I have never been a fan of sticky mango rice, though they are available on every street corner in Phuket, Thailand, where I live for part of the year. I found them too sickly and too sweet.

But when I was in Ho Chi Minh City and had dinner at the superb restaurant called Gao in District 3 (around the corner from a romantic live-music hangout place called Cafe Soi Ba), I had the most delicious sticky mango rice ever, namely one that is not too sweet and not sickly at all.

I came home and experimented, and here it is:

200g uncooked short-grain white rice
350ml water
250ml coconut milk
100g brown sugar (in my final recipe, I omitted that and stirred in honey when the rice is cooked)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pandan leaves, knotted
3 mangos, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds or chia seeds (I also used dried marigold flowers)

Cook the rice in water and pandan leaves until all the water has been absorbed. If the rice is too hard, add more water. Mix the coconut milk with the brown sugar until dissolved. Stir the mixture into the cooked rice (in the rice cooking pot where heat is retained) and keep covered for 1 hour until all the liquid is absorbed.

Drizzle with dulce le leche (optional), topped with seeds and serve with a side of small chunks of mango. Yums!