Urai

  Urai, a boat noodle restaurant in Ayuthaya's Sena District, is part of a government-funded scheme called Thong Fah ('Blue Flag') that has established exceedingly cheap restaurants, often serving regional dishes, around the country (Mae Sri Bua in Mae Hong Son is another Thong Fah restaurant I've previously blogged about). I think a bowl of noodles here cost 15 baht (less than 50 cents).

As illustrated above, the broth at Urai is practically coffee-like, and is almost certainly the darkest and thickest I've encountered. Yet despite this, it was somewhat under-seasoned, and really need a few splashes of fish sauce and a generous scoop of dried chili. And in contrast to that of previously-mentioned boat noodle joint Jay Nit, the meat here is nothing special, having been simply flash-boiled. On the other hand, the noodles at Urai are served the traditional way, in tiny bowls:

I believe I ate four...

Urai is located in Sena district, about 15km west of Ayuthaya.  It's the only boat noodle place in town, and is located right at the bus terminal.

Urai Located at the bus terminal, Sena District, Ayuthaya 9am-3pm

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Jay Nit

I'm finally back home after about two months in Laos, and yet again, am craving odd Thai dishes. This time it's kuaytiaw reua (boat noodles), so naturally I headed to the heartland of the dish (and possibly one of the more underrated food cities in Thailand), Ayuthaya.

Inside knowledge from a local led us to Jay Nit, a longstanding 'restaurant' on the man-made island that forms Ayuthaya's old town. To get here you have to walk through Wat Ratayachai, a temple at the edge of the Chao Phraya River, until you reach what looks like a dilapidated wet market at the edge of the river. The place is frankly filthy, but filthy in that reassuring Southeast Asia way that often suggests good eats.

The ladies here claim that the restaurant has been in business for 40 years, although only the last decade has been on solid land:

The noodle dishes at Jay Nit, which include yen ta fo, are done at two stations, although I didn't really understand the division of labour (one pork station and one beef?). Regardless, they're doing something right. The broth of the pork version was satisfyingly thick, thanks to the addition of blood, but wasn't actually as rich or as spicy as it appeared. But I was most impressed with the pork (illustrated at the top of this post), which was fatty and tender and served in thick slices not unlike a very good bowl of Japanese-style ramen. And unlike most other places in Ayuthaya, the servings here are rather generous (boat noodles are typically served in tiny bowls that sell for as little as 10 or 15 baht - possibly a legacy of the dishe's waterbound origins), making it a heartier version of the dish than most of its counterparts.

More boat noodles to follow; in the meantime, another good bowls can be got at Lung Lek.

Jay Nit Wat Ratayachai (Wat Jin), Ayuthaya 9am-2pm

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Camembert by the Nam Lik

It wasn't all sticky rice and grilled meat for the last couple months. Setting out on a road trip to central Laos with my trusty driver Christophe (above, on the left), I picked up a grab bag of French goodies at Les Boutiques Scoubidou, Vientiane's best French deli:

There was raw milk camembert, saucissson and liver pate. Both loaves of bread were from Le Banneton, Vientiane's best bakery. And because I was with Christophe, who is Lao but who spent most of his life in France, lots of pastis. All of this was enjoyed in a bamboo hut at the edge of the Nam Lik:

The other gentlemen controls the cross-river ferry here, and in his youth was a revolutionary fighter, having fired his gun at American planes in Vieng Xai in the late 1960s. He ate more camembert than I expected.

In addition to being a fan of pastis, Christophe is also an excellent driver, speaks fluent French and decent English and knows Laos like the back of his van.

Christophe Kittirath +856 21-223 663, +856 20-550 4604 laowheels@yahoo.co.uk

Les Boutiques Scoubidou Th Tha Deua +856 214 073 8am-9pm

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How To Make: A country-style Lao meal

More and more communities in rural Laos are opening up their doors to foreign visitors in the form of homestays. Ban Hat Khai, a village located at the edge of Phu Khao Khuai National Protected Area, in central Laos, is an example of this. I spent a night with a family there a week or so ago, and in addition to meeting some very nice people and gaining an insight into rural Lao life, I also got to witness some Lao food made firsthand. The resulting three dishes comprised one of the better meals I had in Laos.

