Khambang Lao Food Restaurant

After more than a month in Vientiane, I have to admit that it's still the case that I've still only been able to find a scant handful of places that do good Lao food. Luckily I live literally around the corner from one that I, not to mention many locals, consider the best place in town.

Nang Kham Bang ('Ms Khambang'), or as the sign says, Khambang Lao Food Restaurant, is a third-generation family run place serving a relatively short but solid menu of Lao dishes. I’ve eaten here at least eight times now, both by myself and with others, and can say with confidence that the kitchen is consistent and service is also good, the latter a true rarity in Laos.

Just about everything here suggests quality, even down to the good-quality and perfectly steamed sticky rice:

The house dish is fish (pictured at the top of this post), in the form of a half or whole paa neua on (a type of freshwater fish) lightly seasoned and grilled. Mekong River fish is also featured in kaeng som paa, a sour fish-based tom yam-like soup with lots of dill, bai menglak (a basil-like herb), shallots and galangal:

They do an excellent sai ua:

a Lao-style sausage, often associated with Luang Prabang, that’s less herbal than its similarly-named Thai counterpart. Other good meat dishes are a sublime grilled beef tongue:

very good laap:

including an excellent koy plaa (like laap, but made with larger chunks of freshwater fish), and jee sin lot:

strips of beef that have been grilled until charred then scraped of all the burnt bits and pounded until tender.

Other dishes worth ordering are or laam, a thick stew-like stew of beef or pork with lots of herbs and vegetables; a very good jaew mak len, a dip of grilled tomatoes; and I reckon their tam maak hung (som tam -- papaya salad), served here with tiny crispy tomatoes and even tinier freshwater shrimp, is the best version of the dish I've encountered yet in Laos.

Khambang Lao Food Restaurant 97/2 Th Khounboulom +85 217 198 10am-10pm

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Savannakhet, March 31, 2010

Watching a pétanque game

Cozido à Portuguesa

Moving back in time slightly, while home a couple weeks ago I also had my first chance to cook in a month: I made cozido à Portuguesa from this recipe, using some very tasty Portuguese chouriço picked up in Macau, garnished with homemade molho de piri-piri and accompanied with a side of salada de grão com bacalhau, a salad of chick peas and salt cod, and a cheap but good red from Dão.

Didn't really involve a whole lot of actual cooking, but it certainly was nice not to be eating in a restaurant.

Bus stop, Savannakhet

Actually this photo could have been taken just about anywhere in Laos; it illustrates a typical scenario that unfolds upon pulling into any rural bus station here. Even before the bus comes to a complete stop, women frantically run to the bus waving sticks of grilled chicken, bags of sticky rice or mangoes, grilled eggs, buckets of drinks and tubes of nyaa dom (nasal inhalers). I don't tend to see too many purchases, but the number of vendors suggests it must be at least a somewhat profitable venture.

Keeping it hydrated in Savannakhet

  Am back in Vientiane after an all-too-brief visit to Bangkok followed by a week in the central Lao province of Savannakhet. And what a week it's been... My job at the moment is essentially to walk around towns in Laos and gather information, a task that's been made increasingly difficult by the arrival of summer here in Southeast Asia. Although I've lived in the region for over a decade now, I've only spent a couple summers here, typically having spent this time of year at home in Oregon or Sweden, or somewhere else cool. As a result, the intense heat feels relatively new to me, and is almost unbearable, particularly for one who's walking as much as 10km or more a day. I honestly don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life, but rehydrating in Savannkhet was a literal pleasure, thanks to Centella asiastica:

a green herb known in English as Asiatic pennywort and in Laos (and incidentally, Mae Hong Son) as phak nork (it's called bai bua bok, 'land lotus', in most of Thailand). The herb is used as a side dish, salad ingredient and juice component from Sri Lanka to China, but I never really took to the latter form, particularly in Thailand, finding its herbal flavour a bit too intense. But in central Laos, as I've also seen done in Vietnam, it's prepared slightly differently. Here, a couple fistfuls of the herb are tossed in a blender with the juice and meat of a young coconut (and the inevitable and inevitably large ladleful of syrup). This is blended for a good minute or two and the resulting frothly green pulp is strained into a tall glass of ice. The result has substantially less herbal flavour than the Thai version, but rather is green and grasslike in flavour, with a slight hint of bitterness. It's incredibly refreshing -- I think I had three glasses one particularly hot day.

