Food of Laos

One of the best things about visiting a new country is trying the new foods. Lao food is similar to Thai food and some familiar staples are available at nearly all restaurants. Khao pad kai (fried rice with chicken), Pad Thai (fried noodle with chicken),

and spring rolls are popular options on all menus. Spring rolls come fresh or fried and the fried option is often impossible to find if you arrive to dinner late.

A popular breakfast option for locals is fue (rice-noodle soup) which often comes with your choice of beef, chicken, or pork and a bundle of greens that can be added as desired.

Our breakfast of choice in Laos was thanks to the French. Baguette vendors sold wonderful sandwiches throughout the country. Northern Laos offered egg and tuna sandwiches with lettuce and tomato and from Vientiane and below, pate sandwich with cabbage salad became the primary option. Regardless of where we were, Laura always begged for her morning omelette sandwich and somehow, vendors always provided.

Since we primarily traveled along the Mekong, it wasn't hard to find BBQ fish.

Charcoal grills run for lunch and dinner and cook up pork, chicken, and fish. There isn't a bus ride in Laos where a vendor won't offer you a BBQ-pasted chicken for your trip. My favorite new dish in Laos is laap salad, minced meat tossed with lime juice, green onions, garlic, and sometimes chilies. It is often eaten with sticky rice and the meat selection is duck, chicken, beef, pork, or fish. This meal was beef laap with steamed rice.

In the more densely populated areas, buffet style dishes are offered with steamed or sticky rice.

These buffet stands have a loyal client base as they are packed once they are open. Regarding the extremely rare and strange, the pumpkin burger is a popular tourist option on the 4,000 islands. The burger consists of ground pumpkin fried with egg. It's put onto a baguette and topped with cucumbers; you just need to add ketchup or chili sauce.

When on the road, there is nothing better than stashing up on snacks. It's important to find out what the locals like because Pringles prices are through the roof. I hit the fruit stand first where fresh oranges, bananas, and pineapple are always available. There is nothing like Southeast Asia fat bananas to recuperate from a hard day's travel.

In Laos, fresh tamarind is sold by the bagful making for a simple, tasty snack. A favorite for us is longan.

The brown peel is removed to reveal a tasty, grape-textured, white flesh.

The flesh surrounds a hard pit so don't bit it like a grape! Besides fruit, we often purchase the fried sticky rice with honey swirl for our busrides.

This tastes like a mixture of rice krispy treats and rice cakes of the United States. Chinese influence has brought fried dough to Laos. Bread stands offer all forms of Chinese doughnuts, which are tasty but rarely match a fresh Dunkin' Donut.

On one of our walks, Laura enjoyed one vendor's fried coconut, egg, and meat or veggie pie.

There were tasty but have been difficult to find elsewhere. Finally, to truly eat like a local, I tested my willpower by eating kai lu. We had a difficult time finding kai lu despite locals telling us it was readily available everywhere. The kai lu egg is kept in a steaming stainless steel kettle with other boiled eggs and therefore, isn't obvious to the clueless tourist. The duck embryo snack should first be cracked and the embryonic fluids sucked out.

Then, locals will typically take a small spoon and stir up the inside of the egg from the hole. I broke open the egg to reveal the embryo.

The snack is like eating a huge egg yoke with a couple of cold sores adding some flavor.

After kai lu, finding dessert is a must. The banana pancake is available although it resembles a French crepe more than Thailand's rotii. Stands serving sweet drinks like Thai tea, coconut milk, and various gelatins are popular. They allow customers to invent any mixture they would like. It was difficult to identify the juices so I kept my selections simple and just ordered the bright orange stuff.

The most common dessert stand is one that has numerous multi-colored snack in bowls.

Upon purchase, the customer selects two to three bowls. The bowls contain gelatin-like balls, beans, tapioca, and other unidentifiable glowing substances. The vendor then puts a scoop of all the selected items into a bowl and mixes it with sweetened coconut milk. Regardless of the selection made, it is AWESOME!

Next, it is off to Cambodia for new trials, tribulations, and treats!

Now, a break from the travel blog to pay tribute to a dear friend. Johnny Cockroach (see previous post for more on Johnny) passed away the other day in a fearsome attack. In memory of his dear soul, I have written an ode.

Ode to Johnny Cockroach

Oh, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Cockroach
Why do people wish to poach?
Your eyebrows were sleak and slender
and your outer shell strong as a fender.
We met each other at Tribal guesthouse.
You crawled the floor just like a mouse.
In our room, you met your match,
a Spaniard with a killing itch to scratch.
When she picked up that size 11 shoe,
I thought it was doom and gloom for you.
But then you scampered and you scattered.
The Spaniard search leaving bags torn and tattered.
Grinning, you watched from the armoire shadow
as her evil eyes scanned with the speed of an arrow.
What was this crazy Spaniard doing?
Did she want you as a necklace, brooch, or earring?
The next night came, the room full of silence.
Maybe this day would have no violence!
Johnny moved with stealth, shielded by night.
It would just be a moment, just a quick bite.
Then, the keylock sounded and the door cracked.
The light came on, the Spaniard was back!
Dashing and dancing, you sprinted for dark,
but alas, the Spaniard hit her mark.
Little Johnny's face turned pale blue,
his final sight, the sole of a shoe.
Sad and terrible was the burial ground,
a trash bin holding toilet paper browned.
Oh, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny Cockroach,
your rustic shell could have made the finest brooch.