The first recipe I witnessed is essentially a 'dip' of grilled tomatoes that is as simple as it is delicious, and is also very Lao. The second two dishes took full advantage of two live ducks picked up at the market.  On previous visits to Laos I hadn't really noticed how fond the Lao are of duck, but on this trip I seemed to see it everywhere, particularly grilled, which other than Bali, where I think it's technically roasted, is something haven't really encountered elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Jaew Mak Len Tomatoes, 4 Medium-sized chilies, 5 Shallots, 5 Garlic, 2 small heads Salt, to taste Fish sauce, to taste Cilantro, green onion, chopped

Skewer the tomatoes and grill over a coals until the exterior is slightly charred and the inside is tender. Toss the chilies, shallots and garlic directly into the coals. When slightly burnt on the outside and soft inside, remove from coals, and along with the tomato, peel off all the burnt bits. In a mortar and pestle, pound grilled ingredients together into a rough paste/dip and season to taste with salt and fish sauce (and MSG, if desired). Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion and serve with sticky rice and par-boiled vegetables such as green beans or cabbage.

Tom Pet and Laap Pet Ducks, 2 Ginger, peeled and sliced, one 5cm section Galingale, peeled and sliced, one 5cm section Shallots, peeled, 6 Chillies, red, 3 Lemongrass, bruised, 2 stalks MSG, to taste Fish sauce, to taste Small sour tomatoes, halved, 10 Young tamarind leaves

Cilantro, one small bunch, chopped Phak hom laap (a local herb; substitute with mint), equal to amount of cilantro, chopped Green onions, 4 stalks, chopped Shallots, 4, sliced Khao khua (ground roast sticky rice), about 2 Tbsp Fish sauce, to taste MSG, to taste Lime juice, to taste

Kill ducks. Remove innards and feathers. Joint ducks, separating the bones from the meat. Skewer the meat bits and grill over coals until fully cooked.

For the tom pet, a duck broth, while meat is grilling, bring a large pot of water, enough to accommodate the bones from both ducks, to a boil. Add ginger, galingale, shallots, chilies and lemongrass. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Season to taste with MSG and fish sauce, add tomatoes and young tamarind leaves. The resulting broth should be equal parts meaty and tart.

For the laap, when the meat is grilled, chop finely and mix with the chopped herbs. Add sliced shallots, khao khua, fish sauce, MSG and lime juice to taste. Serve with a platter of additional fresh herbs (more cilantro, a few sprigs of dill, mint) and sticky rice.

If you're interested in taking part in a homestay in Ban Hat Khai, information on visiting Phu Khao Khuai is available at the Tourist Information Centre in Vientiane.

Nam Kading, April 21, 2010

Boat driver on the Nam Kading River, Laos

You can hear some fascinating stories when you talk to the older generation in Laos. This guy, who now works as a boat driver along the Nam Kading river in central Laos, helped the Vietnamese fight against the French colonialists in 1959. He still remembers some Vietnamese and after the war had 10 children.

Dog trucks

If you spend enough time on Rte 8, the Lao highway corridor linking Thailand and Vietnam,  you’re bound to encounter huge lorries bound for Vietnam carrying cages filled with hundreds of dogs.

According to this fascinating four-part investigative report and video by journalists Patrick Winn and Pailin Wedel, the trade in dogs as meat in Southeast Asia actually begins in northeastern Thailand, where stray dogs are caught on a daily basis by what many consider a local mafia. Most Thais don't eat dog meat themselves, but many contribute to the trade anyway, seeing it as a way to do away with pests and alerting dog catchers of stray dogs in exchange for plastic buckets or cash. The trade is technically illegal, but local police choose to look the other way, claiming that enforcing the drug trade or illegal immigration is a better use of their resources.

