Cooking in
British Columbia
Thai · Central Thai
Lod Chong — Pandan Noodles in Coconut Milk / ลอดช่อง
Lod chong is Thailand's iconic sweet chilled dessert — pressed pandan-green rice flour noodles (extruded through a perforated spoon) served in sweetened, chilled coconut milk with palm sugar syrup and shaved ice. The pandan noodles are the technique challenge: rice flour mixed with tapioca flour and pandan leaf extract, cooked to a stiff paste, then pressed while hot through the ladle holes to form smooth, round noodles that drop into cold water to set. The noodles should be bright green, smooth, slightly chewy-elastic, and fragrant from the pandan. The coconut milk must be seasoned with a pinch of salt to prevent it tasting flat — Thai coconut desserts always include this correction.
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Cook
I
The Market List
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For the pandan extract
15
180 ml
water
Your own market
For the noodles
150 g
rice flour
Origin · ThailandChoose your town to see who stocks it →
50 g
tapioca starch
Origin · BrazilChoose your town to see who stocks it →
250 ml
pandan extract
freshly made, intensely green
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
For the palm sugar syrup
150 g
100 ml
water
Your own market
For the coconut milk base
500 ml
coconut milk
full-fat
Origin · Sri Lankan coconut (Coconut Research Institute of Sri Lanka), Sri LankaChoose your town to see who stocks it →
1 pinch
salt
Your own market
To serve
400 g
shaved or crushed ice
Your own market
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II
The Method
1
Blend the chopped pandan leaves with 180 ml water for 1–2 minutes, so the fibres fully surrender their colour and fragrance to the liquid rather than leaving it pale and faint. Strain through a fine-mesh cloth, pressing firmly to extract every drop. The extract must be intensely, deeply green — a pale result means insufficient leaf or blending time, and the noodles will be washed-out in both colour and flavour.
2
Combine the rice flour and tapioca starch in a heavy saucepan and whisk in the pandan extract gradually so no lumps form before the heat sets them permanently. Place over medium heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon or spatula — the mixture will thicken, then stiffen and pull away from the sides of the pan to form a cohesive, non-sticky mass. Cook until the dough is fully uniform, smooth, and no raw flour taste remains.
3
Remove the pan from the heat and pinch a small piece of dough between two fingers, pulling slowly: it should stretch 3–4 cm without immediately tearing, which tells you the starches have cooked through evenly and the dough will hold its shape as a noodle. If it tears at once, the dough is too stiff — work in a few drops of hot water; if it spreads without resistance, return the pan to the heat briefly. This pull test is where the dish lives or dies — noodles pressed from under-cooked dough collapse in the coconut milk, while over-stiff dough produces cracked, broken strands.
4
Prepare a large bowl of cold water, then work quickly while the dough is still hot — hot dough is supple enough to extrude cleanly, and it cools fast so batches must be pressed without delay. Place portions of the dough into a ladle or perforated spoon with holes of 3–4 mm diameter and press firmly with a second spoon or spatula so the dough drops directly into the cold water, which sets the round strand shape on contact; warm water will let the noodles spread into irregular blobs. Work in batches, rinsing the ladle between presses — the finished noodles should be smooth, bright green strands.
5
Dissolve the palm sugar in 100 ml water over low heat, stirring until fully liquid and slightly syrupy so every grain melts and the syrup pours evenly over the finished bowl rather than leaving gritty pockets of sweetness. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. The syrup should coat a spoon lightly.
From the canon — Palm sugar — made from the sap of the palmyra palm (Borassus flabellifer) or coconut palm — is the primary sweetener of the Thai kitchen and one of the most … Palm Sugar (Nam Tan Pip): Selection and Use →
6
Pour the coconut milk into a bowl or jug and season with a pinch of salt, stirring it in thoroughly so it disperses evenly and lifts the coconut's natural richness to the surface rather than leaving it tasting flat and one-dimensional against the palm sugar. Taste to confirm the coconut milk is rounded and full-flavoured, then chill thoroughly.
7
Drain the noodles from the cold water and divide among four chilled bowls. Ladle the chilled, salted coconut milk over the noodles, add a generous spoonful of palm sugar syrup, and top with shaved or crushed ice. The bowl should be cold to the touch before it reaches the table.
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Fresh pandan leaves sourced from a specialist grower, their extract yielding a saturated green and a pronounced nutty-vanilla fragrance; hand-pressed palm sugar from a single grove; full-fat coconut milk extracted fresh from mature coconuts on the day.
02
Estate — Fresh pandan leaves from an Asian grocer with firm, dark-green colour and strong aroma; block palm sugar of good colour; good-quality canned or carton full-fat coconut milk with no added stabilisers.
03
Market — Fresh pandan leaves of acceptable quality; granulated palm sugar or light brown sugar as a partial substitute; standard supermarket full-fat coconut milk.
04
House — Pandan extract from a bottle — colour may be acceptable but the nutty-vanilla character of the fresh leaf is absent; caster sugar in place of palm sugar; light coconut milk, which will produce a thinner, less rounded base.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The pandan extract is deeply, uniformly green — not pale or grey-green — before the dough is mixed.
◇Touch. The cooked dough pulls away cleanly from the pan sides and stretches 3–4 cm between two fingers without immediately tearing.
◇Sight. Extruded noodles are smooth, round, and bright green, holding their shape in the cold water without spreading or collapsing.
◇Smell. The finished noodles carry the characteristic nutty-vanilla fragrance of fresh pandan leaf.
◇Where it lives or dies. The pull test on the cooked dough — stretching 3–4 cm without tearing — is the single point of control: dough that fails it produces noodles that either collapse or crack, and the dessert cannot be recovered.
Pillar V
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Fortified wine
From British Columbia
2023 seven stars VEGA
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery · Naramata Bench
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery · Penticton →Sparkling wine
Without alcohol
Tea
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The whole pairingPillar VII
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The working kitchen
Sourced through Provenance