Roti {Traditional Thai Pancake}

I already showed you one traditional Thai dessert and today I want to share with you a traditional Thai pancake called Roti (row-tee). It really reminds me more of a crepe though.

A piece of sticky dough gets thrown around and flattened and then put on a hot griddle. The next step is completely up to your taste. It can be filled with banana, coconut, egg, raisins and many other options and then the sides are folded over. The pancake is turned and cooked from the other side.

The finished Roti is topped with sugar or sweet condensed milk and cut into bite-sized pieces. As you can see, the paper is grease-soaked. It is definitely not a healthy snack. But then again, it’s dessert and a great occasional treat.

This time we had a simple one filled with sweet condensed milk and topped with sugar.

I finally discovered the world of instagram and this is one of the first pictures I edited & uploaded there. I really enjoy instantly sharing pictures and networking through instagram and I would love to connect with you too. If you are interested you can find me under @specialtycake.

The ingredients for Roti are quite simple. If your are adventurous you can try making them at home either in a pan or better yet, on a griddle. Make sure to watch the video link below.

Roti Recipe
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, melted

You can find the instructions together with a video of a Thai street vendor preparing Roti at Importfood.com

The video took some time to load (it might just have been my internet connection) but it is totally worth seeing how it is done.

My husband enjoying Roti at a street vendor.

Bananitos and Mini Mangoes

This week we got to enjoy miniature versions of two favorite fruits of ours: small bananas also called bananitos and mini mangoes.

The bananitos we have seen, with all other kinds of bananas, since we arrived here in Thailand three months ago. They seem to be one of the fruits that are available year-round. Although we have tried all kinds of unknown and exotic fruits already, it has however taken us 3 full months to finally buy some of these shrunk versions of bananas

To prove to you how small they really are, here you can see how lost it looks in the palm of my hand.

I usually like bananas most when they are still quite firm, with just a few brown spots. Bananitos, however, have a lot firmer texture, so that it was quite strange eating them on the first day. But they ripen quickly and after just a couple days the texture had softened quite a bit.

And despite my visual impression trying to tell me that these many brown spots make not for a tasty banana, I really enjoyed this ripe bananito.

One more difference I noticed, that bananitos have a lot thinner peel than regular bananas. It’s just a little thicker than the peel of an apple.

Another visual proof. A bananito + a mini mango still fit comfortably into the palm of my hand.

Going to the market earlier today, I spotted these little, round fruit for the first time here. Initially I thought they were apricots and I was quite excited, as we haven’t seen any apricots, peaches, or nectarines around yet. But upon closer inspection we realized that they were a mini version of mango.

We were intrigued. They must have just come into season, as the price for 1 kilo was around $6. From our observation with other seasonal produce, we are guessing that as more of there mini mangoes will become available in the next days and weeks, the price will drop significantly.

Here in Thailand mini mangoes are called Ma Prang, but they are also known as plum mango and Marian mango. They smell like regular mango, with a firm, slightly crunchy, but thinner skin, so that there is no need to peel the mini mango.

The juicy flesh as yellowy orange as the skin, is soft and tastes sweet, but refreshing, and slightly citrussy at the same time. Unlike regular mango, the stone is not too firmly connected to the flesh.
I really enjoyed eating the mini mango with just a few bits, without any fuss and mess or sticky fingers.

Croissant and Foamy Cappuccino

iCloud send me a message telling me that I had used up almost all of the available storage space. And most of it is filled up by pictures snapped with the iPhone.

I guess, since living in beautiful Thailand on a daily basis we are taking a lot more pictures “on the go”. But while going through the almost 1,000 pictures I also noticed that I developed a habit of photographing the food and drinks we consume. Especially when they are beautifully presented.

Looking at all these pictures I realized that you would most likely enjoy them as well. So from now on I want to share with you more often beautiful food.

This foamy cappuccino I enjoyed in a little cafe on the pier here in Krabi. My husband and I love the quiet and relaxed atmosphere of the place. Often we come for breakfast, but sometimes just for coffee, or a refreshing fruit shake.

With my foamy cappuccino I enjoyed flavorful, buttery croissant. One of the best I had in a long time. So flaky, with a crisp outside but tender center. It made me wonder what the secret to a good croissant is.

Although I can’t bake anything at the moment I looked around for homemade croissant recipes. Risking to sound all Julia Child-like I would say the secret to the amazing taste is probably the large amount of butter.

There aren’t any fancy ingredients needed to make croissants. If you have flour, salt, sugar, butter, yeast, eggs, and milk at home you are ready to go.

Well, not quite. The simple ingredient list is deceiving, as the process is anything but simple. If you are not too intimidated yet you should check out square kitchen’s post on homemade croissants.

Their’s look amazing and they have a detailed step-by-step explanation.