Food and drink in Vientiane, Laos

Vientiane has a great variety of food on offer. Local stalls sell barbecued pork,chicken and duck, sometimes goat, beef (or buffalo); countless roadside stalls and restaurants serve bowls of different varieties of steaming noodles with meat, and other local delicacies are seen everywhere. Food from other ethnic kitchens is in abundance: Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and French cuisine are all found in the larger cities.

Leading city hotels and better Lao food restaurants such as Kualao in Vientiane serve a variety of local and Asian regional dishes, many of which appeal to Western palates, as well as European food. Meat may be locally produced, but more expensive establishments use produce imported from Thailand or further afield such as Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

There are also many riverside bars and restaurants and evening dinner cruises on the Mekong River itself, where you can relax with a beer or dine while watching the sun go down over Nongkhai and Thailand less than a mile across the river.

Due to its former colonial background, Vientiane has always had a reputation for its good French restaurants, and this legacy has survived. There are also many mostly inexpensive and often excellent eateries of almost every culinary variety except fast food franchises. No McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway and no Starbucks or other Western food outlets operate in the Lao PDR so far. A good or a bad thing, depending on your point of view!

Joma Bakery & Restaurant (also in Luang Prabang) and the small but well-stocked supermarket next door are worth a mention. In Joma you will find excellent home-made bread, snacks and salads, cakes, savoury food and decent coffee, and WiFi for your laptop too. Next door in the compact but well-stocked mini supermarket there's a wide range of western (also Japanese) foodstuffs plus cold meats, fresh milk, butter and cheese, imported delicacies and grocery and kitchen products. There are several smaller 'minimarts' dotted around the tourist and foreign residential areas of Vientiane. These are where you're likely to find many things not used by many Lao shoppers, such as fresh milk (local or Thai), bacon, cold meats and sliced bread (crisp, fresh baguettes are easy to find though), and imported condiments and sauces etc. Some of these things are pricey but you have to consider the limited demand and the cost of import. French or Californian wine is very cheap, however, and prices sometimes lower than the Duty Free shops at the Friendship Bridge. While these are primarily for travellers to Thailand, anyone in Laos can purchase from them without leaving the country, making 'duty free' something of a misnomer!

Apart from traditional Lao eating places, there are Thai, ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese and Korean eating houses catering to the many residents of those groups that make up the diverse population of Vientiane. There are also restaurants serving Japanese, Indian, French, Italian, German, Scandinavian, and other nations' dishes, tucked away in corners somewhere. French fries (sort of) are served in the many pubs and places where young people drink. There is an absence of Australian, British or American-style food such as can be found across the river in Nongkhai; however, excellent bread is available everywhere, a legacy from the days of French rule. Oven-fresh baguettes and sandwiches made from them are eaten daily by Lao people as well as tourists. Fresh fruit and juices are in abundance too, as are all common (and uncommon) vegetables and salads.

Lao traditional food
Much of the food seen around Vientiane is similar to Isaan (North East Thailand) food across the Mekong River. This is not surprising, as the people originate from the same ethnic communities. Sticky (glutinous) rice, many styles of noodle, including 'lao spaghetti' and ordinary boiled or fried rice, together with fresh leaf plants and herbs like mint, coriander, basil and parsley usually accompany dishes, as well as sometimes pungent, very spicy or bitter sauces are used as dips for the hand-fashioned balls of sticky rice.

All parts of an animal are edible to the Lao; chicken, duck, goose, pork, beef, buffalo and goat are eaten cooked, or sometimes marinated and eaten raw, and prepared in a variety of ways – barbecued on a charcoal grill, fried in oil, or boiled in stock to form a soup.

Vegetables and fruit abound, and there is a plethora of green or brown leafy plants, many looking like garden clippings of grass and weeds to the uninitiated, and some extremely bitter to the taste. Root vegetables, bulbs, herbs and spices, including hot chillies and garlic, are almost essential ingredients, as the Lao palate prefers hot and sour! However, there are mild and sweet dishes too, probably from the Chinese and Vietnamese influence.

A warning – many offerings from roadside restaurants, food stalls and traditional village homes, although in many cases tempting, should be treated with caution, and some avoided altogether. Some very strange and unpleasant smells and tastes can emanate from these dishes, and cleanliness of preparation and serving utensils is questionable! This becomes less important after one has settled in, and develops immunity to local bugs and bacteria, but an upset stomach is a common occurrence among both locals and foreigners. Usually fixed with Imodium or an equivalent, available at the numerous pharmacies, it can still be uncomfortable and debilitating.

