Food in Laos

Watermelon & pepper freeze

Lao food is great!  It's very fresh and tasty.  My Lao colleagues take meal breaks seriously; meetings come to a complete halt at 12.30pm and 5.00pm regardless of where proceedings are - this can be challenging at times, but it does mean you know you'll never be hungry!

Front: Salad with bean curd (tofu); Rear: stir fried fish

Lao rice is differs from Jasmine or Basmati - it's sticky rice, with a high gluten content, and for many Lao is a marker of cultural identity, much as vegiemite or marmite are.  Sticky rice is soaked for 12 hours before being gently steamed in a bamboo steamer.  Small individual portions are served in small bamboo baskets.

Sticky rice with lamb salad

Green papaya salad

The most basic traditional meal is sticky rice, khao, with (very spicy!) green papaya salad and a chilli chutney.  Most people would augment this with roast chicken, pork or, occasionally, mutton (it's not easy to avoid meat in Laos).  When I'm travelling in rural areas this is my lunch most days; for dinner I often have a stir fry or fish...there's a lot of river fish in Laos also.

Khao gam

Most sticky rice grown these days is improved varieties - they're bred for increased resistance to pests and diseases, high yields and shorter growing seasons.  Some traditional sticky rice varieties still exist, including black sticky rice, khao gam, which has a denser, chewier texture, and is often more aromatic than white varieties.  Black sticky rice is often cooked with coconut milk and served with mango - it's really, really tasty and looks amazing too!

Fruit-granola-yoghurt

Dragonfruit and watermelon at my hotel

Omelette and baguette

In Vientiane my breakfast is either omelette and fruit at my hotel (if I'm in a hurry) or fruit-granola-yoghurt and decent coffee at a nearby cafe.

In Savannakhet I have traditional Lao coffee (delicately balanced on a layer of condensed milk, which comes accompanied with unlimited black tea) and a scrambled egg baguette: scrambled egg is layered with chilli sauce, cucumber and coriander.  It's a taste sensation and my favourite cafe on the main street does a roaring trade - it's a great place to people watch and wake up :).

Lao style coffee...with tea

Breakfast of champions!

The view at breakfast

Fried river weed is another great dish: river algae is boiled and formed into large sheets, sprinkled with sesame seeds and left to air dry before being fried and served with a chilli dipping sauce.

Sheets of river weed drying in the sun

Crispy deep fried riverweed

One of the remaining legacies of French colonial rule is the abundance of patisseries selling excellent croissants and pastries.  Mostly they have pretty good coffee too.

There are a group of restaurants across Laos and Cambodia which train street children to work in kitchens and as wait staff.  They also specialise in serving innovative twists on traditional Lao dishes and are a great way to try lots of new flavours!

Vegetable dumplings and dipping sauce

Dessert: purple puffed rice, mango and green tea mousse

More dessert: puffed rice cake with chocolate-berry mousse

On my last visit I tried a lot of new-to-me drinks, including carrot lemons with lemon (surprisingly un-lemony given the name); tamarind juice (very refreshing); rosella juice (floral and slightly astringent); and many fruit freezes, which are a great way to cool off and fill up!

Tamarind (L) and rosella (R) juices

Carrot lemons with lemon

There are some very good Tasty Snacks which often come out at meetings - these are set with agar agar and flavoured with taro (if they're purple) and other plant-based  ingredients.  Oddly, this is one of the few areas where vegetarians are well catered for.