After breakfast, I walked to Tamnak Lao restaurant for a cooking class. There were 5 people in our class--three Germans, a French man and me. One of the German girls, who is traveling by herself, sprained her ankle walking down stairs with her big backpack on. She is mobile again, but it still prevents her from seeing as much as she would like. They told her that if she had broken a bone, she would have had to fly to Bangkok to get treatment.
The cooking class was similar to the one Anna and I did in Chiang Mai. We toured the local market, watched the instructor make the dish, then made it ourselves.
Pig heads, snouts and legs were available at the market.
Half heads were also available.
Seaweed.
Our instructor explained how Laotians cook the crabs on the bamboo loop.
Laotians, like the Vietnamese, love to eat frogs.
Despite being situated near two rivers, most of the fish in the Luang Prabang market come from fish farms. Fish caught in the river is much more expensive.
Tobacco in different flavors and strengths.
Tamarinds and mangos.
Many Lao dishes use buffalo skin.
Different varieties of buffalo skin.
Me and my cooking partner. He is French and just came from China. He leaves tomorrow to trek from Luang Prabang to Hanoi, Vietnam.
We were very proud of first two dishes--Luang Prabang salad and feu khua.
The salad dressing is made from steamed egg yolk, oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and white pepper. A few peanuts on top, a boiled egg, tomatoes and cucumber completed the dish. The feu khua is made from rice noodles, egg, Asian spices, greens and tomatoes. Garlic and egg seemed to be ingredients in just about every Lao dish.
Lao chicken salad with sliced banana flower (more for texture than flavor), kaffir lime leaves, garlic, lemon grass, and spices. It was good but wasn't my favorite.
This was my favorite--kheua sen lon, which is vermicelli noodles with pork, vegetables and woodear fungus (a mushroom that grows on trees and looks like...an ear).
Oh Paedak, a pork casserole with egg, lemongrass, basil and galangal (similar to ginger but is only for flavor, not eating).
Everything except the rice is cooked in a wok.
Khua maak kheua gap moo, fried eggplant with pork. It was another very good dish.
Geng phet, made with coconut cream, red curry paste, chicken, fish sauce, eggplant, kafir lime leaves and lots of basil. You can't describe any Lao dish as bland.
I love their Luang Prabang jeowbong, i.e., chili paste. They put it on anything and everything.
I am pretty sure I love it because it has a ton of garlic. After sautéing the garlic, they mash it with a mortal and pestle, add spices and some of the oil used to sauté the garlic, then put it back in the work to enhance the flavors.
The cooking class was great, but it was a gorgeous, sunny day outside--one I didn't want to waste being inside all day. I decided to skip out of the class a little early, rent a bike and head for the Kuang Si waterfall. It was about 30 km to the falls, so I had to put a move on it to make it back to town before sunset.
Me and my old, rickety, rusty mountain bike headed out of town. I had to resist the urge to stop and take a picture every 5 minutes.
The Mekong.
Rice patties.
A man harvesting rice. He was smacking the stalks against the ground to get the rice seed to separate from the rest of the stalk. It looked like hard work.
The man from whom I rented the bike told me there was just one hill on the way to the waterfall. He was right in that there was just one hill. I didn't grasp that I would be going up that one hill the whole bike ride.
A small hut along the road.
I was very happy to see this sign.
I was even happier to see this...
Similar to the falls yesterday, there was a bunch of smaller falls.
And of course a rope swing.
The water looked very clean. During rainy season, the water gets very rough. Two tourists died this past year when they decided to go swimming in the rough water.
These falls were gorgeous, but I still prefer the falls we visited yesterday.
I scored some fried bananas from a local woman selling them along the street. I also bought a roasted banana. The bananas here are delicious and extra flavorful.
I decided to hitch a ride back to town. It gave me more time to explore the falls. I rode back with two Americans from California. One is a biology professor at USF and the other is biology researcher turned consultant. We chatted in the taxi and decided to have dinner together. They suggested Tamarind, which was an excellent choice.
We did the prefix menu, which was about $12 per person--much more than I had been spending on dinner at the night market but it was well worth the extra money.
Scott and I had the plum juice with coconut milk as our beverage.
Devon had a watermelon ice with chili. Both were fabulous, but we decided the plum juice was the best. I just now realized as I am writing this that it was prune juice! Who knew it could be so tasty.
Bamboo soup--spicy and delicious.
They described this as a pumpkin dish, but it tasted more like zucchini.
Fish steamed in banana leaf.
Chicken stuffed in lemongrass--one of our favorites.
Buffalo meat, sausage, eggplant dip, pepper dip, Lao chili paste and dried seaweed.
Black sticky rice with tamarind sauce for dessert.
A Lao coffee pushed us over the edge. The coffee here is sweetened with condensed milk and the coffee is strong and thick. We also had some crunchy sweet sticks made from rice flour. It was a Lao feast.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Luang Prabang, Laos
Tamarind was our favorite restaurant in Laos. So glad you made it there!
ReplyDelete