These thimble-sized nuggets of sweet coconut dough look like cookies for a child's tea party. They're light as meringues, but instead of crumbling as you eat them, they dissolve to a syrupy thick paste.
Called khanom ping, they're a popular Thai snack. I first ran into them at a food shop on a highway outside of Bangkok. Their intriguing texture, simultaneously crisp and soft, and their haunting, delicate taste of coconut elevated them at once to something I wanted to taste more often.
I found them again, at a market in an upscale mall in Bangkok. The price was high for a small container. It wasn't prohibitive, but too much for something that would be crushed in my luggage.
Just recently, I came across the cookies once more, only this time a few miles from home. A Thai Town sweet shop, Bhan Kanom Thai, has them. They're not made there but come from the Thai Traditional Dessert Company in Bangkok.
The tall container holds 300 grams (10.56 ounces), which is much more than it sounds, because the cookies weigh so little. Happily, the price ($3.50), is less than at the upmarket store in Bangkok.
Bhan Kanom Thai, 5271 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027. Tel: (323) 871-8030.
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