Bat by the Se Bang Fai

Despite having many of the same culinary resources and origins as neighbouring Thailand, the people of Laos subside on a markedly more basic diet. Considering Laos's poverty and lack of both infrastructure and large-scale agriculture, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. But the monotony of the rural Lao diet can come as a shock if you've never encountered it personally. This post describes another blogger's nine days of very basic meals in a particularly remote corner of northern Laos. I spent six days in the country on my most recent trip, only four of which were spent in the boondocks of central Laos, but I'd say we had a somewhat similar experience.

All of our meals were based around sticky rice. At a couple dinners this staple was accompanied by dishes such as sour soups with frog or fish, grilled chicken, and on one occasion, bamboo shoot soup (kaeng nor mai). Otherwise we ate sticky rice with tinned fish and a grilled chili dip, sticky rice with tiny grilled fish or chicken and a grilled chili dip, or instant noodles. None of it (other than the instant noodles) was bad, but it was pretty monotonous, and given the almost blanket absence of vegetables, not entirely nutritious. Yet despite this, I suspect that our meals had significantly more variety and nutrition than those of the people hosting us.

A notable exception to this diet came the day we explored Tham Lot Se Bang Fai, a 6.5km-long cave created by the flow of the Se Bang Fai. While we were busy inside the cave, a few of the villagers of Ban Nong Ping, our host village, had gathered the baby swifts and bats that had fallen to the cave floor or in the water. These were boiled and plucked:

and like most of our meals, were grilled:

And as if eating scavenged baby birds and bats wasn't enough, the villagers had a particular way of preparing them that made already questionable (by our standards, at least) food even worse. Basically they charred the bats and birds, grilling them until they were unrecogniseable black shells. I suspect that this makes the bones, wings and skin easier to eat:

Luckily for us, the bats and birds were a special treat for the people who'd gathered them, and our meal was the reassuringly monotonous mix of grilled chicken, instant noodles, sticky rice and a grilled chili dip.

Ban Nong Ping, May 30, 2010

The tiny village of Ban Nong Ping (Leetch Lake Village) lies at the eastern edge of Laos's Khammuan Province near the border with Vietnam. Its 200+ inhabitants are a mixture of lowland Lao and Salang who were ordered to moved here more than a decade ago, and who have yet to experience the joy of electricity (it's meant to arrive in 2012). The village is the access point for Hin Namno NBCA and some of the more remote stretches of the former Ho Chi Minh Trail, as well as for the amazing Tham Lot Se Bang Fai, which is why we there there. After having explored the cave and stayed with the villagers, we had a bit of free time on our last day and I did some impromptu portraits. The images were taken with my D700, a 80-200mm f/2.8 VR and illuminated with two off-camera strobes, a SB-800 and an SB-900, both activated by the camera's built-in flash. I didn't have much time and the flashes were acting naughty, but at the least the images provide a bit of insight into the inhabitants of one of the most remote and poorest villages I've ever visited.

To commence a slideshow of 12 images, click on the image above and use keyboard arrows or hold your mouse above the images to navigate through them.

Bold contributions to the field of airline food

A three-pronged Auntie Anne's pretzel topped with hearty sticks of imitation crab. Encountered on a Nok Air flight from Bangkok to Nakhon Phanom. Resemblance to airplane propeller moderate, but edibility negligible.

More to follow soon from my most recent trip to Laos.

Bangkok, May 19, 2010

 Tanks crossing the barricade into the protesters' camp, Bangkok

As of about 8.30am this morning, and after several hours of early morning fighting, tanks have crossed the protesters' tire and bamboo barricade near Lumphini Park to. This is significant, but it still remains to be seen what will happen, and I continue to hear gunshots and explosions as I write this.

Bangkok, May 17, 2010

As  mentioned previously, yesterday was generally quiet in the Silom area, at least until about 1am. Shortly after falling asleep I was awakened by the sound of several very large explosions and the pop of sniper rifle fire (as opposed the rattle of machine gun or the blasts of shotgun fire the previous nights) very close to my house. Wandering out this morning to survey the damage, it became clear exactly how close the sounds were: the Dusit Thani Hotel, which I can see clearly from my balcony, had been hit by a grenade (see pic above). Guests were apparently herded into the basement in the middle of the night, and as of today, the hotel has closed, its employees helping people evacuate from this area's now empty streets:

The government has set a deadline of 3pm today for everybody to leave the protester's main camp, which begins at Lumphini Park:

and stretches all the way to the shopping district at Rajprasong. It's 2.30pm as I write this, and the recent death of influential red shirt supporter Seh Daeng, the sound of explosions, mysterious small planes passing overhead and ominously, dark clouds and thunder, contribute to a very dark, tense atmosphere.

