Lod Chong (Rice Flour Noodles in Coconut Milk)
Bright green, short rice flour noodles (coloured and flavoured with pandan juice) pushed through a sieve into iced water to set, then served in sweetened coconut milk over crushed ice. Lod chong is the most consumed Thai dessert on a volume basis — sold from every street cart, consumed at every hour of the day, and representative of the Thai dessert tradition's characteristic combination of sweetened coconut milk with a contrasting textured element (here, the slightly firm, pandan-flavoured noodle against the cold, sweet, thin coconut milk).
**The noodle batter:** - Rice flour: combined with tapioca flour (the tapioca provides the slightly chewy, elastic texture). - Pandan juice (Entry TH-57): provides the vivid green colour and the characteristic pandan aromatic. - Water: enough to produce a slightly thick batter. - Cooked on the stove with constant stirring until the batter thickens and becomes a smooth, cohesive mass — this cooking of the batter (before it is forced through the sieve into water) pre-gelatinises the starch and allows the noodles to hold their shape when extruded. **Extrusion:** The cooked batter is forced through a perforated disc (a lod chong mould — traditionally a cylindrical container with small holes at the base) directly into a bowl of iced water. The sudden chilling of the hot batter extruded into cold water sets the noodle shape immediately. **The sweetened coconut milk:** Thin coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar and seasoned with a pinch of salt. Served cold — with crushed ice in the bowl. **Assembly:** A handful of the green pandan noodles in a bowl, covered with the cold sweetened coconut milk, topped with crushed ice. Served immediately. Decisive moment: The consistency of the cooked batter before extrusion — thick enough to hold a shape when extruded through the mould, not so thick that it cannot be pushed through. The batter at correct consistency: holds a peak for 2–3 seconds before slowly collapsing. Too thick: cannot be extruded through the small holes without tearing. Too thin: the extruded noodle dissolves in the cold water before setting.
David Thompson, *Thai Food* (2002); *Thai Street Food* (2010)