Another equally refreshing drink found on nearly every street corner in Savannakhet is sugarcane juice:

Branch-like sugar canes are peeled then passed through the wheels of an electric press several times to extract every last drop of liquid. This is, I suspect, perhaps another Vietnamese influence, as the vast majority of vendors use Vietnamese-made machines, specifically the ones with the funky 1960's lady one sees everywhere in that country:

Served with a squeeze of lime, it's almost as good as nam phak nork, and isn't nearly as sweet as one might suspect -- I'm generally not a fan of sweet flavours, but had no problem downing both the glass and pitcher shown above.

Tang Jua Lee

Am back home in Bangkok, for a few days anyway, and one of the places I wanted to eat at and blog about was a restaurant I came upon only relatively recently. Tang Jua Lee is a longstanding restaurant in Bangkok's Chinatown, but since undergoing a relatively recent a face-lift, has something of a modern feel:

The restaurant's specialty is hotpots, which come in a few different forms. The tastiest is probably a hotpot of deep-fried fish head meat (tastes much better than it sounds) served in a broth seasoned with dried plum and thin slices of ginger (illustrated at the top of this post). The dried plum (buay in Thai) provides a pleasantly salty tartness that is quite unlike tamarind or lime, the normal souring elements in Thai-style sour soups.

They also do a suki-yaki-type hot pot, where you're provided with a simple broth loaded with a few basic ingredients:

which you supplement with raw ingredients (fish, meat, tofu, veggies, etc.):

I've eaten here three times now and have sampled Tan Jua Lee's non-hot pot dishes, and can confirm that it's the type of place where just about everything is solid. Most recently, in addition to hot pot, we had a dish of Chinese-style pickled veggies:

and a stir-fry of goat meat:

The latter was of the few dishes I've ever encountered in Thailand that used fermented black beans. It was very good, although I'd say that they went a bit overboard with the kheun chai, Chinese celery.

On previous visits I have tried their tasty flash-fried greens:

made Chinese style, with few bells and whistles but with lots of smokey flavour, and their excellent or suan, oyster omelet:

which is rich and garlicky, without being gloopy or overly-eggy.

Tang Jua Lee 2212 Th Khao Lam 02 236 4873 11am-10pm

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F-cup Cookie

Seen on a roadside in Vang Vieng, Laos. At first I assumed the bra reference was some sort of not-so-subtle sexy advertising technique, but apparently it's meant literally, and according to the website, each F-cup cookie contains '50mg of the herbal breast enhancer Pueraria Mirifica'. The website continues, 'As the name implies, F-cup Cookies will help you achieve larger breasts while you relax and enjoy a tasty, low calorie cookie. (An F cup size in Japan is like a DD cup size in the U.S.). Try an F-cup Cookie with Japanese Tea. A perfect combination.'

If cookies aren't your ideal medium, you could opt for Bust Up Gum, which, in addition to breast enhancement, offers:

* Improved Circulation * Healthier Menstruation (PMS Relief) * Relief of Menopausal Symptoms * Increased Vaginal Secretion * Healthier Hair and Skin * Reduced Stress * Look Younger

Vientiane's evening markets

  Talat laeng, evening markets, are, outside of eating at somebody's home, the best place in Laos to find authentic food. The only downside is that, unless you live there, you'll likely need plates, silverware and a place to eat. But if you can manage this, the below are a couple of the better talat laeng in Vientiane.

The That Luang Market (pictured at the top of this post), located a stone's toss from the eponymous religious structure, seems to specialise in grilled foods:

But you can get most other Lao standards there, including tam (pounded salads):

and various curries and stir-fries:

There are even a few vendors you can sit down to:

although the choices are pretty limited, and include a couple noodle dishes, more grilled meat and naem khao.

My favourite of the city's evening markets is the one in the Ban Anou neigbourhood:

It's a bit larger, and sells a wider variety of Lao food. In addition to the ubiquitous grilled meats:

you'll also find a few more specific/regional vendors, such as this stall that specialises in sausages and dips normally associated with Luang Prabang:

and another stall that has a huge variety of jaew, chili-based dips:

The jaew in the foreground and to the right is the somewhat unusual jaew het, a dip of (grilled, I think?) mushrooms. This woman's jaew are pretty good, and she also has a huge mound of par-boiled veggies to dip them in.

