Pandan Leaf (Bai Toey): Aromatic Use and Properties

The pandan palm (Pandanus amaryllifolius) grows throughout tropical Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Its leaf is used from the southernmost Thai peninsula through Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and into the Pacific Island culinary traditions. Thompson uses pandan throughout both books — in custards, in rice preparations, in desserts, and in certain savoury preparations.

Pandan leaf — bai toey — is the vanilla of Southeast Asian cooking: its aromatic compound (2-acetyl-1-pyrroline — the same compound that gives jasmine rice and basmati their characteristic fragrance) infuses into liquids and preparations it is steeped in, producing a distinctive green-floral, slightly sweet, almost vanilla-adjacent aromatic. It is used throughout Thai and Southeast Asian cooking in both sweet and savoury preparations — not as a flavour that dominates but as a background aromatic that adds depth and a specific character that is immediately recognisable as Southeast Asian.

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2-acetyl-1-pyrroline is one of the most widely distributed naturally occurring aromatic compounds in food — present in pandan, basmati rice, jasmine rice, bread crust, and popcorn. As Segnit notes, this compound triggers associations of warmth, comfort, and freshness because of its appearance across such a broad range of universally appealing cooked foods. The pandan's specific contribution is to add this note to preparations where it is not intrinsically present — coconut milk curries, steamed rice, and desserts all become more aromatic through pandan infusion without tasting of any of the other foods that share the compound.