Thai rapper's Coachella snack sparks craze at home
STORY: A craze has taken off in Thailand for mango sticky rice.
It started at Coachella, has formed queues down the streets of Bangkok and even Thailand’s Prime Minister has got involved.
What’s going on?
It all started with this moment.
A Thai rapper called ‘Milli’ brought a bowl of the much loved Thai dessert stage at Coachella
and took a few bites as she performed a song called – you may have already guessed - ‘Mango Sticky Rice’.
[Suphakomkao Klaypongpan, Customer]
"I normally love to eat mango sticky rice but because of the heat, I stopped for a while. But after watching Milli on stage, I am now eating it nearly every day."
Milli is the first solo Thai artist to perform at the U.S. music festival, which draws tens of thousands of fans and big headliners and this year included Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Swedish House Mafia.
The reaction back home in Thailand?
Instantaneous.
Sales of mango sticky rice have soared.
Dozens of delivery riders were seen queuing up outside this much-loved Bangkok vendor - Mae Varee - to fulfil surging online orders.
And then even Thailand’s Prime Minister piped up to announce that the Culture Ministry is considering registering the dessert on UNESCO's cultural heritage list.
The dessert consists of sweet sticky rice steeped in coconut milk, served with ripe mango.
Thais eat it to cool off in the exceptionally hot and humid months of March and April.
Back at Mae Varee, the owner says that while mangoes are already in season,
Milli's performance has more than doubled sales.
[Thanyarat Suntiparadorn, 'Mae Varee' store owner]
"Because of what happened at Coachella, when Milli brought a bowl of mango sticky rice onto stage, sales have been driven up to the point where we had to shut down orders from online apps from LINE MAN, GrabFood and Robinhood. We had to shut down the apps in order to catch up with the orders before resuming orders again. We've been turning it on and off, on and off throughout the day."