Beverages and Drinks
Water from the mains is not recommended for drinking unless previously boiled. Most urban Lao drink and cook with bottled water, usually delivered to houses, restaurants and shops in 20 litre (5 gal) plastic bottles costing 5000 kip (50 cents US). Half and one litre bottles are available cheaply everywhere, the most popular brand being Tiger Head from the BeerLao factory.

Freshly made fruit juices, bottled sodas are all readily available in most of Lao. Pepsi Cola (the name if not the actual drink) has a history in Laos dating back to 1965 when a bottling plant was set up in Vietnam War days with the assistance of Richard Nixon. It turned out to be a clandestine cover for a drug production and smuggling operation which never produced a single bottle of soda! Now part-owned by Loxley of Thailand, it is called the Lao Soft Drink Co. Ltd. The plant produces Pepsi, 7Up and Mirinda carbonated soft drinks as well as plain soda water. The Pepsi factory is near the sprawling Beerlao complex on Thadeua Road, a few kilometres from the Friendship Bridge.

Coke or Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and Diet Coke are seen in mini-marts and some restaurants but are imported from Thailand, along with many other Thai products.

Alcoholic drinks: beer, wine and spirits in Lao

Spirits, locally made and imported, and wines (French being the most popular for historical reasons), are sold quite cheaply in shops, and at higher prices in hotels and restaurants of course. Magnums of sweet Chinese sparkling wine are popular for celebrations. Due to an extremely low (if any) liquor tax or excise duty, alcohol costs considerably less in Lao than Thailand, and is much more readily available. It seems the government is intent on maintaining its control by keeping the local population, as well as visitors, happy with cheap alcoholic drinks, and it appears to work very well!

Excluding water, the most popular drink in Lao by far is Beerlao. The Lao Brewery Company Ltd. is a joint venture between the Lao Government and Danish brewers Carlsberg, one of the world's largest. The beer and bottled drinking water producer is arguably the most successful business in the whole country! A much bigger second factory will open in the southern Lao city of Champassack, to cope with increasing consumption and export potential. Lao beer is already exported to eight countries in the local region, the USA, France, Australia, New Zealand. In the United Kingdom www.beerlao.co.uk offers an online ordering and delivery service.

Although it's also sold in 33cl cans and bottles, the 640cl 'pint' bottle is by far the most popular. It seems everybody, young or old (there are no licensing laws), drinks Beerlao in copious quantities. Locals take it home in yellow crates of 12 bottles, seen stacked at local stores throughout the country.

Beerlao has a clean, crisp flavour and is affordable by almost everyone. Typically a large BeerLao costs 6,000 kip (65 US cents) to take home singly or by the crate, and 7-10,000 kip (up to $1) in Lao pubs and restaurants; it can be considerably more in 'farang'-type bars, more upmarket hotels and nightclubs where small bottles may cost $1.50. Beer Lao is 5% alcohol and very drinkable. Almost 70 percent of the raw materials used to produce it are imported from France and Germany, with locally grown jasmine rice making up 30 percent. Recently introduced were Beerlao Dam (black), a 6.5% stronger brew, and 2.9%l alcohol 'Light'. Carlsberg Lager, also 5% and produced in the same factory, is not as popular as Beerlao which is intentionally cheaper. Carlsberg comes in 33cl bottles.

How beer and spirits are drunk traditionally in Laos

As most alcohol drinkers know, beer tastes better and is more refreshing when it's served cold. In the USA, where beer is virtually tasteless, it's chilled to almost freezing, possibly to disguise this lack of flavour! Lao beer tastes good (it's won several international awards), but due to the hot climate, it needs to be chilled. While shops, homes, pubs and restaurants have coolers or refrigerators, most can't cope with the rate of Beerlao consumption. The easy solution is to add ice to the beer. Out of habit Lao and Thai people tend to do this whether the beer is cold or not. Restaurants used to serving tourists may ask foreigners if they want ice added to their glasses. While almost unheard of outside Asia – even seen as a punishable crime by some – putting ice in beer does help reduce alcohol intake; not a bad thing when drinking beer in hot weather.

In Lao homes, beer shops and restaurants outside the main towns, Lao people traditionally drink from a shared glass. There is a 'ritual' where a 'pourer' chooses how to much to fill the glass and must drink first by saying 'sanur deur!' (me first), then emptying it. Then he or she refills the glass to the same level and hands it to the next person, followed by each one of the group.

