Your Favorite Lao Food?

April 29, 2011 | Author Lyrical Lao

“Do you live to eat or eat to live?”, someone once asked me. My answer: both. They are interdependent IMO. One has to eat in order to survive, therefore you live to eat. Food is essential to living and I don’t mind because I love to eat, especially international food. Of course being Laotian, I grew up on Lao food (sort of). My favorite Lao food, or food in general, are desserts. So I guess I could say “Nam Waan” (translates to sweet water). They are coconut milk desserts consisting of three main components: coconut milk (duh), sugar, and the extra stuff. The extras can be pretty much anything; usually they are chopped fruits (pineapples, jack-fruits, bananas, coconut meats, palm seeds, lychees, etc.). Other additives can be roots (taro, malanga), jellies, tapioca, beans, even squashes and noodles (cooked of course). I like my servings with ice.

Typcial answers for most people would be “Tam Mak Hoong” (papaya salad) or “Laap” (minced meat). Papaya salad is to Laos like sushi is to Japan. The stinkier and spicier, the better; right? Other notable favorites are “Khao Piak Sen” (rice vermicelli soup), “Khao Poon” (noodle soup), “Or Lam” (vegetable stew), “Jaew Bong” (chili paste), “Kai Pan” (Lao seaweed), “Nor Mai” (bamboo shoot stew), “Nam Khao” (coconut nam sausage fried rice), and “Pho” (Lao version). My least favorites are raw dishes, especially uncooked laap. What are your favorite (or least favorite) Lao food?

Video

I do not own these pictures. They were googled online and are from many blogs and food websites.

Posted in Off-Topic | Tags: Food

2 Responses to “Your Favorite Lao Food?”

iKhone:

April 29, 2011 at 8:53 pm

Tam Mak Hoong ~

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Thoe:

February 5, 2012 at 11:21 pm

Keap Moo = Pork rhines, especially the ones made from the ears. Tam Mak Hoong is also great, and I so miss Jeaw Bong with sticky rice. Thanks for the video, I am in Germany and am missing all this food. I never learned how to cook with my mom but have been looking at all the different channels on You Tube, Itkman and homemadethaifood are great channels to subscribe to if you want to learn how to make Laos/Thai food. Also check out laocook.com – which has a lot of recipes, you just have to search around the site. And also check out – http://thai-laos-food.blogspot.com/ you can order her recipe book and DVD’s for $35 and it has 60 different recipes.

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