The caught dogs are eventually brought to Tha Rae, a town on the banks of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom, where they are temporarily held in pens, graded by quality, before being packed into wire cages and loaded onto a truck. A typical truck can hold as many as 1000 dogs, with five or more dogs crammed into each cage:

The trucks then cross the Mekong on a barge, beginning a journey across Laos, via Rte 8, that can take up to a couple days. The dogs aren’t fed or given water during the trip, and some die along the way. I encountered one of these trucks (pictured at the top of this post) three times along Rte 8 one unlucky day, and the smell of dog fur and excrement coupled with the endless sound of howling and fighting was truly heartbreaking. A Lao man we spoke to near the border with Vietnam claimed that the trucks pass every single day. “Some days I see four trucks,” he added, causing me wonder how there are even enough stray dogs to supply this demand. Arriving in Vietnam, the dogs can be worth as much ten times the price for which they were obtained in Thailand, making the trade highly lucrative. Winn and Wedel estimate that this particular cross-border trade in dog meat could be worth as much as US$3.6 million a year.

Khambang Lao Food Restaurant

After more than a month in Vientiane, I have to admit that it's still the case that I've still only been able to find a scant handful of places that do good Lao food. Luckily I live literally around the corner from one that I, not to mention many locals, consider the best place in town.

Nang Kham Bang ('Ms Khambang'), or as the sign says, Khambang Lao Food Restaurant, is a third-generation family run place serving a relatively short but solid menu of Lao dishes. I’ve eaten here at least eight times now, both by myself and with others, and can say with confidence that the kitchen is consistent and service is also good, the latter a true rarity in Laos.

Just about everything here suggests quality, even down to the good-quality and perfectly steamed sticky rice:

The house dish is fish (pictured at the top of this post), in the form of a half or whole paa neua on (a type of freshwater fish) lightly seasoned and grilled. Mekong River fish is also featured in kaeng som paa, a sour fish-based tom yam-like soup with lots of dill, bai menglak (a basil-like herb), shallots and galangal:

They do an excellent sai ua:

a Lao-style sausage, often associated with Luang Prabang, that’s less herbal than its similarly-named Thai counterpart. Other good meat dishes are a sublime grilled beef tongue:

very good laap:

including an excellent koy plaa (like laap, but made with larger chunks of freshwater fish), and jee sin lot:

strips of beef that have been grilled until charred then scraped of all the burnt bits and pounded until tender.

Other dishes worth ordering are or laam, a thick stew-like stew of beef or pork with lots of herbs and vegetables; a very good jaew mak len, a dip of grilled tomatoes; and I reckon their tam maak hung (som tam -- papaya salad), served here with tiny crispy tomatoes and even tinier freshwater shrimp, is the best version of the dish I've encountered yet in Laos.

Khambang Lao Food Restaurant 97/2 Th Khounboulom +85 217 198 10am-10pm

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Savannakhet, March 31, 2010

Watching a pétanque game

Cozido à Portuguesa

Moving back in time slightly, while home a couple weeks ago I also had my first chance to cook in a month: I made cozido à Portuguesa from this recipe, using some very tasty Portuguese chouriço picked up in Macau, garnished with homemade molho de piri-piri and accompanied with a side of salada de grão com bacalhau, a salad of chick peas and salt cod, and a cheap but good red from Dão.

Didn't really involve a whole lot of actual cooking, but it certainly was nice not to be eating in a restaurant.

Bus stop, Savannakhet

Actually this photo could have been taken just about anywhere in Laos; it illustrates a typical scenario that unfolds upon pulling into any rural bus station here. Even before the bus comes to a complete stop, women frantically run to the bus waving sticks of grilled chicken, bags of sticky rice or mangoes, grilled eggs, buckets of drinks and tubes of nyaa dom (nasal inhalers). I don't tend to see too many purchases, but the number of vendors suggests it must be at least a somewhat profitable venture.

