Chapter 2 Waking up in a sweet world
"... Uh…" A soft groan sounded
amidst the gentle breeze.
Khao Hom felt like she was floating.
She wasn't sure if she was dreaming or not, but the sensation beneath her back…
wasn't the wooden floor in the kitchen, not the bamboo mat at home, and not
even her bed. It was soft… cool… and sweet.
"… What's that smell?"
She slowly opened her eyes. The
first thing she saw was a soft pastel pink sky, with clouds that looked like
cotton candy floating above. Surrounding her were fields of flowers she had
never seen before. Small, round, clear flowers like clear jelly were delicately
molded into petal shapes. Inside were small fruits floating in the middle.
It was "Dok Loi Kaew," a flower that
looked like a dessert… and emitted a sweet scent like dessert after dinner.
She sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"…Where is this…?"
A gentle breeze blew through,
carrying the Dok Loi Kaew flowers above the ground. They swirled and danced
freely before floating away in the wind like a flock of glass butterflies.
Khao Hom stood up in confusion.
There were no houses around, no people, nothing that she was familiar with. But
something in her heart muttered… This place isn't a dream.
She started walking along a small
path that led through the fields. The road surface was a soft rainbow color,
and when she stepped on it, it was flexible and bouncy a little.
She looked down.
"Jelly… Crispy jelly?"
She lightly tasted the tip of her
shoe, although she hesitated a little.
"… It's sweet… and really crispy!"
Khao Hom walked over in amazement.
Along the way, she saw an old Thai-style house.
But instead of being made of wood,
it was made of crispy rice cracker sheets stacked together as walls. The roof…
looked like folded gold rolls arranged into flakes.
The windows were decorated with gold
threads that flowed down gracefully, like curtains.
"Wow… You can do this…"
She walked around the house in
disbelief. Her small hands reached out to lightly touch the rice cracker walls.
It was really crispy, and it gave off a faint smell of baked rice when she
moved her fingertips.
She burst out laughing.
"That's crazy… This is definitely a
dessert world!"
Then suddenly…
"Hahaha!"
A cheerful laugh came from behind
her.
She was startled and quickly turned
around, only to see a small boy running up and stopping in front of her. He
wasn't very tall. Skin as clear as boiled sugar, round face with chubby cheeks
like ginger-flavored lotus seeds, hair made of crispy sugar sticks that looked
like cotton candy, tied into a cute bun on her head.
"Welcome to Khanommaphop! You must
be Khao Hom, right? We saw you when you were sleeping in the middle of the
floating flowers, hahaha."
Khao Hom blinked her eyes. "Uh… who
are you?"
The boy smiled brightly.
"We are Xiao Namtan! The one who
knows every nook and cranny of the dessert city! And the best guide in this
dessert land!"
"The… dessert city?"
"Yes! The biggest city in
Khanommaphop! There are all kinds of desserts you've ever eaten, and there are
even kinds you've never seen! But first, you have to go see the memory keeper.
He's waiting for you at the dessert pavilion."
Khao Hom was still puzzled, but Xiao
Namtan's glowing face and his warm smile made her feel strangely at ease.
She nodded slightly.
"Then… lead the way, Xiao."
"Sure! Follow us! Hurry up, or the
floating cotton candy will lose its light! …Oh, and be careful not to step on
the immortal lemongrass. It hurts my feet a little bit. Haha!"
The boy ran ahead on the crispy
jelly road. Khao Hom looked after him before carefully following him. Her heart
beat faster again, but this time it wasn't because she was angry or sad. It
was… a feeling called "excitement."
"Khan Ma Phop… huh? What is this
world?"
Xiao Namtan's footsteps hit the
crispy jelly floor in a joyful rhythm, while Khao Hom followed him with her
heart beating wildly.
The path gradually changed from the
banana-scented jelly floor to the coconut sugar bridge that extended into the
wide open space in the middle of the city.
In the middle of the open space was
the "Sala Khanom", a Thai-style building raised on high ground with a
beautifully curved roof, decorated with light green wet plaster edges. The
floor of the pavilion was made from polished glutinous rice flour until it was
shiny. The sweet scent of pandan leaves hit her nose as soon as she stepped
onto the pavilion.
Khao Hom took a deep breath.
"The smell… is the same as when Mom
makes custard…"
Inside the pavilion was spacious,
airy, and cool. A gentle breeze blew through the thin curtains made of
delicately woven gold threads.
In the middle of the pavilion… there
was a woman waiting.
A young woman in a light green Thai
dress with a slanted shoulder-length blouse. Her skin was fair and smooth. Soft
like a mixture of flour and perfume, long, slender eyes shining softly but full
of determination, soft lips as if painted with candied rose petals.
She stood gracefully under the
"Chokhanomchan" tree that produced layers of colorful cakes like a soft
rainbow.
Xiao Namtan immediately lowered her
voice.
"That's right... Lady Rerai, the
keeper of the memories of Khanommaphop."
Khao Hom swallowed her saliva
unconsciously. She slowly stepped closer. Lady Rerai turned to look as if she
knew the girl had arrived from the beginning.
"You've arrived already... Khao
Hom?"
The voice was beautiful, soft... but
it also contained something that made it feel like a cool breeze blowing
through the middle of summer.
"You... Lady Rerai, do you know my
name?"
"You can call me Mae Rerai or just
Mae." She smiled faintly. "Yes, Mae has been watching you the whole time...
from your paintings and from your thoughts."
Khao Hom pursed her lips tightly.
She felt as if her heart was being read.
"This is Khanommaphop, isn't it?"
"Yes, Khanommaphop… a world built on
love, memories, and belief in the art of Thai desserts."
