[ Travel ] Foodie Report: Luang Prabang, Laos

Since we spent three days and two nights in Luang Prabang, we we’re able to “eat our way” around town. We tried to sample the best that Lao cuisine has to offer without breaking the bank by avoiding high end restaurants and instead opted for backpacker friendly food places. Since most of the restaurants have menu books with photos of dishes and a brief description of what’s in them, we pretty much knew what to expect and what we’re paying for before we sit down. As much as we could, we also tried to eat where the locals go.








One of our favorite place is the row of fruit stalls that sells various fruit shakes, baguette sandwiches, and crepes. We would go there everyday and try various combination of fruits and spices and just sit and watch people go by.



Thongmoun Aunt  This noodle place is located at the end of a narrow alleyway along the main road in Luang Prabang. They serve a really yummy noodle dish called Kaopeerk with chicken, vegetables, and lemon. I usually eat my noodles how it’s served without adding anything since I’m not one to experiment and risk making my food inedible. My friend however kept on piling spices and adding fish sauce and what-not til the soup’s color becomes a pale shade of red and swore it tasted so much better. And he’s right. It was really  a steal for only 10,000 Kip.



We also had a good bowl of rice porridge just outside the same alleyway. We broke an egg over it, poured a few drops of squid sauce, ginger, lemon, and chili sauce and voila! A hearty breakfast for less than 15,000 Kip. Should you need extra carbs, freshly made donuts can be had for 2,000 kip/piece.






While checking out the night market one day, we discovered an open-air vegetable buffet that’s really famous amongst the backpacker community. It’s easy to spot since it’s located along one of the back alleys and is open daily from around 5pm onward. For 10,000 Kip a plate, you can have your fill of vegetables, noodles, and salad. Pay extra for one of Asia’s best beer for 10,000 Kip/bottle.



As always, I indulged on fried noodles. I can almost still taste the peanuts with the stir fried vegetables and flat noodles. There are three variants: prawns, chicken, beef. I can’t really say which ones I like best though.

My memory card was corrupted when I got back from the trip and unfortunately I was not able to recover some of my photos but to sum it up, I really came to love Lao cuisine and I think I might have to do a bit of research and find some Lao restaurants here in our country stat!





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