Incidentally, if I've gained anything from this experience, it's the knowledge that the seemingly useless internet application Twitter actually has a practical application. In the words of Bloomberg reporter Dan Ten Kate, 'It's like having sources all over town,' and many journalists and observers use it via mobile phone to keep up to date on what's becoming an ever-expanding conflict. I follow it compulsively from home, and if you also desire minute to minute updates on the situation here I can recommend feeds from Newley Purnell, Patrick Winn, Alastair Leithead, Andrew Marshall, bangkokpundit and Agnes Dherbys.

Bangkok, May 16, 2010

Damage and burning along Rama IV, Bangkok

Yesterday was relatively quiet, at least in my area, but this was the scene five minutes' walk away, along Rama IV. The smoke is from burning tires, and was accompanied by explosions (mostly harmless but very large rockets fired by the protesters) virtually every 20 seconds. A surreal and frightening scene.

Lunch in the Time of Conflict

  I live just off of Thanon Silom, which in addition to being the area of Bangkok with arguably the most restaurants and street food, is also directly adjacent to the epicentre of the current conflict. As a result, the streets in this part of town feel particularly empty today:

Shops are closed, rubbish isn't being collected, armed soldiers outnumber civilians, and the contents of my fridge are starting to run low. And what is normally an area with an overabundance of food has now been reduced to one stall, the lone noodle vendor pictured at the top of this post.

Stopping by for a bowl today at lunchtime, I had the following conversation with one of the ladies running the stall:

Wow, you're open today. Aren't you scared? Yes it's scary, but I have to earn money. We haven't been able to open in five days! How has it been today? Have you heard any gunshots or explosions? Yes, but from way over there [points towards Lumphini Park]. You must be selling well since you're the only place to eat at Sala Daeng. How late will you stay open? We're almost sold out now!

And indeed she was selling well, with the bulk her customers, not surprisingly, hungry journalists:

Bangkok, May 14, 2010

Government soldier looks for snipers on Thanon Rama IV, Bangkok

Today government soldiers clashed with anti-government 'red shirt' protesters in several parts of Bangkok, including my neighbourhood, the Silom/Rama IV area. The following are a few images from the clashes, which as I write this at 6.30pm, have yet to cease. For details, go here.

Anti-government 'red shirt' protesters taunt soldiers, Rama IV, Bangkok

Locals cautiously watching the conflict unfolding on Rama IV, Bangkok

Red shirt protesters stand their ground on Rama IV, Bangkok

Red shirt protesters taunt soldiers, Rama IV, Bangkok

Soldiers prepare to fire on red shirt protesters, Rama IV, Bangkok

Red shirt protesters taunt soldiers on Thanon Rama IV

A violent confrontation between red shirt protesters and government soldiers along Rama IV

Soldiers preparing to fire at red shirt protesters on Thanon Rama IV

Soldiers firing an alleged mixture of rubber bullets, blanks and real bullets at protesters, Thanon Rama IV

Captured red shirt protesters near Lumphini Boxing Statdium, Bangkok

Soldiers unrolling barbed wire along Rama IV, Bangkok. Smoking tires can be seen in the background.

Locals look at burning tires on a bridge near Thanon Silom

Bangkok, May 13, 2010

I arrived back home in Bangkok to some pretty bizarre circumstances. While I was in Laos, red-shirted protesters took over a large swathe of central Bangkok, from the central shopping district to the edge of Lumphini Park, directly opposite my apartment. They've occupied this space for several weeks now, having barricaded themselves inside an intimidating fence of tires, bamboo poles and barbed wire (for background on the current conflict in Thailand, go here or here). The conflict has escalated in the last few days, and yesterday there were rumours that the protesters were going to be surrounded by the military and police at 6pm. At about this time I left my house with the intent of taking a few pics and documenting what was going on in my neighbourhood. While wandering around the red shirt camp, I happened to run into ace reporters Newley Purnell and Anasuya Sanyal, and here are some of the things we saw that night. View over the Silom area, with hotels and skyscrapers in the background and the medieval-looking tire and bamboo fence in the foreground:

A closer look at the fence and one of its guards:

It's said that the protesters have soaked the fence in gasoline, and will set it on fire if attacked.

Inside the fenced area (no, those rocks aren't for landscaping):

Guarding the fence:

While I was in the area I happened to see  Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known as Seh Daeng (Commander Red):

a rogue military general and hardline red shirt supporter who has allegedly likened himself to the Mel Gibson character in the film Braveheart:

Only moments after these photos were taken, Seh Daeng was shot while being interviewed by New York Times correspondent.

