To my eyes, Thai desserts are from Mars. These sweets are undoubtedly tasty, but when you look at what you are eating, you get a sense of vertigo. Strange jellies, sweets made from unsweet ingredients, manipulated egg yolks and smoked cookies are all part of the tradition in Thai patisserie.

What is lacking in wheat flour, butter, cream and all things dairy (except condensed milk, of course,) is made up with ingenious technique and rice flour, glutinous rice flour, coconut cream and a smattering of agar agar.

I went to Old Siam Plaza today, which is the aging and proud grandma of Bangkok’s burgeoning a/c shopping malls. This place has three floors of vendors, but the real reason I went is that on the bottom floor there is a food vender area devoted to the art of Thai desserts. There are not many other places where this many sweets vendors converge.

Here’s a sample:

Fried/ dried any veggie or fruit chips

Pumpkin custard

Sweet stews of mung bean, taro and corn

Smoked cookies

Kanom krok with various toppings

Egg yolks blended with sugar and drizzled into sugar syrup to create perfect threads…

…To make these

Sweet pickles

Kanom beung

Nothing like breathing exhaust on the back of a pickup taxi after eating way too much sugar