Khao Niaw Dam (Black Glutinous Rice)

Black glutinous rice is a pigmented variety of Oryza sativa var. glutinosa, grown within the glutinous rice belt of northern and north-eastern Thailand and across the neighbouring uplands of Laos. It is carried by the farming households of those regions, who keep glutinous rice as the staple of the table, and by the Thai kitchen at large, where the black grain is reserved for sweet dishes. David Thompson places it among the rices of the Thai pantry, set apart from the white glutinous grain by its use in desserts and snacks rather than in the daily meal.

The grain is a long to medium unhusked rice whose bran carries a deep purple pigment, so that the raw kernel looks black and the cooked grain a dark violet. It is sold either unmilled, with the bran intact, or lightly polished, and it must be soaked before cooking. Cooked, the grains turn glossy, soft and clinging, with a nutty note from the bran that white glutinous rice lacks. In the Thai kitchen it is steamed or simmered, then sweetened and finished with coconut cream, Cocos nucifera, and salt.

Black glutinous rice is eaten sweet, with coconut cream, a little salt and palm sugar, and often beside ripe mango or other fruit. It is taken with tea or plain water rather than anything sweet. The structural reason is balance: the bran gives the rice a faintly bitter, nutty depth, the coconut cream supplies fat and the salt sharpens the sugar, so that the sweetness sits against a savoury edge and does not cloy.