Maehing Rai walked slowly and
stopped in front of Khao Hom.
She raised her hand and lightly
stroked the girl's hair. The scent of fragrant flour and perfume immediately
entered her.
"This place… used to be brighter,
more lively than this. There used to be thousands of desserts, tens of
thousands of lives, and countless laughter."
She looked up at the khanom chan
flowers swaying in the wind.
"But now… the color of the desserts
is fading, the scent is fading, the laughter is quieting down… because the real
world is forgetting us."
Khao Hom felt like something was
stuck in her chest.
"Do you mean… people in the real
world have forgotten Thai desserts?"
Maehing nodded.
"People are starting to go with the
flow… seeking speed, ease, and modernity. Each bite that is swallowed, without
knowing where it came from, or The value in the heart, the art that takes time,
the meticulousness, the waiting... is left behind. And when no one thinks about
it... the dessert... starts to fade away."
Khao Hom pursed her lips tightly.
The image of her exhausted mother in front of a pot of custard on a rainy
morning suddenly floated into her head. The voice that said, "These days, the
kids don't eat Thai desserts anymore, my child..." still echoed.
"So how do we fix this? Is there any
other way?"
Mae Ying Rai smiled faintly.
"There's always a way... if you
still have 'heart.'"
She reached out her hand. Something
miraculously appeared in her white palm. It was... the same old sketchbook. The
cover was scribbled with familiar colored pencils. The handprints were stained
with flour and chocolate as the first day.
Khao Hom's eyes widened.
"That... that's my notebook!"
"Mom didn't keep it... it came to me
on its own. Because in this notebook... there are your 'images in my mind'. And
those images in my mind... will lead you to the real 'real taste.'"
Khao Hom quietly took the notebook
from Mae Ying Rai's hand. It was warm and heavier than before... as if it was
filled with something more than just paper.
"What is real taste?" Mae Ying Rai
smiled. Eyes emitting a gentle light
"It's a taste that doesn't just
reside on the tongue… but permeates deep into the heart. The taste of memories,
the taste of love, the taste of time… and the taste of never forgetting."
The sound of the wind blowing
through the bouquet of Khanom Chan. Khao Hom looked down at the book in her
hand resolutely.
"I want to find it… that true
taste."
"I hope so too… because this world…
is placing hope on you, Khao Hom."
The sky above the dessert pavilion
began to change to soft pastel colors, as if the sky itself was painted with
light blue, pink, and soft yellow from the child's brush.
After Lady Rerai's words, Khao Hom
walked out of the pavilion with the sketchbook in her arms. The sound of soft
footsteps on the path from the finely ground mung beans brought her to "the
edge of Khanom Ma Phop."
Ahead… was the vastness that
stretched out to a land that had no image yet. There was only the mist, the
scent of perfume floating around, and the cool, gentle wind that whispered.
"Is this… the edge of Khanom Ma
Phop, Xiao?"
"Yes," Xiao Namtan replied, jumping
onto the cube of dessert. "This is the place your dreams have never touched."
Khao Hom sat down on the sticky rice
flour floor. She slowly opened the sketchbook. The first page was still blank.
But then her hand started to move as
she wished. A colored pencil was placed on the paper. Lines began to form.
"We want to go to the highest place…
and eat sticky rice with mango there."
"Why do we have to eat it at such a
high place?" Mae Ying Rai asked softly while standing behind her.
Khao Hom paused for a moment before
answering softly,
"I want you to see… that your Thai
desserts… can also be as high as a mountain."
She smiled sadly but firmly and
finished drawing the picture. A ball of sticky rice with mango on the top of
the mountain, surrounded by a golden sky and coconut milk-scented mist.
Suddenly…the picture in the book
started to glow.
A soft light shone from the page,
floating out as rays of light that split like silk before gradually becoming a
magical map floating above Khao Hom's head.
The map showed a winding path that
stretched through a field of sweet sorghum and a pond of connected palm fruits.
And the pandan forest, to the sweet mountain.
"Wow..." Khao Hom looked up with
astonishment in her eyes. "Is this really the way to the land of sticky rice
and mango?"
Mae Ying Rai nodded slowly.
"That way... will appear only when
your heart is ready to walk."
Xiao Namtan jumped up to stand
beside her.
"And we... will go with you!"
As he finished speaking, he took out
something from his small bag of sticky rice cakes. It was a small bamboo
paddle, the perfect size for your hand. It had a circle of pandan leaves carved
into it, and the tip of the paddle was decorated with fragrant silk threads.
"This is a 'paddle'. It will help
you find the true scent of flavor. Just wave it in the air and it will lead you
to the path your heart desires."
Khao Hom took it excitedly. The
paddle was light, but in her hand, it felt like something warm was flowing
through it.
"Remember," Mae Ying Rai spoke
softly but clearly. "True flavor... is not just the taste that your tongue
touches. But it is the breath of memories...the smile of the maker...the heart
of the receiver."
Khao Hom nodded slowly. "I will
remember."
The light from the map floated up
and turned into a pastel pink Silk Bridge stretching as far as the eye could
see. In front of her was a pale gold sky. The sun looked like an egg yolk
floating in the sky above the condensed coconut milk.
Khao Hom took another deep breath.
She stepped onto the bridge with a steady heart. The paddle in her hand moved
gently, releasing the fragrant smell of fresh coconut milk mixed with pandan
leaves. Xiao Namtan jumped after her happily.
"Let's go...start the adventure in
our Thai dessert world!"
The soft sunlight slowly melted the
sky into gold. The heartbeat of a young girl echoed in an unknown world.
And Khao Hom was starting her
journey to find "the real taste."