[ Travel ] 一Foodie Report: Vientiane, Laos

My friend said the guidebook mentioned that Lao food taste bland compared to its neighboring countries. Excuse me random writer but we beg to differ! I’ve never eaten so much Lao food in my life and I enjoyed each and every morsel. In fact, I looked forward to each meal and every time we’d sat down to eat you’ll hear us let out a series of OMGs. Sigh, I miss my Lao fried noodles.

LUNCH 


Fried Sweet Thai Basil (15000LAK) I thought it’s the sweeter version of Thailand’s Chicken with Basil but thankfully I was wrong. It was still too spicy and sooo good.


Pat Tha (15000LAK) This was described in the menu as fried noodle Thai style with seafood, pork, beef, and shrimp.


Lao Style Noodle Soup (10000LAK) Our new friend Eli whom we met at the train station ordered this one and I remember him saying it was okay.

Even though it was a very warm afternoon, my friend couldn’t resist and tried the famous Beer Lao (10,000LAK)  right away. I read somewhere it was once declared by Times Magazine as Asia’s best beer. I had Coke for 7000LAK and Eli had Pepsi for 5000 LAK.

DINNER



We had our first sticky rice and it came in this very crafty container that I was tempted to take home with me. I found out later that these woven baskets are sold in the local market in Luang Prabang.


Fried Wide Noodle with Shrimp (60,000LAK) Told ya our Lao escapade is gonna be a series of fried Lao noodles in every delicious incarnations. This one has wide noodles with shrimps, carrots, bits of scrambled eggs, sweet onions, tomatoes, and other green leafy vegetables.


Laap  or Larb (80,000 LAK)  This came highly recommended by our Lonely Planet guidebook so we decided to give it a try. As it turns out this traditional dish is the “National Dish” of Laos. We had the fish version of Laap and it’s basically minced fish meat with basil, cilantro, fish paste, and chilies. It went along so well with the sticky rice.

We were only in Vientiane for a day on our way to Luang Prabang but it was a good introduction to Lao cuisine.

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