During a visit to BKK, my friend and I ate at a street side restaurant at the infamous Khao San Road, and each table had a bottle of this bright red sauce that was filled with chilli peppers and chilli seeds.
Now, I'm used to Bicolano food, so spice doesn't faze me. After pouring the sauce over everything I ordered, it was like an epiphany for my taste buds. This sweet chilli sauce was all that. And more! I was on a sweet chilli high because of Maepranom.
Since then, each trip to BKK would include a search for a restaurant that had Maepranom on the table. Which was a lot, considering that this sauce is part and parcel of Thai culture. Heck, it was even there during my infamous backpacking adventure around Thailand!
When I lived in HKG in 2005, we would go to this hole-in-the-wall (literally) Thai restaurant which we fondly called "Thai Bedroom." The owner, a cheerful Thai lady, had a small store inside her flat and yes, she sold Maepranom. My 2 Thai colleagues - Prem and Golf - were surprised that I knew about the sauce. And even more surprised at how I'd hoard bottles of it. That's how much I craved for it!
So, what brought about this lengthy post about a small bottle of Thai sweet chilli sauce? It's the fact that it's available in the on-line supermarket that I frequent! And that's the reason why we now have bottles of these in our kitchen, and some more bottles about to arrive.
It feels like BKK in the 90s all over again!
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