I was walking down a narrow soi (as it’s called in Thai or in English, street) in Chiang Mai and I could hear the incessant chatter and clanging of pots coming from the various street vendors. They were getting ready for the visibly-starving, evening dinner crowd.
On the corner of the street stood an elderly Thai woman with a huge smile on her face, as she lined up skewers of cut up banana pieces on a grill with low heat from the hot charcoals.
Some of these skewers already had that sexy, charred grill marks on them, it’s like sun tanning and getting that perfect ‘tan’, banana-style!
These bananas are a different variety from giant plantains that more commonly found in South Africa, visually these bananas used for grilling are much smaller in size with a distinct pointy end.
This species of bananas are called Kluay Nam Wa (กล้วยนำ้หว้า) in Thai.
This dish is called “Kluay Ping” (กล้วยปิ้ง) which literally translates into ‘grilled bananas’, in English and is typically eaten as a dessert.
The bananas are left to grill until it is fully cooked - perfectly charred with a lil’ bite to it! After grilling the skewers are removed and placed in a contraption specially designed to ‘squash’ bananas.
The banana pieces are lightly flattened for easier consumption. The skewered bananas are then dipped and lathered in a sweet, sticky, caramelised coconut syrup. The syrup is a combination of cane sugar, butter/oil and coconut milk.
I don’t think it’s advised to get your “daily dose of fruit” from this sweet street snack, but it is another affordable and recommended no-frills Thai dessert treat that will satisfy your sweet-tooth.
For me, I gave into temptation and bought 3 sticks (10฿ per stick/$0.28 USD) from this petite Thai lady.
The dessert wasn’t the only thing that was saccharine — her smile was.
