Going to Laos for Indian Food

Although there may only be one completely veg*n restaurant in LPB, there are at least three Indian joints. Two of them I only ate at once, but the smallest one (Nisha) I ate at weekly.

The first dish I had there was curried mixed vegetables. The vegetables included potatoes, carrots, long beans, and black beans.

Chana Masala: I loved this dish, especially when paired with roti. And the chickpea/wheat combo is complete protein!

Paneer is of course an Indian cheese, but at at least two of the restaurants in LPB, the menu described the fried paneer as bits of tofu. I guess they had easier access to tofu than to milk products, since it is my understanding that people in Laos don't consume very much dairy. Anyways, it was still a good snack.

Baigan Bharta: my least favorite Indian dish of the whole trip. Thank goodness I ordered it with rice or I wouldn’t have been able to finish—boring, monotonous texture. For some reason, it also wasn’t as tasty as other things I ate at Nisha.

Aloo Baingan: my favorite Indian dish of the whole trip. 

I ate a lot of samosas. A lot. Of samosas. They became my comfort food; a bit of stability in the constant change from restaurant to restaurant (which I found rather taxing after about a week of eating out for every frickin' meal).

Look at that spice-stuffed interior. Such savory goodness...

Made fresh--thus the long wait time at basically every restaurant in LPB--and apparently stuffed with whatever was lying around in the kitchen. The potato and long bean version is below.

Also in this series: savory foods I ate in Laos & local Laotian foods I had the pleasure and privilege to experience.

Local Laotian Food

Lovely Laos citizens kindly shared some food with me. 

A snack food in Laos: raw green mango and cumquats dipped in chili paste.

 

Noodle soup is a common dish. There were dark, cooked-down greens contrasting with fresh herbs, and soft noodles occasionally countered by crisp bean sprouts. But, the best thing about this soup was the scrumptious chili-peanut paste sitting all pretty on top. The spice of the chilies and fat from the peanut balanced very well.

It is my understanding that, in Laos, no matter what ethnic group one comes from, one eats communally.

It goes down like this: You get your own bowl and spoon. And, you otherwise eat with your hands. Grab a large chunk of rice from the steaming basket, keeping it in one hand while pinching off smaller bits, forming it into a little ball, and then dipping it into dishes to pick up other yummy bits. Indeed, you can walk down the street and see local people eating in exactly this way. (Geesh, I’m nosy!)

Anywho, the dishes on the table are as follows: 

-A basket of purple-ish rice.

-A bowl of green long beans in some sort of soy-like sauce.

-Wilted cabbage in a savory sauce, although our eating companion Mr. Nii said the tomato was a bit abnormal for Laotian food.

-The two little bowls were a dipping paste that tasted sort of like pico de gallo, minus the citrus and onion. It was very good.

-The other dishes were a fish dish and some other meat dish that I obviously didn't eat.

-The thing that looks like fish bones is actually bamboo shoot soup.

 

I was super excited to read about fried river algae before I departed. Then, the opportunity arose to actually eat some.

Let's back up here, and discuss how it is prepared. It is pulled out of some river somewhere, harvested with who knows what kind of method, perhaps in a way that strips whole banks of habitat. It is then dried in the sun, formed into flat pieces, and fried. Maybe it is adorned with some sesame seeds; maybe it’s seasoned with some slivers of garlic during the frying process...

The point is that it tastes like kale chips. (Because I know that is precisely what you’ve been thinking since you read what the description of the photo.) It tastes dark and a little bitter. You bite into it and wonder why you ate that, but then the aftertaste leaves you wanting more. So you have another, and another, and try not to think about the toxins you are ingesting.

Yeah, I know I shouldn’t have eaten it. Especially given all the things I know about toxins in Asian rivers, I knew I shouldn’t eat it. Sure, it is fried, and thus one need not worry about biological threats, but think of the industrial runoff upstream and the fact that detergent sulfates and etcetera run directly into the river from the developing country sewage system.

Why in fuck's sake did I do it?! WHY?!

But the NOVELTY! The novelty--I could not resist it. I mean, I ate the equivalent of pond scum. Isn't that exciting?! 

Also in this series: savory meals I ate in LPB, Indian food I ate in LPB, and food I ate at LPB's veg*n restaurant.

Savory Laos

For my first meal, I learned that there is fried rice everywhere. I'm fairly certain local people don't eat it, but tourists must be accommodated, hence it makes its appearance. I didn't consider myself a tourist--but no one ever does--yet I wasn't opposed to eating it on the first day in Luang Prabang and maybe once or twice after that.