Keeping it hydrated in Savannakhet

  Am back in Vientiane after an all-too-brief visit to Bangkok followed by a week in the central Lao province of Savannakhet. And what a week it's been... My job at the moment is essentially to walk around towns in Laos and gather information, a task that's been made increasingly difficult by the arrival of summer here in Southeast Asia. Although I've lived in the region for over a decade now, I've only spent a couple summers here, typically having spent this time of year at home in Oregon or Sweden, or somewhere else cool. As a result, the intense heat feels relatively new to me, and is almost unbearable, particularly for one who's walking as much as 10km or more a day. I honestly don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life, but rehydrating in Savannkhet was a literal pleasure, thanks to Centella asiastica:

a green herb known in English as Asiatic pennywort and in Laos (and incidentally, Mae Hong Son) as phak nork (it's called bai bua bok, 'land lotus', in most of Thailand). The herb is used as a side dish, salad ingredient and juice component from Sri Lanka to China, but I never really took to the latter form, particularly in Thailand, finding its herbal flavour a bit too intense. But in central Laos, as I've also seen done in Vietnam, it's prepared slightly differently. Here, a couple fistfuls of the herb are tossed in a blender with the juice and meat of a young coconut (and the inevitable and inevitably large ladleful of syrup). This is blended for a good minute or two and the resulting frothly green pulp is strained into a tall glass of ice. The result has substantially less herbal flavour than the Thai version, but rather is green and grasslike in flavour, with a slight hint of bitterness. It's incredibly refreshing -- I think I had three glasses one particularly hot day.

Another equally refreshing drink found on nearly every street corner in Savannakhet is sugarcane juice:

Branch-like sugar canes are peeled then passed through the wheels of an electric press several times to extract every last drop of liquid. This is, I suspect, perhaps another Vietnamese influence, as the vast majority of vendors use Vietnamese-made machines, specifically the ones with the funky 1960's lady one sees everywhere in that country:

Served with a squeeze of lime, it's almost as good as nam phak nork, and isn't nearly as sweet as one might suspect -- I'm generally not a fan of sweet flavours, but had no problem downing both the glass and pitcher shown above.

Tang Jua Lee

Am back home in Bangkok, for a few days anyway, and one of the places I wanted to eat at and blog about was a restaurant I came upon only relatively recently. Tang Jua Lee is a longstanding restaurant in Bangkok's Chinatown, but since undergoing a relatively recent a face-lift, has something of a modern feel:

The restaurant's specialty is hotpots, which come in a few different forms. The tastiest is probably a hotpot of deep-fried fish head meat (tastes much better than it sounds) served in a broth seasoned with dried plum and thin slices of ginger (illustrated at the top of this post). The dried plum (buay in Thai) provides a pleasantly salty tartness that is quite unlike tamarind or lime, the normal souring elements in Thai-style sour soups.

They also do a suki-yaki-type hot pot, where you're provided with a simple broth loaded with a few basic ingredients:

which you supplement with raw ingredients (fish, meat, tofu, veggies, etc.):

I've eaten here three times now and have sampled Tan Jua Lee's non-hot pot dishes, and can confirm that it's the type of place where just about everything is solid. Most recently, in addition to hot pot, we had a dish of Chinese-style pickled veggies:

and a stir-fry of goat meat:

The latter was of the few dishes I've ever encountered in Thailand that used fermented black beans. It was very good, although I'd say that they went a bit overboard with the kheun chai, Chinese celery.

On previous visits I have tried their tasty flash-fried greens:

made Chinese style, with few bells and whistles but with lots of smokey flavour, and their excellent or suan, oyster omelet:

which is rich and garlicky, without being gloopy or overly-eggy.

Tang Jua Lee 2212 Th Khao Lam 02 236 4873 11am-10pm

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F-cup Cookie

Seen on a roadside in Vang Vieng, Laos. At first I assumed the bra reference was some sort of not-so-subtle sexy advertising technique, but apparently it's meant literally, and according to the website, each F-cup cookie contains '50mg of the herbal breast enhancer Pueraria Mirifica'. The website continues, 'As the name implies, F-cup Cookies will help you achieve larger breasts while you relax and enjoy a tasty, low calorie cookie. (An F cup size in Japan is like a DD cup size in the U.S.). Try an F-cup Cookie with Japanese Tea. A perfect combination.'

