Okay so post the food that you eat and explain what it is. I will start with this dish that I had never seen or eaten before but I thought it was very interesting and I would have never thought of doing this, pineapple rice. It was some chicken fried rice baked inside a pineapple and it smelled good and tasted even better. The first time I tried it was in Phuket, Thailand and later I had it again in Bangkok, mmmmm!

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Did you drive from Bangkok to VTE?

I'm sure it tastes good, and a very unsual dish indeed.

I originally left the US and landed in Bangkok, then took Lao Airlines to Vientiane where I stayed for about 3 weeks. During my stay in Laos, I went to Xieng Kwong for a few days and then onto Luang Prabang for another few days and finally back to Vientiane again. I have yet to go down south, that will be my next trip, Pakse and Savannakhet and wherever else I can wander to. I went to my birth place in Udon afterwards by crossing by car from Nong Kai and taking a taxi to Udon. After exploring Udon for a few days, I flew air asia to Phuket (2 hr flight) and spent a week there, stayed in Patong Beach. Had the time of my life there. Afterwards, I flew air asia again to Bangkok (1.5 hr flight) and arrived just before the songkran started. I must say, air asia is very convenient to book last minute flights through their website but I hate having to always input all my passport details everytime, especially when you have multiple people, wish you could just save the info. Anyways, the flights are the cheapest of any airline around. Udon to Phuket $95, Puhket to Bangkok $99 one ways. It was even cheaper to go from Bangkok to Udon with air asia $50 versus Lao Airlines going from Bangkok to Vientiane Wattay airport of an astonishing $140 for a one way and $260 return. I know it saves time and convenience from having to travel from Udon to Vientiane but I only spent around 600 baht ($20 US) to get from Nong Kai to Udon by taxi. Anyways, I'm rambling now and being off topic.

Back to the food, man oh man did I ever eat while I was over there. I don't even know where to begin, didn't even have time to take pics of everything I ate but here is a taste to make your mouths water...
I will start with this pic from the infamous restaurant Kop Jai Der across from Joma Cafe. Had to go eat there to see if it lives up to the hype and it was okay. It seemed like the dirtier the place was, the better tasting it was so Kop Jai Der was too clean of a place since it was geared towards foreigners. Maybe the food didn't taste as great due to it being over priced, haha...

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My first night in Phuket's Patong Beach and I had to have lobster of course. This restaurant was right in front of the beach next to that crazy road with all them lady boys. Had some live music to go along with our dinner which was well worth the 4300 baht I spent on it, haha...

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Look good. But 4300 baht kind of pricy for lobsters.

Maybe this is something worth trying.


http://www.laopride.com/pictures2/bizzare-food1.jpg

Please click on image to view a larger version

Too sinful :o!

On second thought, that's too cute! What's the name of this dish then ::)?

That's funny  ;D


Admin Saovaluck wrote on 26^th Apr, 2012 at 3:36pm:

Maybe this is something worth trying. http://www.laopride.com/pictures2/bizzare-food1.jpg Please click on image to view a larger version

HAIR wrote on 26^th Apr, 2012 at 5:40pm:

On second thought, that's too cute! What's the name of this dish then ::)?

I don't know. Some chicken wing recipe.

Gai something ::)?

Seafood by the sea.

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Everytime I ate, there was always food left on the table. This is normal for me in US but I think over there, they kind of think you are wasting food if you don't clean the plates. I sat next to some chinese folks and they ate everything they could, even the wiskers on the lobster. They looked at us like we were crazy to order so much food and not even finish half of it. I was going to ask them if they wanted to finish our leftovers but that would have been rude of me, haha. I noticed also when we went to eat with some real Lao people in Vientiane that they would say things in a very polite way such as when they wanted to take the leftover food home from a restaurant. They would say can you wrap this up for me to take home for my dog, even though they didn't have any pets. Actually, the story goes like this; a man that frequents a restaurant would ask the waitress to place the leftover food in a take out container so he could take it home for his dog. Well one day when his wife came to eat with him, the waitress asked him if he wanted to take the leftovers back to his dog that day and his wife asked her husband, we don't have a dog? So basically he was bringing the food home to his wife but instead of saying it directly, Lao people like to say things in a more elegant way, so I was told. There are a lot of phrases like this that play on words cause Lao people don't really want to be too direct, it is impolite. I however, don't ever take food home in a doggy bag at a restaurant.

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The seafood dish looks nice. Chinese people tend to eat a lot.

Yes, Lao people have a habit of bringing leftovers home for the "dog", but in actual fact they bring the food home for people to eat. It can be embarrassing to state that you want to bring the food home for others to eat, so they mention dog or cat instead.

I never bring leftovers home. I've seen people stealing food home from buffet restaurants.

tose do look very good!

This not Lao or Thai but this Vietamese soup is one of my favourite:

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"Fur" is a Vietnamese dish, but perhaps we can call it our own too because Lao people have been enjoying this dish for hundreds of years, and it's not like we have just started eating it.

Fur has become part of Lao society because there are more "fur" restaurants in Laos than any kind of restaurant. It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like to eat fur.

Yum. Wonder how much is for a bowl of pho in Laos. In the US it's about $6-$7.


HAIR wrote on 2^nd May, 2012 at 8:41pm:

This not Lao or Thai but this Vietamese soup is one of my favourite:

I think I paid around 20,000 kips for a bowl of pho in Vientiane. The portions are kind of small cause it didn't really fill me up, usually have to eat more than one bowl. I guess I'm used to the size in the US, our small is their large. It was delicious though except eating pho when it's that hot outside is like walking into an oven, that's why I only ate pho early in the morning or late at night. Most Laos people consider pho as a breakfast food while over here, I only eat it for lunch or dinner.

The viet soup is not 'Fur' but is called something else which I do not understand because the menu was in Vietamese.  The noodles in the soup are rounded and heavier than your typical 'fur' soup and has jello pork blood plus other meats in it.   

That sounds more like kow poon than 'fur' especially with the blood in it and thicker noodles. Anyways, tastes all the same to me.

This 'Vietsoup' is very unique and different than 'Fur'.  I would be sweating like a pig with just a few spoon of the soup because of the peppered oil.   I could finish the whole bowl of 'Fur' and no sweat.

Durian fruit. I actually saw the tree that these grow on, amazing. I think I was more scared of these falling on my head than a coconut.

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That look good :)