About this ingredient
Draft reference. This study is part of the cookbook’s foundations and is still being checked. Local names and cultural notes in particular are the author’s working text, pending verification, rather than settled fact.
- Where it is used
- All eleven
- Flavour and aroma
- Neutral; valued for texture — chew, gloss, crispness or bounce.
- How it is used
- Rice flour for crepes (banh xeo) and noodles; glutinous rice flour for chewy sweets (klepon, ondeh-ondeh); tapioca for gloss and bounce; mung bean starch for translucent noodles.
- How to select
- Fresh, lump-free, correctly labeled — glutinous vs. plain rice flour are not interchangeable.
- Storage
- Airtight, cool, dry; long-keeping.
- Substitutions
- Cornstarch for some thickening (not for chew); do not swap glutinous for plain rice flour.
- Allergens
- Naturally gluten-free (verify no wheat blending on labels).
Names and contextPending verification
The two fields below are drafted and not yet confirmed. They are shown because they are useful, and labelled because they are not final.
- Local names
- Rice flour, glutinous rice flour, tapioca/cassava starch, mung bean starch
- Cultural notes
- Texture is a deliberate craft in SE Asian sweets; the right starch is not optional.
The Complete Edition
Specialty Flours & Starches in the book
This study is one of twenty-seven that open The Southeast Asian Table, before the eleven country chapters and the hundred recipes they carry.
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