Katib Kao, A Fading Village Tradition
Thais, Laotians, and some Cambodians use woven rice holders to keep cooked sticky rice. It’s a good way to let the rice “breathe� while keeping it moist and edible all day.
Here in our village, each family cooks a great big heap of sticky rice in the morning over charcoal fire. They store it in a large woven “katib kao� and eat from it for all three meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rice leftover at the end of the day are used to feed the dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and ducks. Nothing goes to waste.
People also use day-old sticky rice to make BBQ “kao chi� (egg-washed BBQ rice patties, see recipes in my cookbook).
Katib kao are usually made from bamboo. Nice Thai restaurants (in Thailand and in the West) use these. These last 1-2 years depending on usage and care.
In our village, katib kao are made from a special reed, which are growing rarer by the year due to de-forestation and massive agricultural expansion.
Our villagers are known nationally for weaving the most beautiful, durable, and well-crafted katib kao. These last upward to 5 years and keep rice much better than bamboo holders since these reeds are highly resistant to molds and rot. Dealers from Bangkok drive two days to come here and buy our katib kao. People in other villages bring rice, pickled fish, and other goods to trade for our katib kao.
Each medium size katib kao takes on average 10 hours to make–from reed harvest to stripping, to drying (for a week), to trimming, to weaving, to stitching, to binding.
However, with the rise in latex-rubber production, katib kao weaving have fallen precipitously in the last few years. Young people are not interested in weaving or learning because they could make much more tapping rubber. These days, people weave for personal use and for family and friends.
