Thoughts From Laura's Kitchen and beyond: Lao Food and Rock Climbing

Over the weekend we were off again so decided to take advantage of the slightly cooler weather here and take a Lao cooking class as well as go rock climbing for a day.

Amazing colors

The Lao cooking class is run through one of the best restaurants in Luang Prabang called Tamarind. After a short 20 minute tuktuk ride to the cooking school we were ready to learn to make a few Lao dishes. The setting of the cooking class was beautiful! The fresh herbs came from the garden growing right on property and the backdrop was the mountains. There were 9 other people in our class. The first thing we made was Jeow which is a dipping sauce for your food. Anna made one with tomato and I made one with eggplant. The ingredients are cooked over an open wood flame and it was hot trying to roast the vegetables! Most food here is spicy and the spice level comes in terms of the numbers of red vs green chilies. Both of them were quite tasty to try. We then learned to make Mok which meat or vegetables steamed in banana leaves. I did Mekong fish and Anna did cloud ear mushrooms. While those were steaming in a bamboo steamer we then made chicken stuffed in lemongrass. The lemongrass is a long herb that we cut to make a little basket. We then stuffed the baskets and cooked them in hot oil. Last but no least was dessert of purple rice in coconut milk topped with tamarind sauce and fruit. We actually made the coconut milk ourselves which was much easier then I expected. After making all this food, we sat down to dinner to enjoy our hard work. Both of us left with a belly full of tasty food! We liked it so much, we bought some of the ingredients to bring home. They also sent us home with a recipe book so we can attempt to recreate at home. If you want to try the food, let me know. I am always happy to have a dinner party.

Laura climbing

On Sunday we met up with a group from the hospital for a day long rock climbing adventure at Gecko Wall. It was about a 20 minute boat ride south of the city then a crazy trek up to the wall. Neither Anna nor I have done a lot of outdoor climbing so looking at the wall was a little daunting. In our group, about 4 of them were quite experienced climbers and set the routes for us to top rope climb. It was some pretty tough climbing but the views at the top were amazing! During the day we sustained a few bumps and bruises but had a lot of fun. We then enjoyed a nice cruise up the river while the sun was setting over the mountains. It was quite the day but am I sore today!

We only have 2 weeks left in our trip and it has been quite the adventure here. We can't wait to share our stories and the 2000+ pictures and videos. We hope everyone is safe and healthy!