Khao lam is Thai sticky rice roasted inside bamboo sections, often prepared as a sweet dessert.
The dish begins with glutinous rice, which is combined with coconut milk, sugar, and salt. Thai versions commonly include red beans or black beans, and some use purple sticky rice, taro, or young coconut. Thick bamboo tubes may also contain a soft coconut custard made with coconut cream, egg, and sugar.
The bamboo acts as both cooking vessel and flavoring package. As the filled sections roast over heat, the rice absorbs the coconut mixture and develops a fragrant, cohesive texture. Once the bamboo is peeled away, the cooked rice can be sliced or eaten directly from the tube.
Khao lam is part of a much wider Southeast Asian tradition. Related foods include Cambodian kralan, Vietnamese cơm lam, Burmese paung din, and Malaysian or Indonesian lemang. In Thailand and Laos, the name literally combines “khao,” rice, with “lam,” the bamboo-roasting process. Although usually described as dessert, khao lam can also be savory and is offered to monks for merit-making.