Serve Golden Thong Yip for Prosperity / 🇹🇭 Thailand

Thong yip looks like a tiny gold flower with the petals pinched upward. Put a few on a plate and bring them out after a meal, when there is time to talk. The Thai name joins the idea of gold with picking something up, so offering one is a way to wish someone prosperity. You can make the wish about something that matters in the coming months, from finding a good project to making a new home feel settled. Share the first piece with the person you are celebrating. The flower shape gives them an easy reason to ask what makes this dessert special.

1. Get ready-made thong yip and look for the small pleated flowers. Their shape will help you distinguish them from Thai yolk sweets shaped like drops or fine threads.
2. Set the sweets in small cups or on individual plates with the petals facing up. You can bring the whole plate to the table and serve people there.
3. Offer a flower to someone and tell them one thing you hope will flourish for them. If you are gathering to mark a new venture, say what you are looking forward to seeing take shape.
4. Share the rest and notice the difference between the soft folds and the glossy syrup. A cup of tea gives everyone a reason to stay at the table for a little longer.

Thong means gold and yip means to pick or take hold of something. In Thailand’s family of auspicious sweets, that name gives the flower its connection with wealth and prosperity. Beaten yolks are cooked in syrup flavoured with jasmine water, then the pieces are pinched into shape in little cups. The same colour appears in other Thai sweets made with egg yolk, but a drop of thong yot and the strands of foi thong are easy to tell apart from the upright folds of thong yip. These differences are part of the pleasure of a tray of celebratory sweets. Each shape catches your eye in a different way and invites a different wish.