Hungry In Laos. Thoughts For Food.

Entering untasted food territory in Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang.

Laos was a country for a lot David and Sara travel firsts. The unsurprising kind, like tubing down the Nam Song River in severely weathered inner tubes while intermittently being pulled in by rope to shaky, splinter-ridden, stands defined as “bars” only due to the fact they sell alcohol and blast EDM music (more on that in another post).

Or the surprising kind, like that in all our diverse food exploits in the states, we never tasted Laotian cuisine. After landing in Vientiane, we instantly fell in love with the pleasantly light dishes packed with flavor. A welcomed detox from the fried and fierce dining bender we had been on for the previous 10 days in Thailand.

Another win, one that somewhat contradicted our food detox, was experiencing a dining culture centered around sharing. Perfect for facilitating our obsession with sampling a large variety of fare, but with minimal need for Tums or Pepcid. Nevertheless, we still managed to over-order laughable amount of dishes, leading us to discover….

Some Fave Foods

Laab

The unofficial national dish of Laos and Sara’s favorite because it’s the closest resemblance to salad she’d had in weeks. So what is Laab? It’s ground meat salad. Selected protein (beef, chicken, pork, buffalo or duck) is grilled then marinated in fish sauce, citrus and chili. You won’t find lettuce in this salad, but most servings include fresh coriander or basil mixed in. Suppose that counts? Understanding this description sounds a bit questionable, I’ll let the image below do the talking.

Where we ate it: Just about everywhere but highlights included Lao Kitchen (Vientiane) and Tamarind (Luang Prabang)

Jeow

A relish made with a variety of different veggie or protein ingredients and a staple starter for almost all our meals. The most common types we found were tomato, spicy Laung Prabang, chicken and banana leaf. Sticky rice serves as the dipping vehicle, which may sound unusual, but it perfectly absorbed the flavor as fun little nuggets of relish and rice. We deemed this the Laoation version of chips and dip.

Where we ate it: Khop Chai Deu (Vientiane), Riverside Boutique Resort (Vang Vieng), Tamarind (Luang Prabang), Bouang (Luang Prabang)

Or Lam Stew

This northern specialty can be found throughout the country and keeping with country’s flavor style, the stew is much lighter than what one would typically expect. Although it has a slight thickness from a combination of mashed eggplant and sticky rice flour, the addition of lemongrass, chilis, mushrooms and protein is the perfect balance for a smooth and spicy entree.

Where we ate it: Riverside Boutique Resort (Vang Vieng), Khaiphaen (Luang Prabang)

Khao Soi

Another northern dish, this noodle soup with made with the same rice flour as sticky rice making it easy for farangs like us to eat with chopsticks. The noods are swimming in a spicy tomato broth, topped with ground pork, garnished with fresh herbs and a side of rice cakes for dipping. Sadly, we didn’t discover this until our last days in Luang Prabang, otherwise we probably would have eaten it daily.

Where we ate it: Indigo Restaurant…twice (Luang Prabang)

Honorable Mention, Laos Coffee

One of the less thought of French influences in Laos is their coffee and baristas take very much pride in their local beans. Having primarily consumed hotel room instant coffee on the trip so far out of convenience, it was a treat to receive a non-watered down caffeine buzz. Fruity and chocolate flavored, it was delish hot or over ice, with minimal bitterness. It’s hard not to find a local cafe with freshly roasted coffee and well crafted drinks.

Where we drank it: Saffron (Luang Prabang)

The Struggle Is Real

Don’t visit a night market on an empty stomach.

After an active Sunday Funday spent chasing waterfalls in Luang Prabang, we in desperate need of a shower, cold Beerlao and most importantly, dinner. We had a slight lunch ordering mishap on account of language barriers earlier in the day, resulting in David eating a stale loaf of French bread and both of us sharing a small bowl of Khao Soi. So we were a little hangry. Fortunately, our hotel was situated next to the night market, with an entire alley dedicated to street food. We dabbled a bit in sausage and coconut pancakes while scoping out stands the night before so felt confident in our decision to dedicate dinner on the streets.

Everything was shaping up to be a fun, local food experience until we realized going to a street food market when you’re ravenous is a bad idea. Our starved stomachs impaired our judgement, and when embarking in even the tamest form of adventurous dining in Southeast Asia, you need to be of right mind.

As our appetite continued to grow, we hastily filled noodle bowls from a busy weigh and pay buffet we previously drooled over. It took at least five or so slurps for us to realize everything was a little cold, but shrugged and slurped on. Further proof that we weren’t sane at this point. A few minutes later, David came back the table from a spring roll stall run looking suddenly ill. Our bowls intended to be stir fried in a pan before eating. The realization immediately hit us that we spent the past 15 minutes inhaling potentially bacteria-laced food. Worse, we took another look around the picnic tables to see every other diner with a steaming bowl of food. Very unsettling, but there was nothing to do at that point other than to drink a lot of beer, break out our sacred “poop pill” bag and pray for the best.

Fast forward forty eight hours later, neither of us got sick and we learned yet another valuable lesson in food safety.

Overall

Street market fiasco aside, we really didn’t have a bad meal. And to put it another way…

If there were a rap/hip hop festival located in Laos, upon returning to the states some artists would remix their biggest hits as an ode to some incredible fare. Kendrick Lamar, “Good Kid, Laab City”. Brandi and Monica, “Khao Soi is Mine”. Kanye West, “Jeow 2”. And due to it’s recent, inexplicable rap resurgence, Juicy J “Slob on my Laab”.