Cookware · Hearths
Sticky rice steamer
A cone of bamboo over a pot of water: glutinous rice that steams into the Thai morning.
The journey
Thai and Lao sticky rice is not boiled in a saucepan. Soaked grain goes into a bamboo basket set over a pot, sometimes inside an aluminum cone, and steams until each grain is itself and also a handful. Breakfast and grilled-meat meals still arrive this way.
A metal insert makes the rice wet. Bamboo breathes.
In the kitchen
Soak overnight. Steam, flip the mass once, steam again. Serve in the basket or in small woven cups so it stays warm.
The Thai volume's grilled and som-tam tables assume this steamer. A bamboo dim-sum stack can stand in if you line it.