Two or more glasses may be used for larger gatherings, so the time between drinks is not too long! After a 'round', someone else acts as pourer and the ritual continues until there is no more beer. Before that happens, someone usually gathers up some 'empties' and gets more from a nearby shop (rarely more than a few hundred yards away).

The glass may be rinsed occasionally but the idea of sharing a single glass seems strange and unhygienic to those who have never experienced drinking this way. Nevertheless as the alcohol starts taking its effect (as it will), reservations and inhibitions are soon forgotten. Drinking with Lao people is usually a lot of fun and provides amusing and quite intimate interaction between people, with both eye and hand (not to mention lip) contact 'by proxy' on the glass itself! A foreigner is almost always asked if he or she is comfortable drinking beer like this, and a separate glass can be requested or be offered, without shyness or embarrassment on either side.

Popular more with village and country folk is a clear spirit called lao kao costing just 5000 kip (US$0.50) for a big bottle. At 40% or even 50% proof it's a very cheap way to get drunk quickly, but it's not a very pleasant one as the taste is quite raw. Sometimes it's decanted into a larger container and herbs and other things added for health (and possibly taste) reasons. Lau kau is always taken neat, and poured using a shared jigger with the same ritual described above.

Getting drunk or mao in Lao on lau kau can be fun! But if you're drinking with the locals, beware their hospitality and the after-effects of having too many shots! Here's an effective 'hangover cure'  originally from the UK, but available anywhere. It's actually a prevention rather than cure which allows you to drink as much as you want without suffering the next day! What could be better than that? Stock up before you leave home or you can get it sent to you overseas cheaply too.

Learn more about Vientiane nightlife, entertainment and sex in the Lao capital. You can have a good time when you know where to go!
 

More Information : www.retire-asia.com

Laos: Food and Drink

Lao cuisine, although distinctively and unmistakably 'Lao', is by no means confined to Laos. Just across the Mekong River in Thailand there are perhaps five times as many ethnic Lao as there are in Laos itself. Moreover, the flood of Lao-speaking inhabitants of Thailand's broad Northeast (known as isaan) to Bangkok means that there are now far more ethnic Lao in the Thai capital than in any other city, Vientiane included. As a consequence Lao cuisine has gained in fame and popularity, being enjoyed throughout Thailand, and even having a popular chain of fast food restaurants--called 'Isaan Classic'--developed to serve it.

Lao cuisine, like that of neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, revolves around rice. This isn't the long grain rice that Vietnamese, Central Thai and most Westerners are used to eating, however, but khao niaw, or glutinous 'sticky rice' deftly rolled into a neat, small ball and eaten with the hand. In Vientiane, the Lao capital, as indeed in all other large towns, long grain rice or khao jao is readily available--but khao niaw remains the basic staple of the Lao people, and is the single most distinctive feature of Lao cuisine. Another essential is fish sauce or naam paa, which is the universal Lao condiment.

Sticky rice, then, forms the central theme of virtually every Lao meal. It is generally accompanied by a selection of dips, parboiled vegetables, salad, soup and various curried meat dishes or fish dishes. The sticky rice is generally served in a simple but attractive woven bamboo container called a tip khao. It's considered bad luck not to replace the lid on top of the tip khao at the end of the meal. Whilst sticky rice is eaten by hand, long grain rice is always eaten with a spoon and fork. Chopsticks are reserved for Chinese-style noodle dishes or for use in Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants.

Lao food is quite similar to Thai food--and indeed identical to much of the food eaten in Thailand's ethnically Lao Northeast. Dishes are generally cooked with fresh ingredients that include vegetables, poultry (chicken, duck), pork, beef and water buffalo. Fish and prawns are readily available but are nearly always freshwater, since Laos is a landlocked country relatively far from the sea. Mutton and goat are not eaten except by the country's small South Asian Muslim population, nearly all of whom live in Vientiane. Up country, particularly in the north, jungle foods and game are popular--besides wild boar and deer this includes such unlikely animals as pangolin, monitor lizard, civet, wild dogs and field rats.

Popular Lao dishes include tam som--really the equivalent of Thai som tam--a spicy salad made of sliced green papaya mixed with chilli peppers, garlic, tomatoes, ground peanuts, field crab, lime juice and fish sauce. This is often eaten with sticky rice and ping kai or grilled chicken. Another standby is laap, a spicy dish of minced meat, poultry or fish mixed with lime juice, garlic, chilli pepper, onion and mint. Meats used in laap are generally cooked--unlike laap dip in northern Thailand--but can also be raw. If you are concerned about this, ask for laap suk, or cooked laap.

