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| The Monk Mobile. Vientiane, Laos |
Yesterday, Nang and I were tasked with finding a company that can produce labels to be sewn into the merchandise at the QLC gift shop. We went across town to Saoban, the Lao equivalent of a 10,000 Villages, and inquired. Unfortunately they import them from a "cousin" (everyone here has cousins, sometimes a friend of a friend of a so on and so forth) in Thailand. We reached the same conclusion when we drove to Lao cotton, a factory store on the other side of the city. Frustrated, we went for pho.
Pho is the go-to lunch among the Lao. It's quick, cheap and comes in several varieties: fatty pork, fatty duck, blood balls, or questionable meatballs. I went with the meatballs. Little did I know that was going to be the beginning of two full days of food exploration. Served as a noodle soup dish, the Lao like to add chili sauce, fish sauce and MSG to spice it up. I now understand why Triple Star advertises "NO MSG" (but potential for spit in fine print!) As always, the food was good and the meatballs weren't as suspicious as I had imagined.
Today I got to the office after stopping at Kung's for coffee. Of course I ordered black coffee, which translates to instant, so the whole venture was a bust. Regardless I got to sit in the shade of the alley cafe reading my book for a while before heading in. The office has been quiet so I was able to continue with my search for grant ideas and try to work my way through some mapping software. Apparently my office has a phone, because at 11 Nang called to remind me that I had told her I was interested in trying laap, a traditional Lao dish. I was instructed to be downstairs at 11:55 to leave for the restaurant. At 11:45 the phone rang again and I was late... How this happened in Laos still shocks me.
Nang, Towh (my Lao teacher and the secretary) and another woman all hopped in the car for the restaurant. Not hungry, I was kind of dreading this meal as Lao have the tendency to over order and expect their guests to over eat. They ordered a ton of food, only asking whether I preferred sticky or regular rice (Sticky of course!) When my basket of rice came however, a millipede crawled out from within the weaving and I was even less enthused about eating it. The restaurant itself was cute and we sat in a pagoda area, on the floor. Apparently at night it turns into a Beer Garden and the ladies were suggesting I come here on my own. With Lady Gaga remixes playing in the background we feasted. Everything here is classified by the meat in it: duck, pork, chicken, and beef. They ordered laap with duck and pork and beef and three other soupy dishes filled with meaty fish sauce. I tried everything and fulfilled my motto of "you only have to try it once."
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| Nang and Towh at lunch. Look at how much they ordered!!! |
Returning to the office I again positioned myself in front of the computer and read a couple manuals regarding cultural sensitivity for hygiene. It was really interesting and shines light on the fact that our villagers would prefer open defecation to latrines. At 3:45 the phone rang again. Apparently on Fridays we have mini happy hours, and thank god this time without the beer!
The ladies had prepared a dish of banana and eggplant and I tasted it but immediately turned red due to the amount of chili in it. The Lao like it hot! The other dish on the table looked like a meat dish but I couldn't tell. I obliged and took a bite. Opening up my Lao dictionary, I immediately recognized the mysterious cubes to be the infamous boiled cow blood. Well, I guess I can check that off my bucket list. Here's to a good weekend!
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| Plague on a plate... or in a soup as the case may be. I deserve a lot of food explorer points. |
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