Soldiers along Silom, later that night:

Motorcyclists being chased away from the fence by a group of shouting red shirts near Lumphini Park:

Urai

  Urai, a boat noodle restaurant in Ayuthaya's Sena District, is part of a government-funded scheme called Thong Fah ('Blue Flag') that has established exceedingly cheap restaurants, often serving regional dishes, around the country (Mae Sri Bua in Mae Hong Son is another Thong Fah restaurant I've previously blogged about). I think a bowl of noodles here cost 15 baht (less than 50 cents).

As illustrated above, the broth at Urai is practically coffee-like, and is almost certainly the darkest and thickest I've encountered. Yet despite this, it was somewhat under-seasoned, and really need a few splashes of fish sauce and a generous scoop of dried chili. And in contrast to that of previously-mentioned boat noodle joint Jay Nit, the meat here is nothing special, having been simply flash-boiled. On the other hand, the noodles at Urai are served the traditional way, in tiny bowls:

I believe I ate four...

Urai is located in Sena district, about 15km west of Ayuthaya.  It's the only boat noodle place in town, and is located right at the bus terminal.

Urai Located at the bus terminal, Sena District, Ayuthaya 9am-3pm

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Jay Nit

I'm finally back home after about two months in Laos, and yet again, am craving odd Thai dishes. This time it's kuaytiaw reua (boat noodles), so naturally I headed to the heartland of the dish (and possibly one of the more underrated food cities in Thailand), Ayuthaya.

Inside knowledge from a local led us to Jay Nit, a longstanding 'restaurant' on the man-made island that forms Ayuthaya's old town. To get here you have to walk through Wat Ratayachai, a temple at the edge of the Chao Phraya River, until you reach what looks like a dilapidated wet market at the edge of the river. The place is frankly filthy, but filthy in that reassuring Southeast Asia way that often suggests good eats.

The ladies here claim that the restaurant has been in business for 40 years, although only the last decade has been on solid land:

The noodle dishes at Jay Nit, which include yen ta fo, are done at two stations, although I didn't really understand the division of labour (one pork station and one beef?). Regardless, they're doing something right. The broth of the pork version was satisfyingly thick, thanks to the addition of blood, but wasn't actually as rich or as spicy as it appeared. But I was most impressed with the pork (illustrated at the top of this post), which was fatty and tender and served in thick slices not unlike a very good bowl of Japanese-style ramen. And unlike most other places in Ayuthaya, the servings here are rather generous (boat noodles are typically served in tiny bowls that sell for as little as 10 or 15 baht - possibly a legacy of the dishe's waterbound origins), making it a heartier version of the dish than most of its counterparts.

More boat noodles to follow; in the meantime, another good bowls can be got at Lung Lek.

Jay Nit Wat Ratayachai (Wat Jin), Ayuthaya 9am-2pm

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Camembert by the Nam Lik

It wasn't all sticky rice and grilled meat for the last couple months. Setting out on a road trip to central Laos with my trusty driver Christophe (above, on the left), I picked up a grab bag of French goodies at Les Boutiques Scoubidou, Vientiane's best French deli:

There was raw milk camembert, saucissson and liver pate. Both loaves of bread were from Le Banneton, Vientiane's best bakery. And because I was with Christophe, who is Lao but who spent most of his life in France, lots of pastis. All of this was enjoyed in a bamboo hut at the edge of the Nam Lik:

The other gentlemen controls the cross-river ferry here, and in his youth was a revolutionary fighter, having fired his gun at American planes in Vieng Xai in the late 1960s. He ate more camembert than I expected.

In addition to being a fan of pastis, Christophe is also an excellent driver, speaks fluent French and decent English and knows Laos like the back of his van.

Christophe Kittirath +856 21-223 663, +856 20-550 4604 laowheels@yahoo.co.uk

Les Boutiques Scoubidou Th Tha Deua +856 214 073 8am-9pm

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How To Make: A country-style Lao meal

More and more communities in rural Laos are opening up their doors to foreign visitors in the form of homestays. Ban Hat Khai, a village located at the edge of Phu Khao Khuai National Protected Area, in central Laos, is an example of this. I spent a night with a family there a week or so ago, and in addition to meeting some very nice people and gaining an insight into rural Lao life, I also got to witness some Lao food made firsthand. The resulting three dishes comprised one of the better meals I had in Laos.

