anything with nam prik pow, even just a spoon.

[Ptipois]

Ahhh good ole S&P I used to hang out at the one in Siam Square quite a bit when I haunted that area (hey I was a teenager and that was THE place to be). I like the pandan pound cake too. Their pandan jelly rolls are good too. *sigh* I want pandan cake. I have NEVER found it here. I think I've seen it in LA but it's probably to exotic for lil old iowa. I wonder if I could even get it here. Hrm....

I passed by two or three S&P recently and they always were out of pandan pound cake. It seems that people just pounce on it. They should make more of it, it's simply one of the best pound cakes I ever had.

I regularly see the little pandan jelly rolls but I've never tried them. I'll taste one tomorrow and think of you...

But can't you get some pandan essence, make some pound cake and add some? Well, I know it's not easy to make good pound cake. S&P's is very nice. I think they use a lot of butter.

Ugh... candied shrimp just sounds WRONG! But the cuttlefish peanuts sound interesting. I used to love the dried cuttlefish you find all over Thailand. It's like our version of potato chips. If I get any here I have to eat it alone at home or get some strange looks 

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I often see street vendors pushing their dried cuttlefish cart near open-air restaurants. Why is that? Do they cater mostly to people sitting at restaurants, waiting for their food and having drinks? Or is dried cuttlefish considered some sort of dessert?

[Abra]

Well, you know that shrimp paste on sugar cane? That's really delicious.

I'm interested in the pandan bread, too. Do you think you make it with pandan extract? By infusing the leaves? Or what?

[OnigiriFB]

Ptipois - yes please eat some pandan cake for me. Then I can live vicariously through you. *sigh* I really never thought of that! I'll have to go find some and make my own cake. Oooo now that's a project. Thanks for a great idea. I was so used to people using the leaves (which suck here even if you can find them) but essense shouldnt be too hard to find. Ok I know what I'll be making soon. Now to find a good light pound cake recipe! Er.. the cuttlefish is something people like to eat as kubglam (snack) with beer. So you see those cart come by in case someone wants some before the meal or after when everyone breaks out the alcohol and hangs out. Thai meals can last a LONG time and we like to eat

Abra - hrm...you know I don't know if I have had shrimp paste with sugar cane. I've had it on toast. We used to do that lots. I think the shrimp paste is seasoned well so you should have a sweet/salty taste right? Candied shrimp would just taste like sugar and shrimp which really wouldn't have a taste after being overwhelmed by the sugar.

Maybe we could experiment with pandan. I'd get pandan extract as opposed to the leaves (which they use in Thailand) since the ones available here are frozen and lose their goodness. You try the bread and I'll try the pound cake? I'll be happy to ship you some if it comes out right