Several vendors sell soups, curries and stir-fries:

and most of whom sell kaeng nor mai, the dish in the foreground, a thick stew of bamboo, vegetables and fresh herbs that's a Lao staple.

And of course, this being Laos, there's tam mak hung:

Vientiane's Evening Markets 6-9pm

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Now Open!

  Swensens and the Pizza Company officially opened yesterday in Vientiane. They're the first branches of an international fast-food franchise to open in Laos, although it's worth mentioning that this sort of Western food has been available in Vientiane for a while. At least they didn't pull a China or Russia and put them up near some sacred historical district or monument; the restaurants sit virtually next door to the equally tasteless Lao National Culture Hall.

Breakfast in Vientiane

  I've been in Vientiane, Laos for the better part of a month now and during this time, my breakfast has hardly diverged from two places. Most days I'll head for Le Banneton, a French bakery in the centre of town. Usually I'll eat in and order their excellent cafe latte (brewed with Lao beans) and a sweet-ish pastry, such as kouign amann:

But sometimes I'll buy some of their bread, usually still warm from the oven, and eat it at home with the good salted butter and apricot jam I picked up (illustrated at the top of this post). Highly recommended; I wish we had a bakery half this good in Bangkok.

Le Banneton Th Nokeo Khumman 021 217 321 7am-7pm Mon-Sat, 7am-1.30pm Sun

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If I'm looking for something more local, I simply head a couple blocks north of my place, up to just before the intersection of Th Chao Anou and Th Bun Heng. A few vendors set up there in front of an old movie theatre selling breakfasty things such as rice porridge, khao piak (thick rice/tapioca flour noodles served in a slightly thick broth), phở and coffee. I usually go for the bánh cuốn (ban kuan in Lao):

freshly-steamed noodles filled with a pork mixture and served with Vietnamese pork sausage and a sweet/sour dipping sauce. They're tasty, although not nearly as nice as those I've had in Hanoi, and make a yet another great breakfast I wish we had in Thailand...

Around the corner, a popular vendor also does decent khao piak,

Very porky, and served with hearty cubes of blood -- but arrive early, otherwise the noodles tend to disintegrate.

Breakfast vendors Th Chao Anou 6-9am

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Sam Euay Nong

  Sam Euay Nong ('Three Sisters') is a cheery, tidy family-run place in central Vientiane. They do a handful of simple Lao/Vietnamese dishes, ranging from tam mak hung, Lao-style papaya salad, to khao poon nam jaew, thin rice noodles in broth with pork and bamboo, all of which are full of flavour and well executed, but my favourite dish of theirs is probably naem khao.

The dish, shown above, is an unusual combination of deep-fried balls of rice and sour pork skin/meat, the former shown at the bottom of the pic below, and the latter, wrapped in banana leaf, at the top:

The rice and pork are mashed together with seasonings including fish sauce, lime juice, MSG, sugar and peanuts, and served with a platter of greens and herbs. The greens are very Lao, and include butter lettuce (very popular here) cilantro, an unidentified sour leaf, banana flower and phak hom laap, an herb that, to my mind, combines the flavours of both mint and Thai basil. Wrapping the rice mixture in a lettuce leaf along with the herbs and a bit of chili, you get a bit of everything: meat, crunch, spice, salt and greens. Brilliant.

Han Sam Euay Nong Th Chao Anou (next door to Lao Orchid Hotel) 8am-8pm

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The price of a meal

Driving along Rte 13 about 25km north of Vang Vieng, I passed by this roadside market, bordered by a stream and shaded by tall limestone cliffs:

I learned later that the area is known as Pha Hom, 'Fragrant Cliff', but ironically there was a foul smell when I passed through and I continued without stopping.

On the way back, a fluffy silver tail caught my eye and I stopped to investigate.

A closer look revealed that Pha Hom was clearly the home of a market specialising in ahaan paa, 'jungle food'.

There were at least 20 stalls, and in addition to the large mammals, most of which I couldn't identify, and the organs and bones thereof, there were birds (both dead and alive), crabs, insects, frogs and snakes.

The vendors clearly didn't want photos taken:

But I played stupid and continued to snap away until a middle-aged woman told me to stop. Our conversation (me speaking Thai, her Lao) went like this:

No pictures! Why not? Some foreigners took a video, put it online and we got in trouble for selling jungle animals. What's wrong with selling jungle animals? Well, if we sell them, they'll all disappear. Then why do you keep selling them? We need to earn money.