If cookies aren't your ideal medium, you could opt for Bust Up Gum, which, in addition to breast enhancement, offers:

* Improved Circulation * Healthier Menstruation (PMS Relief) * Relief of Menopausal Symptoms * Increased Vaginal Secretion * Healthier Hair and Skin * Reduced Stress * Look Younger

Vientiane's evening markets

  Talat laeng, evening markets, are, outside of eating at somebody's home, the best place in Laos to find authentic food. The only downside is that, unless you live there, you'll likely need plates, silverware and a place to eat. But if you can manage this, the below are a couple of the better talat laeng in Vientiane.

The That Luang Market (pictured at the top of this post), located a stone's toss from the eponymous religious structure, seems to specialise in grilled foods:

But you can get most other Lao standards there, including tam (pounded salads):

and various curries and stir-fries:

There are even a few vendors you can sit down to:

although the choices are pretty limited, and include a couple noodle dishes, more grilled meat and naem khao.

My favourite of the city's evening markets is the one in the Ban Anou neigbourhood:

It's a bit larger, and sells a wider variety of Lao food. In addition to the ubiquitous grilled meats:

you'll also find a few more specific/regional vendors, such as this stall that specialises in sausages and dips normally associated with Luang Prabang:

and another stall that has a huge variety of jaew, chili-based dips:

The jaew in the foreground and to the right is the somewhat unusual jaew het, a dip of (grilled, I think?) mushrooms. This woman's jaew are pretty good, and she also has a huge mound of par-boiled veggies to dip them in.

Several vendors sell soups, curries and stir-fries:

and most of whom sell kaeng nor mai, the dish in the foreground, a thick stew of bamboo, vegetables and fresh herbs that's a Lao staple.

And of course, this being Laos, there's tam mak hung:

Vientiane's Evening Markets 6-9pm

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Now Open!

  Swensens and the Pizza Company officially opened yesterday in Vientiane. They're the first branches of an international fast-food franchise to open in Laos, although it's worth mentioning that this sort of Western food has been available in Vientiane for a while. At least they didn't pull a China or Russia and put them up near some sacred historical district or monument; the restaurants sit virtually next door to the equally tasteless Lao National Culture Hall.

Breakfast in Vientiane

  I've been in Vientiane, Laos for the better part of a month now and during this time, my breakfast has hardly diverged from two places. Most days I'll head for Le Banneton, a French bakery in the centre of town. Usually I'll eat in and order their excellent cafe latte (brewed with Lao beans) and a sweet-ish pastry, such as kouign amann:

But sometimes I'll buy some of their bread, usually still warm from the oven, and eat it at home with the good salted butter and apricot jam I picked up (illustrated at the top of this post). Highly recommended; I wish we had a bakery half this good in Bangkok.

Le Banneton Th Nokeo Khumman 021 217 321 7am-7pm Mon-Sat, 7am-1.30pm Sun

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If I'm looking for something more local, I simply head a couple blocks north of my place, up to just before the intersection of Th Chao Anou and Th Bun Heng. A few vendors set up there in front of an old movie theatre selling breakfasty things such as rice porridge, khao piak (thick rice/tapioca flour noodles served in a slightly thick broth), phở and coffee. I usually go for the bánh cuốn (ban kuan in Lao):

freshly-steamed noodles filled with a pork mixture and served with Vietnamese pork sausage and a sweet/sour dipping sauce. They're tasty, although not nearly as nice as those I've had in Hanoi, and make a yet another great breakfast I wish we had in Thailand...

Around the corner, a popular vendor also does decent khao piak,

Very porky, and served with hearty cubes of blood -- but arrive early, otherwise the noodles tend to disintegrate.