Food of Thailand

This post will either cause your mouth to water or nausea or both. The food in Thailand has been wonderful, making each meal an exciting journey. In every city, town , and village, we've easily found street vendors who can fry up amazing delicacies in minutes; it's fast food done right. A typical meal has one seated at a metal fold-up table with plastic chairs enjoying rice with chicken and vegetable or rice with beef and garlic.

Sick of rice? Options are endless in Thailand but I typically head to a Thai classic, Pad Thai Kai, noodles with chicken and vegetable.

Essentially, any meat can be added to these dishes making for numerous options. Curries are popular to stimulate the taste buds and chilies as potent as those south of the US border make their way into many unique dishes.

In the mood for a barbeque? It's not hard to find street vendors barbecuing up sausages, chicken, kebabs, and fish.

Feeling like un-fried vegetarian food? Thais make a spicy papaya salad (aka som tam) whose spiciness knocked my seasoned-spicy-veteran socks off!

Glad I had a beer on that order. Laura chose the less teary-eyed eggplant salad.

We've gotten suggestions from ex-pats and they rave about dim sum, a white, doughy delicacy filled with pork, shrimp and veggies, egg custard, or taro root. We like to have dim sum with a refreshing Thai ice tea.

Looking for a Thai snack while strolling the market? Living at the equator, fresh fruit is plentiful all year round. Bananas, mangos, papayas, oranges, watermelon, strawberries, ...you name it, they probably have it (although grapes and apples seem to be imported). Of course, some of the fruit treats require searching. Banana leaves are a popular wrap to contain food; the shape of the wrap lets the Thai customer know what is inside. As a farang (foreigner), I haven't a clue. This means I either dare to buy, pass for another day, or hope I catch someone with it in the street. Luckily, Laura's cooking class gave her tips and we've discovered the wrap for sticky rice with banana.

Banana overload can easily occur but a satisfying substitute exists, sticky rice with mango.

If you missed breakfast, salt and peppered quail eggs should provide the cholesterol you are lacking.

Don't forget the pork balls; they have that breakfast sausage sweetness.

Missing your crunchy cracker snacks, just simply replace with a crunchy fried critter.

What are our favorites? Well, nearly every night, Laura searches madly for the banana pancake vendor.

The pancakes can be ordered with any number of fillings but the popular choice is banana. A banana is sliced into a crepe-like dough and they are fried together. Condensed milk is poured over the pancake and chocolate syrup topping is optional. Can you smell the sweetness?

My favorite is the fruit stand.

They make shakes from any fruit they have, pineapple or banana being my preference. The fruit is blended with ice, milk, and palm sugar for a vitamin in a bottle, no Jamba Juice protein pack required.

All of the foods above cost thirty baht (less than a dollar) or less at street vendor stalls. This makes eating out an institution; many Thais find kitchens useless and don't have them in their home. Also, Thais don't stick to a scheduled eating method like westerners with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They drop by the market or a food stall when they are hungry meaning they might eat six small meals per day instead of three large ones. Sometimes, they are just eating for fun. Finally, one last interesting food fact, Thais don't have a verb meaning "to eat"; the closest verb is translated "to eat rice." Well, you made it this far, is your mouth watering or are you nauseated?

Now, a break from the travel blog to discuss some random interesting things in Thailand. In Chiang Mai, each night as we stroll back from Laura's banana pancake vendor, we see too older Thai gentlemen huddled next to a beat up chess board. They are playing checkers, one with sprite caps, the other with Pepsi. Wonder what my odds would be if I purchased enough Coca-Cola and brought my caps to play? I bet my odds wouldn't be too good, especially against the Sprite guy; he has always got double Sprite caps.

The other day we went to our second movie since leaving the US. Did you know they play the royal anthem and show photos of the Thai king before each movie showing? The audience stands while photos of the Thai king as a prince, soldier, and monk are flashed. The royal salute is emotional, actually bringing tears to Laura's eyes at the last showing!

Ever heard of a Thai massage before? If you haven't, you should go get one. In Thailand, a full-body Thai massage, a full-body oil massage, or a foot massage for one hour costs only 150 baht (less than five dollars), another brilliant custom of the Thai culture. Laura and I had our first Thai massage yesterday. It was a deep, body contorting muscle massage that made me feel like a million bucks and Laura feeling like one was enough. Could you imagine if the US would adopt 5 dollar massages? Maybe then, even Massachusetts wouldn't have road rage.

Ever been to seven-eleven, that mini-mart getting its name from open hours of 7AM to 11PM? I've been to 7-11 more times in Thailand than I have in the US. They are as common in Thailand as McDonalds is in the US, and they provide all the necessary goods for a long bus ride. They make for a cheap breakfast stop, offering Thai tea, ice coffee, dim sum, and pork balls.

We're slowly entering malaria zone, where we'll be more cautious of mosquitos. We've had some mosquitos in our rooms over the weeks but very few. Could this be because of our friendly neighborhood gecko? I thought there were a lot of stray dogs and cats; there is at least one gecko per room at a guest house patroling the walls for our security. Other than their occasional chirps, they are virtually invisible. They don't even push geico insurance! I'll take them over a malaria pill any day.

Speaking of bugs, the Jungle Hut bungalows outside of Khao Sok National Park gave us the worst accomodations to date. It wasn't just the cold shower, hard bed, dim lighting, and tiny room. It wasn't that the wall boards making up the bungalow structure were improperly spaced learving 2 cm gaps where one could peer inside or out (free air-con?). It was the fact that I slept shirtless on a mite-filled bed and the red bumps on my back still haven't healed! Luckily, they weren't too itchy and have just been a cosmetic issue. Funny thing is, we stayed another night!