This conversation took place less than 30km from one of Laos's largest tourist destinations, which also happens to be both a fertile valley and a busy travel crossroads; I'm pretty sure there's other work to be done, but maybe there's not, and anyway, who am I to tell her what's right and wrong?

But this wasn't all. The very drive to Pha Hom had taken me through landscapes like this:

and this:

I'd been through this area in July 2008 and the contrast of the sharp gray limestone mountains, occasional stands of dark forest and emerald green fields made it one of the prettiest places I'd seen in Southeast Asia. Now, at the height of the dry season, the farmers were burning their fields to prepare them for planting, and the hillsides were either deforested or black, huge fires burned, seemingly uncontrolled, at the roadside, and one could barely see the mountains in the distance due to the smoke. I imagined that the countryside probably didn't look much different than when it was carpet-bombed by the Americans in the '60s and '70s.

Obviously people in Laos need to eat, but it's depressing to witness the direct and savage impact this need has. At about 5 million people, the population of Laos is relatively small, yet the Lao seem to have an inversely large impact on their environment. This is surely helped by the fact that Laos's neighbours are virtually free to pluck what they need from the country, whether it be logs, animals or hydropower (at present more than 30 hydropower projects were either being built or were in the advanced stages of planning in Laos, eight of which would dam the Mekong mainstream). If things continue this way, the Lao will certainly get their meal, but stand perilously close to losing their country.

Vang Vieng, March 15, 2010

Fishing on the Nam Song, Vang Vieng, Laos

If he was fishing for assholes, he'd be a rich man.

Vientiane, February 28, 2010

Selling CDs near Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos

Phở Dung

  Phở, Vietnamese-style rice noodle soup, is probably the most popular noodle dish in Laos, but a few things set it apart from the dish of its origins. Firstly, the noodles used in Lao phở generally aren't very high quality, and tend to be somewhat coarse and pasty. And Lao phở broth often lacks the deep meatiness of its Vietnamese counterpart (I suspect they attempt to remedy this by adding heaps of MSG). But I reckon the thing that makes Lao phở most different than the Vietnamese style is the number of condiments:

Which, contrary to the other differences, is not necessarily a bad thing. Eating phở in Laos you really get the chance to customise your bowl with a seemingly endless variety of bottled condiments, and I love getting a stack of fresh herbs, not necessarily even to put in my phở, but simply to munch on.

Thus, unless you're a phở purist, you'll most likely enjoy Phở Dung, probably the most popular phở restaurant in central Vientiane. The noodles are OK, as is the broth (the meat slightly less so), but the condiments, which include heaps of fresh herbs and veggies, fish sauce, soy sauce, pickled eggplants, a slightly sweet peanut-like sauce, chili sauce, sugar, MSG, and more, just about make up for its other faults.

Phở Dung 158 Th Heng Boun 021 213 775 6am-2pm

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Vientiane, February 28, 2010

Boy near Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos

Another pic from earlier the same day.

Vientiane, February 28, 2010

Praying at Wat Si Muang, Vientiane, Laos

The Traditional Recipes of Laos

Not from me of course, but from Phia Sing, a former royal cook in the palace of Luang Prabang. The 115 recipes, originally written on notebook paper by Phia Sing, and later compiled and edited by former British diplomat, Alan Davidson, comprise what must be the most fascinating cook book I've ever encountered. Fascinating not only for the scope of obscure and delicious-sounding recipes (many of which were palace recipes and involve intriguing ingredients such as freshwater stingray, fish egg membrane and deer), but also for the vibrant and entertaining writing (Davidson also wrote the Oxford Companion to Food), Davidson's interesting background on Lao food culture and ingredients, not to mention the context in which the recipes were obtained (Davidson was ambassador to Laos from 1973-75 and explains that he was probably the last Westerner to meet with the final king of Laos, King Sisavang Vong, who personally lent him Phia Sing's hand-written recipes).

