Sticky or glutinous rice is widely eaten in the north of Thailand. It gets its English name from its glutinous (sticky) property rather than the presence of gluten. You can see from the picture its a bright white rice easily distinguishable from the more translucent fragrant rice.

This is pounded toasted sticky rice, used to add a toasted nut-like taste to dishes like Kapow Guy. It can be prepared ahead of time and if kept dry will keep for months. Use sticky (glutinous) rice, regular fragrant or long grain is not suitable. The photograph above is the browned sticky rice grains, surrounded by untoasted sticky rice for comparison. The photograph below is the finished crushed rice.

Thai fragrant rice is the main part of the Thai diet. Nearly every meal is served with rice, and it is very important to use only the best quality rice. Fragrant rice has a near perfume fragrance, and is also known as Jasmine Rice, but that is a brand-name rather than a rice type.

Yellow soya beans (often simply called 'Yellow Beans') are commonly used to make desserts and snacks. In Thailand we buy them in packets, but they can also be made from green soya beans by removing the green skin, as in the photograph above.

These rice flakes are used to bulk up desserts, they have a pleasant almost floral smell. You can see a typical dish involving green rice flakes in today's other recipe: Bananas wrapped in green rice flakes.
Store in a cool dark, airtight container and they will easily last 6 months or more.

This black form of glutinous rice is used in sweet dishes, particularly black rice pudding. It has a slightly more nutty flavour and stronger texture than regular glutinous rice, but the main aspect of it is the black colour.
To prepare this rice, you need to soak it for at least 3 hours to soften the grains before cooking. When you soak the rice, it becomes more deep purple than black, it will also discolour the water and any food it is cooked with.
When you need a black contrast to a white sauce (as in Thai rice puddings) this form of glutinous rice is perfect. However you can achieve a very similar flavour with regular sticky rice.

Green tapioca beads are starch beads made from cassava roots mixed with the flavour and colour from bi tua leaves and sold in packets. In the photograph the beads are 1-2 mm in size each. Tapioca comes in many types and sizes, for example these white tapioca pearls are larger, but unflavoured. The main use for this green tapioca is to make translucent green desserts.

Tamarind is a sour fruit, used to add a bitter/sour flavour to Thai curries. The pulp is used to make Tamarind water (also known as Tamarind juice). Some people also eat the flesh of raw tamarind, but it's an acquired taste, and personally I don't like it. My favorite part is the seed kernels. Each fruit contains 4 or 5 of these, but they need some preparation before they can be eaten.
The flavour is similar to a sour nut, but are far harder and crunchier.

Ingredients
Seeds from Tamarind Fruit

Preparation
1. Toast them in a frying pan until the blacken on the outside. You can see this in the photograph below.
2. Soak them in water overnight.
3. Take off the outer layer, and eat the inside kernels. In the photograph above, the kernels are on the right side.

Older people in Thailand chew this berry when it's ripe and yellow (these are slightly under-ripe). It's a little addictive, and has the unfortunate effect of making the teeth rather black as can be seen from the photograph below. When you see old people chewing what looks like chewing tobacco, this is the berry that they're chewing.