What is Lao Food?

If you are a first-time visitor to Southeast Asia (or even if you have spent some time here) you may not have discovered the distinguishing features of Lao cuisine.

That's because many tourist cafes and hotels cater for Western preferences, or offer variations of Thai cuisine. Laos, landlocked, with no port to trade with the outside world and a small emigrant population, has until recently, not spread its culture globally as have Thailand and Vietnam. So the nature of the food and eating style has remained hidden.

Riverside Dinner of Bamboo and Various Dishes

The cuisine is based on fresh foods, with meats and fish grilled or steamed. Low in fat and high in greens, vegetables and herbs are an integral element of any major meal. The fresh flavours that you will encounter again and again in true Lao cuisine are galangal, lime juice, lemongrass, kaffir lime, local basil varieties, coriander, garlic, ginger and surprisingly, mint and dill. Visiting any food market demonstrates the range and importance of these vital ingredients. As the water levels in the rivers drop, cultivation of vegetables in the rich riverbank soil begins. The strongest flavour the Western palate notices is padaek, or fish sauce made from fermented fish and used as a universal salting agent.

The integrity of Lao cuisine is demonstrated by the fact that despite over a hundred years of French rule, their cuisine never took hold in Laos. Though there are a few exceptions: the baguette has certainly come to stay, and an emulsion-style sauce similar to mayonnaise features in Luang Prabang's famous watercress salad. Rich Lao coffee, so successfully grown in Laos' Boloven Plateau, has also become a staple, though its manner of serving has adapted to local taste.

Khao Jee - Tasty French Baguette Sandwich

Thai cuisine, spicier, liquid, and with greater use of coconut milk, produces richer and more oily dishes. Curries are not as prevalent in Laos as they are in Thailand, though you may find them here in main street cafes frequented by tourists.

There's a practical reason traditional Lao cuisine does not centre on liquid or oily dishes: the staple sticky or glutinous rice. Sticky rice is eaten with the fingers; the consistency makes it difficult to eat any other way. So to keep hands clean and dry, to avoid dropping rice into communal dishes, the style of cooking has adapted to suit. Rice is rolled into balls, there is much wrapping of ingredients in fresh leaves, and the drier grilled or steamed meats are enhanced by the delicious range of sauces into which the rice is dipped. Foods are often served at room temperature, perhaps also to suit eating with the fingers.

Special utensils are used for steaming sticky rice: an inverted bamboo basket holds the rice over a funnel-shaped pot in which the water is boiled. Charcoal braziers are common, and the smell of burning coals often permeates the air.

Near the Forests, Lao People Eat What they Can Find. Tasty Snake!

Spoons are used only for eating standard white rice dishes and soups. In the countryside, most people eat sticky rice exclusively, whereas in towns both sticky and white rice are cooked, as a result of the relatively recent introduction of Chinese-style stir-fries and Thai curries which are accompanied by regular rice.

Chopsticks are used only for noodles. Noodle soup (or pho) was introduced from Vietnam, and has certainly taken hold. You will see the popular noodle soup being eaten as a morning dish, with large plates of fresh greens and herbs as an accompaniment.

Lao Noodles - Khao Poon

A mortar and pestle is an essential item in the Lao kitchen. While food processors and blenders are common in the West, the pounding motion of the ceramic Lao utensil releases flavours in a way the processor cannot match. Wooden equivalents are better suited to grinding and can't achieve the same effect. Follow the rhythmic sound of pounding when you hear it and chances are it will lead you to a street stall where some local variation on the traditional tam mak hoong is being prepared from shredded green papaya, chillies, garlic, tomatoes and assorted herbs to taste. A large swig of pungent padaek is essential!

Lao meals are served communally, with a range of dishes spread to share. Most commonly there will be a soup, grilled or steamed meat or fish, the ubiquitous sticky rice served in a bamboo basket and always a large plate of herbs and the many and varied green leafy vegetables that abound. Dipping sauces, usually a spicy chilli paste accompany the meal.

Village Communal Eating

You will undoubtedly encounter laap, the national dish made from finely chopped meat, fish or poultry, flavoured with lemongrass and herbs. Traditionally made with raw meats, it is now readily served cooked to accommodate Western tastes, but the distinctive taste of mint is a reminder that this herb was widely used to impart freshness to uncooked foods in the past.

Although in general you will most commonly encounter fish, pork, poultry and buffalo, Lao people have a long tradition of eating wild foods. As a peasant economy, any available wildlife in the forests has traditionally been regarded as a source of food, often eaten raw. An early morning visit to most food markets will reveal some surprising (and to Western sensibilities often distressing) varieties of meats, birds and reptiles on offer.

Laos Call This Meat "Golden Deer"

On the other hand, the aromatic local coffee, a strong filtered brew served with sweetened condensed milk and a black tea chaser, can become addictive.

The potent local whisky, Lao Lao is brewed from rice and consumed on festive occasions. In country villages, Lao Hai, or ‘jar alcohol' is a sweeter, fruitier rice wine. It is usually drunk straight from the clay pot in which it was fermented, through two long bamboo straws.

Rural Lao Youths Celebrating with Lao Hai

And finally, no article on Lao cuisine can overlook the delightful refreshing Beer Lao, described by the Bangkok Post as “the Dom Perignon of Asian Beers”. Universally acclaimed, it is one of Asia's best-kept secrets, and is a delightful accompaniment to a glorious Lao sunset, perhaps by the Mekong, at the end of the day or listening to the evening chanting of the monks in the temple.

About the Authors

Joy Ngeuamboupha

Joy grew up in a village a few hours out of Luang Prabang, the second youngest of nine brothers and sisters. By Western standards, his life has been incredibly tough: as a child he was left to fend for himself, finding foods in the forests, and at age eleven, was dispatched to Luang Prabang by his father with just four thousand kip and instructions to become a novice monk. It was the first time he had left his village, seen a town as large as Luang Prabang, or laid eyes on a foreigner. Despite this difficult start, Joy flourished in the temple, taking naturally to cooking, learning English, and completing high school. Upon leaving the Wat, Joy took up several opportunities in the hospitality industry. While working as a DJ, he met Caroline and inspired in her a love of Lao food and a determination to present the relatively unknown Lao native cuisine to visitors. Joy and Caroline are working on a cookbook to present all this uncharted information and their partnership has blossomed into their innovative restaurant Tamarind: A Taste of Laos.

Caroline Gaylard

After travelling and living in many parts of the world (but not nearly as many as she would have liked), Caroline decided to settle in Laos. An Australian nomad, she had worked as an events manager, as a tour leader throughout South East Asia and as a writer for an internet travel guide. The beauty of Luang Prabang and the gentle friendliness of the people was the drawcard, and having had the job of checking out restaurants and hotels for travellers, she realised that it was difficult to access traditional Lao cuisine as one would experience it in a local home.