Khao Chae, which means ‘rice soaked in cool water’, is a special dish because it is meant to be served particularly in the hot summer season. Hence, it is a refreshing Thai summer dish that is also eaten at Songkran, the Thai New Year Festival as a cooling meal. At the time of King Rama II, when people did not yet have the means to freeze water to ice cubes, the water was cooled by storing it in earthen ware pots in shady and dark places.