Food glorious food

Coming to Laos I had a few concerns; were the toilets just holes in the ground or westerns style, how much could I sweat before I melted and what would I eat.  I had heard somewhere that fish soup was about all there was and that made me very nervous.  I am happy to report that I have not even seen fish soup and the toilets are western style.  I am still not sure how much I can sweat but its a lot.

Most important is the food.  It has far exceeded my expectations.  I am tired or rice but luckily there are other options.  We are staying near the river street which is filled with fancy restaurants by Lao standards.  If we got 2 blocks, we have a bakery, pizza place, French restaurant and traditional Lao food.

For lunch at the hospital, most of the staff goes to the "cafeteria" which is really a mom and pop style restaurant.  While they speak very little english, pointing has lead to a variety of tasty treats for a little more then the cost of ramen.  In the shop there is also a variety of treats and drinks to round out your meal.  I have become quite fond of the vegetables and pork/chicken in broth.  The pho is also a winner.

Lao is know for its fish, Mekong seeweed, papaya salad and Mok.  I have attempted the papaya salad and Mok which were both a surprise.  I expected a papaya salad to be sweet with big chunks of papaya.  To my surprise it was unripe green papayas and was spicy!  Mok is a traditional dish with meat, lemongrass and egg steamed in a large banana leaf.  This was surprisingly good.  

Chicken Mok

On the main drag through town you can find just about anything you want.  There are many ex-pat restaurants around town as well including a speak-easy bar with great gin, a new tex-mex restaurant that had Chipolte style burritos and an India place we have yet to try.  Two days a week there is a place called Secret Pizza that is down a random dark road but was a nice taste of home. The best ice cream in town is called U Like (gotta love the name) and 2 scoops are 8000Kip or $1.

For now we are off to learn how to make our own Lao food at the Tamarind Cooking Class.

Lao Food pyramid