Traditional Thai desserts often feature native fruits to the country, including mango, lychee, banana, and coconut, in addition to ingredients like tapioca and rice flour. One Thai dessert that you have to try is Bua Loy, rice balls floating in sweetened coconut milk with a sweet and slightly salty flavor profile.

As C. Hawj Creations explains, bua loy is mainly composed of small, chewy, brightly-colored balls of glutinous rice flour (not regular rice flour). The rice balls can be colored green with pandan, an aromatic plant with a vanilla-like flavor; purple with ube, a starchy tuber; blue with butterfly pea flower; and more.

When served with a poached egg, this dessert is called bua loi kai wan. C. Hawj Creations offers a bua loy recipe that calls for combining glutinous rice flour with hot water, flavorings, and starch from either tapioca or starchy vegetables to make a pliable dough; then, roll small balls and boil them in water until they float to the surface.

Heat the coconut milk, then add salt and palm sugar to create a syrupy broth; add the rice balls to the broth and serve the dish hot. A similar dessert to bua loy is tub tim krob ("crispy rubies"), a dish of water chestnuts boiled in red syrup and coated with tapioca flour, then served in coconut milk over ice with fruit and other garnishes.