Breakfast vendors Th Chao Anou 6-9am

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Sam Euay Nong

  Sam Euay Nong ('Three Sisters') is a cheery, tidy family-run place in central Vientiane. They do a handful of simple Lao/Vietnamese dishes, ranging from tam mak hung, Lao-style papaya salad, to khao poon nam jaew, thin rice noodles in broth with pork and bamboo, all of which are full of flavour and well executed, but my favourite dish of theirs is probably naem khao.

The dish, shown above, is an unusual combination of deep-fried balls of rice and sour pork skin/meat, the former shown at the bottom of the pic below, and the latter, wrapped in banana leaf, at the top:

The rice and pork are mashed together with seasonings including fish sauce, lime juice, MSG, sugar and peanuts, and served with a platter of greens and herbs. The greens are very Lao, and include butter lettuce (very popular here) cilantro, an unidentified sour leaf, banana flower and phak hom laap, an herb that, to my mind, combines the flavours of both mint and Thai basil. Wrapping the rice mixture in a lettuce leaf along with the herbs and a bit of chili, you get a bit of everything: meat, crunch, spice, salt and greens. Brilliant.

Han Sam Euay Nong Th Chao Anou (next door to Lao Orchid Hotel) 8am-8pm

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The price of a meal

Driving along Rte 13 about 25km north of Vang Vieng, I passed by this roadside market, bordered by a stream and shaded by tall limestone cliffs:

I learned later that the area is known as Pha Hom, 'Fragrant Cliff', but ironically there was a foul smell when I passed through and I continued without stopping.

On the way back, a fluffy silver tail caught my eye and I stopped to investigate.

A closer look revealed that Pha Hom was clearly the home of a market specialising in ahaan paa, 'jungle food'.

There were at least 20 stalls, and in addition to the large mammals, most of which I couldn't identify, and the organs and bones thereof, there were birds (both dead and alive), crabs, insects, frogs and snakes.

The vendors clearly didn't want photos taken:

But I played stupid and continued to snap away until a middle-aged woman told me to stop. Our conversation (me speaking Thai, her Lao) went like this:

No pictures! Why not? Some foreigners took a video, put it online and we got in trouble for selling jungle animals. What's wrong with selling jungle animals? Well, if we sell them, they'll all disappear. Then why do you keep selling them? We need to earn money.

This conversation took place less than 30km from one of Laos's largest tourist destinations, which also happens to be both a fertile valley and a busy travel crossroads; I'm pretty sure there's other work to be done, but maybe there's not, and anyway, who am I to tell her what's right and wrong?

But this wasn't all. The very drive to Pha Hom had taken me through landscapes like this:

and this:

I'd been through this area in July 2008 and the contrast of the sharp gray limestone mountains, occasional stands of dark forest and emerald green fields made it one of the prettiest places I'd seen in Southeast Asia. Now, at the height of the dry season, the farmers were burning their fields to prepare them for planting, and the hillsides were either deforested or black, huge fires burned, seemingly uncontrolled, at the roadside, and one could barely see the mountains in the distance due to the smoke. I imagined that the countryside probably didn't look much different than when it was carpet-bombed by the Americans in the '60s and '70s.

Obviously people in Laos need to eat, but it's depressing to witness the direct and savage impact this need has. At about 5 million people, the population of Laos is relatively small, yet the Lao seem to have an inversely large impact on their environment. This is surely helped by the fact that Laos's neighbours are virtually free to pluck what they need from the country, whether it be logs, animals or hydropower (at present more than 30 hydropower projects were either being built or were in the advanced stages of planning in Laos, eight of which would dam the Mekong mainstream). If things continue this way, the Lao will certainly get their meal, but stand perilously close to losing their country.

Vang Vieng, March 15, 2010

Fishing on the Nam Song, Vang Vieng, Laos

If he was fishing for assholes, he'd be a rich man.

Vientiane, February 28, 2010

Selling CDs near Pha That Luang, Vientiane, Laos