Lending the book a fairy-tale air is the fact that it was allegedly Phia Sing's dying wish that his recipes be published. This mood is also evident in the endearingly anachronistic way Phia Sing describes measurements, examples of which include minced pork 'the size of a hen’s egg' and fish 'the size of a man’s hand'. Some of Phia Sing's recipes can be seen online here. I'm particularly keen to try the jaew bong (a chili paste associated with Luang Prabang) and the khoua sin fahn, a seemingly rendang-like dish of deer braised in coconut and a curry paste.

Highly recommended. If you're not in Laos, the book can be purchased here.

Han Khay Laap T2

  After two weeks in Vientiane I have to admit that I’ve found relatively little in the way of Lao food worth sharing. I’ve encountered one exceptionally good Lao restaurant, a decent phở' stall and a pretty solid night market, all of which I’ll blog about soon, but for the most part I get the impression that the vast majority of people here appear eat dinner at home, and when eating out, require little more a bit of grilled meat and Beerlao. This is unfortunate for visitors, as Lao food really can be good, but I imagine that much of what people manage to eat here is either gentrified for foreigners, or as is more often the case, just kinda crappy.

In voicing my thoughts to some local foodies, I was pointed in the direction of a laap restaurant near Vientiane’s northern bus terminal. I cycled out there this morning and amazingly found the place, which even more amazingly, considering that today was Lao Women’s Day (congratulations, Lao women), was open.

The proprietors of Han Khay Laap T2 (disappointingly, a reference to the name of the road the restaurant's located on, not the Hollywood film) are friendly and even appear to speak a bit of English. The place specialises in beef dishes, in particular laap, which is prepared raw, par-boiled (shown at the top of this post) or fried, but also do a few other dishes including foe (Lao-style phở'), grilled beef (tongue, heart and teats), tom kheuang nai ngua (a thick broth with beef innards), koy paa (similar to laap, but made with big chunks of freshwater fish) and kaeng som paa, a tom yam-like soup with fish from the Mekong:

The laap was an excellent example of the Lao-school of the dish – tart, meaty, crunchy (from roasted and ground sticky rice) and herbal – and unlike most places, the obligatory veggies that accompany it weren’t wilted and even appear to have been washed. The restaurant also succeeded, somewhat, in alleviating my pessimism about finding good Lao food here, and made me realise that I just have to ask the right people.

Han Khay Laap T2 Thanon T2 (Located roughly across from Khounxai Hotel) 020 551 349 8am-3pm Mon-Sat

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Beerlao

  Recently Global Post Thailand Correspondent Patrick Winn and I got the chance to visit the headquarters of the Lao Brewery Company (LBC), the brewers of Beerlao. For those not familiar with the brew, Beerlao is figuratively and literally the beer in Laos, commanding a staggering 99% market share. It's often also generally considered the best beer in Southeast Asia; a lot like saying Chateau de Loei is the best winery in Thailand, although I must say that the brand's Beerlao Dark is an unusual lager and a tasty beer by any standards.

The LBC brewery is located 12km from Vientiane at Tha Duea, and on weekdays from 10am onwards offers free brewery tours and tastings. So following a brief circuit of the brewery, and not long after breakfast, Patrick and I found ourselves conducting the following 'research':

Much of the rest of the day is a blur, so here follow some random facts about Beerlao and the Lao Brewery Company (LBC):

-The Lao Brewery Company dates back to 1973 and was originally a joint effort between French businessmen and the Lao government

Inside the Lao Brewery Company, Vientiane, Laos

-After 'liberation' in 1975, the Lao Brewery Company was taken over by the government, which today retains half (the other half is owned by Denmark's Carlsberg)

At the Lao Brewery Company outside Vientiane, Laos

-In 2008 the Lao Brewery Company produced 210 million litres of beer in its two breweries in Vientiane and Pakse

Inside the Lao Brewery Company, Vientiane, Laos

-Beerlao is presently available in 10 countries around the world (although paradoxically it's still relatively hard to find in Thailand)

Inside the Lao Brewery Company, Vientiane, Laos

-Beerlao's current brewmaster, Sivilay Lasachack, studied brewing in the then Czech Republic

Glasses of Beerlao at a restaurant in Vientiane, Laos

-Of the malt used to produce Beerlao, 70% is barley from Belgium and the remaining 30% is rice from Laos

At the Lao Brewery Company, located outside Vientiane, Laos

-In 2009 the Lao Brewery Company introduced Beerlao Gold (pictured at the top of this post), using 'sapphire aroma hops' from Germany

Read more about Beerlao in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and NPR.