The first recipe I witnessed is essentially a 'dip' of grilled tomatoes that is as simple as it is delicious, and is also very Lao. The second two dishes took full advantage of two live ducks picked up at the market.  On previous visits to Laos I hadn't really noticed how fond the Lao are of duck, but on this trip I seemed to see it everywhere, particularly grilled, which other than Bali, where I think it's technically roasted, is something haven't really encountered elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Jaew Mak Len Tomatoes, 4 Medium-sized chilies, 5 Shallots, 5 Garlic, 2 small heads Salt, to taste Fish sauce, to taste Cilantro, green onion, chopped

Skewer the tomatoes and grill over a coals until the exterior is slightly charred and the inside is tender. Toss the chilies, shallots and garlic directly into the coals. When slightly burnt on the outside and soft inside, remove from coals, and along with the tomato, peel off all the burnt bits. In a mortar and pestle, pound grilled ingredients together into a rough paste/dip and season to taste with salt and fish sauce (and MSG, if desired). Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion and serve with sticky rice and par-boiled vegetables such as green beans or cabbage.

Tom Pet and Laap Pet Ducks, 2 Ginger, peeled and sliced, one 5cm section Galingale, peeled and sliced, one 5cm section Shallots, peeled, 6 Chillies, red, 3 Lemongrass, bruised, 2 stalks MSG, to taste Fish sauce, to taste Small sour tomatoes, halved, 10 Young tamarind leaves

Cilantro, one small bunch, chopped Phak hom laap (a local herb; substitute with mint), equal to amount of cilantro, chopped Green onions, 4 stalks, chopped Shallots, 4, sliced Khao khua (ground roast sticky rice), about 2 Tbsp Fish sauce, to taste MSG, to taste Lime juice, to taste

Kill ducks. Remove innards and feathers. Joint ducks, separating the bones from the meat. Skewer the meat bits and grill over coals until fully cooked.

For the tom pet, a duck broth, while meat is grilling, bring a large pot of water, enough to accommodate the bones from both ducks, to a boil. Add ginger, galingale, shallots, chilies and lemongrass. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Season to taste with MSG and fish sauce, add tomatoes and young tamarind leaves. The resulting broth should be equal parts meaty and tart.

For the laap, when the meat is grilled, chop finely and mix with the chopped herbs. Add sliced shallots, khao khua, fish sauce, MSG and lime juice to taste. Serve with a platter of additional fresh herbs (more cilantro, a few sprigs of dill, mint) and sticky rice.

If you're interested in taking part in a homestay in Ban Hat Khai, information on visiting Phu Khao Khuai is available at the Tourist Information Centre in Vientiane.

Nam Kading, April 21, 2010

Boat driver on the Nam Kading River, Laos

You can hear some fascinating stories when you talk to the older generation in Laos. This guy, who now works as a boat driver along the Nam Kading river in central Laos, helped the Vietnamese fight against the French colonialists in 1959. He still remembers some Vietnamese and after the war had 10 children.

Dog trucks

If you spend enough time on Rte 8, the Lao highway corridor linking Thailand and Vietnam,  you’re bound to encounter huge lorries bound for Vietnam carrying cages filled with hundreds of dogs.

According to this fascinating four-part investigative report and video by journalists Patrick Winn and Pailin Wedel, the trade in dogs as meat in Southeast Asia actually begins in northeastern Thailand, where stray dogs are caught on a daily basis by what many consider a local mafia. Most Thais don't eat dog meat themselves, but many contribute to the trade anyway, seeing it as a way to do away with pests and alerting dog catchers of stray dogs in exchange for plastic buckets or cash. The trade is technically illegal, but local police choose to look the other way, claiming that enforcing the drug trade or illegal immigration is a better use of their resources.

The caught dogs are eventually brought to Tha Rae, a town on the banks of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom, where they are temporarily held in pens, graded by quality, before being packed into wire cages and loaded onto a truck. A typical truck can hold as many as 1000 dogs, with five or more dogs crammed into each cage:

The trucks then cross the Mekong on a barge, beginning a journey across Laos, via Rte 8, that can take up to a couple days. The dogs aren’t fed or given water during the trip, and some die along the way. I encountered one of these trucks (pictured at the top of this post) three times along Rte 8 one unlucky day, and the smell of dog fur and excrement coupled with the endless sound of howling and fighting was truly heartbreaking. A Lao man we spoke to near the border with Vietnam claimed that the trucks pass every single day. “Some days I see four trucks,” he added, causing me wonder how there are even enough stray dogs to supply this demand. Arriving in Vietnam, the dogs can be worth as much ten times the price for which they were obtained in Thailand, making the trade highly lucrative. Winn and Wedel estimate that this particular cross-border trade in dog meat could be worth as much as US$3.6 million a year.

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.