Other popular Lao dishes include tom khaa kai, or chicken soup with galingale and coconut milk, kaeng jeut, or mild soup with minced pork and bitter gourd, and khao laat kaeng, or curry served on a bed of khao jao long grain rice--all virtually identical with Thai dishes of the same name served on the other side of the Mekong.

For breakfast or a snack at any time of the day, Vietnamese pho or noodle soup is extremely popular, as are yaw jeun or deep-fried spring rolls. For a variant, try yaw dip or fresh spring rolls. Vietnamese food is good and plentiful, especially in Vientiane and the larger cities. The same is true of Chinese food, which is generally Cantonese or Hokkienese, though some Yunnanese food is for sale in Vientiane. Other popular cuisines available include Thai--just about everywhere--Italian and French (especially in Vientiane and Luang Prabang) and South Asian (only in Vientiane). Laos is an excellent place for breakfast, chiefly because of the French colonial legacy. French bread or khao jii is freshly baked each day and served with pate, fried eggs and omelette. Good coffee is also available, and it's possible to start the day with coffee and croissants in the major urban centres, though up country the croissants may have to be replaced with pah thawng ko or deep-fried Chinese dough sticks.

Fruit

There's plenty of fruit in Laos, though--as with food in general--the range and quality is much better in the Mekong Valley than up country and in the hills. In the appropriate seasons, and especially towards the end of the hot season in May, markets overflow with a wide variety of exotic fruits including mango, papaya, coconut, rambutan, durian, custard apple, guava, mangosteen, starfruit, pineapple, watermelon, jackfruit and bananas.

Drinks

It's always advisable to drink bottled water in Laos. The traveller should also beware of ice of dubious origin, particularly up country or at street stalls. Soft drinks like cola and lemonade manufactured by internationally known companies are available everywhere, as is canned and bottled beer. International beers to look for are Carlsberg, Heineken, Tiger and Singha; various Chinese beers are available in the north of the country, but the real treat to look out for is the excellent and cheap local product, Beer Lao, which comes bottled and draught. Imported wine--a reminder of Laos' colonial past--is available in major towns, as (sometimes) is Stolychnaya vodka. Caution should be exercised with fresh fruit juices and sugar cane juice, but cartons and cans of fruit juice, milk and drinking yoghurt are available on supermarket shelves in Vientiane and (increasingly) Luang Prabang. Coffee--often very good--and tea are generally available throughout the country. Chinese tea is often served free as an accompaniment to meals or with the thick, strong Lao coffee.

Restaurants

This selection from Laos' principal centres is listed according to the following categories: $$$ = expensive; $$ = moderate; $ = cheap. (Please note that in all address listings, Road, Street or Boulevard is replaced with the Lao word thanon. Almost all road signs written in English will use Thanon.)

Vientiane

$ John Restaurant, Thanon Fa Ngum, near the Chinese shrine. A basic Lao food place on the riverfront serving fried rice and various laap (minced meat salad) dishes.

$$ Khyber Pass, 71 Thanon Samsenthai, tel: 511 112. Halal restaurant serving Indian, Arabic and Mongolian food.

$$ La Terrasse, 55/4 Thanon Nokeo Khumman, near Wat Mixai, tel: 218 550. A brasserie and snack bar. Serves both Lao and French food along with pizzas and some Mexican dishes.

$$ Le Bayou, Thanon Setthathirat, opposite Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan. Excellent value breakfasts, salads and fondues. Try the Rocquefort cheese salad.

$$$ Lo Stivale, 43/2 Thanon Setthathirat, near Fountain Circle, tel: 215 651. An excellent Italian restaurant, with everything from pizzas to gnocchi, also a good wine list.

$$$ Nam Phou, Fountain Circle, off Thanon Pangkham, tel: 216 248. Mainly French food, but also some German dishes. Perhaps the most exclusive restaurant in town, it's been around a long time.

$Restaurant Santisouk, Thanon Nokeo Khumman, tel: 215 303. Very much a 'French Grill' style of cooking and perhaps the best value French restaurant in town.

$$ The Saya, Saysana Hotel, Thanon Chao Anou, tel: 514 742. Lao and Thai specialities.

$ The Scandinavian Bakery, Fountain Circle, tel: 215 199. A great place to pick up fresh bread, croissants, sandwiches and pies. Also good for breakfasts.

$$ Tamnak Lao or Lao Residence, Ban Phonexay, Thanon That Luang, tel: 413 562, fax: 213 635. Serves Lao specialities with Western palates in mind, hence the dishes are not overly spicy.