Cuisine

If Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai cuisines are the best known in the world, Lao gastronomy deserves to be discovered for its use of herbs and spices and especially for its variety, like its multi-ethnic population. (68 ethnic groups). It is also recognized as one of the healthiest cuisines, taking into account the pharmacological properties of food in conceptualization of recipes (antioxidant properties of onion, garlic or chilli, vitamin C from basil or lemongrass, virtues on blood circulation with galangal, a kind of ginger  ...).

Vegetables, very abundant, served with meats (pork, buffalo), poultry (duck, chicken) and fish.

Laos also offers some unusual dishes for Westerners with dogs, bats, moles, rats, squirrels and many insects, eaten raw or cooked.

We suggest you taste some traditional dishes during your stay in Laos:

• The famous spicy green papaya salad (tam mak hung)

•  Noodle soup (Pho), garnished with sliced or dumpled meat, peppers, mint, bean sprouts, coriander and basil. It is one of the most popular dishes in Laos. You can taste it at almost every street corner.

• The "tom yam", soup of Thai origin, composed of meat, fish or shrimp with lemongrass, coconut milk, pineapple and many other ingredients.

• The "laap" or "lap", spicy salad made of vegetables, fish or minced meat and accompanied by sticky rice.

• The "Mok", meat or fish pâté steamed in a banana leaf.

• Regarding beverages, the national drink of Laos is "lao-lao", it is a strong rice alcohol (40 to 50°) is consumed in all taverns. Laotians are also beer lovers and consume Lao beer, famous for the tiger head present on the label of its bottle.