Sticky in Chennai

Thai food is known all over the world, at least in my world, as delicious blends of spice, lemongrass and coconut. As vegetarians, options are always limited in most places since most cuisines are dominated by meat. So though the flavors are wonderfully spicy and refreshing with the lemon zing, there are always few dishes to choose from. Desserts happily are an exception as they rarely include meat, again in my experience of the world. If vegan, obviously desserts would be difficult still. We are not vegan.

Here are some desserts we liked. Above, water chestnuts in coconut milk. Served beautifully in our hotel room. Never having eaten this dessert before but eager to try it based on the menu description, I was rewarded for being a glutton. I am continuously trying to regain the weight I cannot maintain in Chennai so I overeat as much as I can when traveling, when my stomach is able to function healthily.

The photo above shows an orchid, the bowl of water chestnuts in the coconut milk and a bowl of crushed ice. The crushed ice is to be mixed with the dessert but instead I (not knowing what to do with it) placed the dessert bowl on top of the crushed ice bowl and ever so slightly chilled the dessert which made it taste even better. At a restaurant where we ate later, I ordered the dessert and learned that one dumps ice cubes in the dessert to cool it but I don’t want to water down the coconut milk flavor.



The coconut smoothie above was the best coconut smoothie ever! Just slightly sweetened, grated fresh, mixed with coconut milk/water and served in its own shell. Perfect. Also a perfect way to start or end the shopping here in River City, across the river from our hotel, where Yitzy spent many hours window shopping, just hoping he could buy a Buddha statue but alas he did not fall in love with anything, not for want of trying.


Amongst the beautiful stores, that were more like galleries, full of antiques and reproductions, was this store, standing out like a sore thumb and an eyesore. As with all things, one has to see ugly to appreciate the beautiful. So the super tacky store serves its purpose as can be seen below.