Freaky Fruit Vol 7: Sticky Rice

Okay, okay. I know sticky rice is not a "fruit" but neither were the lotus pods, and I haven't been able to locate a jackfruit (stay tuned). Plus, sticky rice here is not a dish. Its a food group, and yummy!


Xôi (pronounced zoy), is made out of a special kind of rice that gets particularly sticky when you cook it. This also means it attaches to whatever else you put in the pot. Hence, it comes a lot of different ways. I have had it:

• three or four different ways with sweet mung bean
• at least three ways with corn
  
• dyed purple, and sprinkled with coconut, salt and sugar (frequently for breakfast, see above)
  
• dyed green and purple and formed into a petit four (at the all-veggie pigout buffet - my training in Houston unfortunately did not stand up to Lily's ability to eat four plates of food...and a snack two hours later)
• with unidentifiable, sweetened green stuff, which i suspect were veggies
  
• with black beans
• as a gooey case for mung bean paste, steamed
• ground up into flour and steamed into a rice-y, sticky cake
  

And the best "Banana in a Blanket": grilled banana, coated in sticky rice, grilled again and slathered in sweet, creamy coconut sauce. Holy God.

Southern VietNam is prone to sweet foods, so I haven't seen any of the savory varieties, but they are generally not vegetarian. (But I imagine its damn good with pork).