The Taste of Vientiane
Saving the ‘best’ of my Vientiane post for last and the best I’m talking about is food! The major importance whenever we travel to a foreign country is to try the local dishes. Right? Sadly, when you follow tour guides, they tend to bring you to places where you eat food you can always eat back home.
The 1st night I arrived in Vientiane, the only place I went to was Nazim Restaurant where they basically serve Halal food which is really not what I like. Everyone who knows me well knows that I love my porks and Halal restaurants don’t serve pork. Well, can’t really do anything about that since I was there with some colleagues. Left with no choice, it was the Tandoori Chicken that I choosed. You can read more of that in the previous food post.
The front of the restaurant also has a single stall that makes interesting roti canais or in this stall’s case, it’s known as Prata.. Ranging from the plain Prata with Condense Milk on top to Chocolate Prata (also with Condense Milk on top). The prices ranges from 7,000Kips to 15,000kips for whatever choices you make.
Of course, traveling on my own, I discover that one feature that is abundance in Vientiane is noodle shops, noodle shops can be spotted everywhere. The rule of thumb I employ in picking the best place to eat was to look at which stalls that has the most local customers. If you think of it logically, the locals knows where the best food is at and so that’s where I go. At the first restaurant I go to, I ordered the Roast Pork with Duck noodles which cost me about 15,000kips. Taste wise, it’s interesting as we are so used to the way soup is prepared in our own country that we’ll find their soup a bit more bland.
The next few days allowed me to try out several other shops where they even have menus with english translation for us to choose our meals easier with dishes ranging from fried rice to Flat noodle with gravy vegetables & pork which cost me about 13,000 kips including a cup of tea.
Noodle shops are not the only thing travelers can spot while moving about the city, there’s alot of road side stalls selling a myriad of desserts from herbal drinks to pancakes as well as some more recognizable desserts like the “Yau Char Kwai”.
Now, you might be wondering, is that all that we can find in Vientiane? Just noodle shops? Well, no, there’s a lot more other restaurants and stalls all over town. Especially if you head towards the Mekong River, the river bank is littered with a lot of restaurants and stalls selling a variety of dishes from their local salad and dishes like Laap to grilled fishes and meat. At one of my stop along these stalls for lunch, I ordered some of their famous sticky rice with skewered chicken drumstick and pigeon.
Now that we have put all the local and cheap food aside, we can now touch on some of the more expensive fares available in Vientiane. Especially for those who are willing to pay more for a nicer venue to dine in. Firstly, the hotel food, I’ve not really eaten the hotel food during lunch or dinner but their varieties during breakfast is quite limited, if you are staying there for more than 3 days, you will see a repeat of the same dishes after the 3rd day. Novotel Hotel was such a case but after reading some other reviews by fellow travelers to Vientiane staying in other hotels, I’m quite glad for the breakfast I get from Novotel.
I got curious about the following restaurant cause there was a lot of patrons to that place both during the breakfast period as well as during lunch so that was the destination I head to on one of my lunch excursion. Having chat with the owner of the Ha Nqi Quan restaurant, I found out that they were fairly new and they serves Vietnamese cuisines.
The dish I ordered was the Thif Ba Chi? Rang (yes, that’s how it was spelt in the menu) which cost me 35,000kip. It was quite an oily dish even by my standard but the meat was prepared just nicely that when mixed with the rice, we don’t really feel the oil that served as their base sauce.
On some mornings when I don’t feel like having hotel food for breakfast, I’d make my way to JOMA cafe located on the road heading towards Lane Xang Avenue. It’s not hard to spot, located next to Jule’s Classic Bike Rental and just opposite Khop Chai Deu Restaurant & Bar. It’s a favorite haunt for tourists as it serves some typical western styled breakfast as well as providing you with a place with free wifi. Always a great spot for travelers wanting to sit down and check their emails while they eat their breakfast. In my case, an opportunity to update my blog and check on my Twitter as well as Facebook account.
Talking about Khop Chai Deu restaurant, I went there for dinner one night and ordered the Lao Classic set which consist of a grilled chicken, green papaya salad and sticky rice roasted in bamboo tube. The damage? 60,000kips and this does not include bottle of Beer Lao to go along with the nicely prepared dish.
I like the way the grilled chicken was prepared, don’t like the papaya salad cause it’s too salad and the sticky rice was nicely roasted. The Beer Lao? I’d highly recommend anyone going there to give it a try. Can’t really find it anywhere else outside of Laos but I was told that it’s available in Thailand and also some said in Australia too.
On the last night I was in Vientiane, I was brought to Chanthapanya Hotel to watch a series of cultural performance as well as try the spread of local Lao cuisines.
In this one stop, we can discover the range of local dishes that we could have missed in the travel around Vientiane. Dishes like their famous Laap to Fried Eggs, Papaya Salad and Grilled catfish. Even though it’s a sit down dinner, the way it’s served is very similar to buffet style where we can ask for refills for any of the 8 dishes that was served including the sticky rice.
Before I left for home, my last meal in Vientiane was at their Airport where I ordered just a typical Bacon and Egg breakfast set that comes with a cup of Lao Coffee.
The Lao Coffee is slightly different from our usual cup of localized coffee in the sense that it’s slightly thicker and sweeter so we don’t even need to add in any more sugar when served.
Flying in to Vientiane and flying back away from Vientiane also provide me with a fair share of interesting airline meals but then unlke the food adventure I had in Vientiane, they are really nothing to shout about in comparison. What’s the most interesting dish you’ve eaten so far in your travel?
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Yi Han
OMG The food all look so yummaaayy
Jan 10, 2010 @ 6:20 pm