There was this lovely place off of the Khan River called the Arthouse Cafe. It has a great atmosphere that is somehow so relaxing. [I'll stop my blathering about it right there.] I, by and large, only ate breakfast there, but also had lunch a few times. Below is the small size "Penne Salad," which comes with a bit of bread and the cheese on the side.

Sautéed eggplant from the Arthouse Cafe, served with sticky rice served in the steamer basket it was cooked in. I asked for it to be made spicy, but the chef thought that, as a Westerner, I was just joking. Nice of the chef to be considerate, but fortunately the manager of the restaurant asked me about my meal and subsequently made me some spicy soy sauce with fresh chilies. Much appreciated!

One night I wanted to go to the vegetarian restaurant of LPB and walked all the way down the peninsula only to find it closed. Irritated that I was all sweaty with no yummy food consumed. So, on the way back I  stopped by the Belgian House for a small bowl of fries and a pineapple "fruitshake." (The menu assures you that the potatoes are fried in vegetable oil.) Note that one must pay for the ketchup, because it is, after all, imported and not locally consumed or produced.

There is a small coffee chain in Laos and Vietnam called Joma. This is the only place in the city--that I am aware of--that has hummus. It takes the form of a very good "Roasted Veggie and Hummus Wrap," which I had twice. Interestingly, the restaurant is in a closed-air building (fairly rare for LPB which prefers outdoor seating) and it is air-conditioned (extremely rare). If you stay in the tropics longer than a week, you simply become accustomed to the humid heat, and don't mind it. So, the cool air is a stark contrast to walk into when you only ever get to feel a chill at dawn. But I digress... 

Roasted bell peppers, mushrooms, a few onions, and olives. Not nearly enough hummus--I want globs!

 

It seems like I spent my time seeking out foods I was most comfortable with, but I did actually eat Laotian food, prepared by actual Luang Prabangians. I swear! 

Also in this series:  Going to Laos for Indian Food

The Sole Vegan Restaurant in Luang Prabang, Laos

In March I was living in Luang Prabang, Laos. Consequently, there is a gap in the post archive. (The insanity of it all--blogs going un-updated! Unprecedented!)

I moved there precisely so I could have interesting material for this blog. (Actually, I was doing some career stuff, but mind your own business about that.) It was an expensive pastime, but hey, blogs done for fun with no profit are totally worth that level of monetary investment.

On to the yield of the experience itself.

You'd think that a food culture located in SE Asia and surrounded by Buddhists would have some sort of inclination towards vegetarianism, but Laos will prove you wrong. The local food culture is very much meat-based, all the way from the seasoning stage with padaek (fermented fish paste) to the ingredient composing the entrée (lots of fish, chicken, plenty of insects, and some pork).

BUT...As it is around the world, if you stay in a city on your visit, you can find some sort of accommodation for meatlessmeals. (Thank goodness for Indian expats.) Although, whether there is variety to be found in the dairyless or eggless options is a different matter completely.

In Luang Prabang, Laos (LPB), the best accommodation for the certainty of vegan meals is at Oasis Vegetarian Restaurant off of the Khan River near the head of the peninsula where the Khan meets the Mekong. It truly is an oasis in a city with bowls of pig intestines flying everywhere. 

 

Also, local people will think you are very strange for not eating meat and passing up egg in your stir-fry. They’re still lovely people though, and will most likely try to accommodate your requests even with your relationship's language barrier.

During my month-long stay, I ate there several times before they ostensibly closed up due to the tourist high season ending.

This is a shame, because in Laotian food culture there is a minced meat salad called "laap" that is served cold, and Oasis had a mushroom version of the dish that I wanted to try. Ah well. There were lots of things I wanted to do while there that didn’t come to pass--such is life.  

Onwards to the food!

Yellow noodles with fried soy protein: I really wanted noodles the first time I went to Oasis. So, I chose this dish. I didn't really like the crisp soy protein, because I was in the mood for something more akin to tofu. Still tasty, especially with the fresh purple/Thai basil.

Curried tofu: These big hunks of tofu were welcomed guests in my mouth. Other tofu offerings around the city were smaller cuts. Poo to that.

I also happily slurped down this sauce, even if it wasn’t as thick as actual curry usually would be.

Vegetarian pork: It was interesting. A little dry. Maybe needed a sauce to absorb into the "pork." There were noodles and Mung bean sprouts beneath, and crushed peanuts sprinkled on top.

 

And I saved the best for last: Mock Duck in Five Spice Sauce. I fucking-well loved this dish. There was just something about it. I even think I am going to have to attempt to recreate it here at home...