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...