Grilled Sticky Rice Balls

We first tasted these grilled sticky rice balls in the early-morning market in Loei, in northeast Thailand. They were so good, so simple, and such a wonderful surprise that we couldn’t eat enough. We ended up going back to the market every morning, but in Loei that meant early, as it was all but shutting down come seven-thirty.

The rice balls we ate in the cool of those early mornings were shaped around the end of a wooden skewer, dipped in egg, and then grilled over a small charcoa