Street food is a way of life in Laos and anyone who has visited "The Land of a Million Elephants" knows that the cheapest and simplest meals are often found on mobile food carts.

The food carts are on wheels and they are hand, bicycle, or motorcycle driven. They are literally everywhere in Vientiane.

We call it "Kem".

This particular dish is made from pork so it's called "Kem Moo".

My old man calls it 'pa low' too. What dialect is that from if not Vientiane?

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 29^th May, 2011 at 10:55pm:

I've never had the two latter versions before. It's always "Tom Khem Moo". Forget about slicing and dicing the swine. Throw it all in whole. The feet too.

How does it get to becoming that dark colour?

Too much fat in this dish for my liking. As soon as you let the pot idle, it just builds up' layer after layer. Best to attack it as soon as it's hot.

I make "Tom kem Moo" once in a while.  I usually use only the feet section of the pig to make this soup (you can use other parts too).  It's one of the easiest soup to make.  Slightly brown the sugar, add the meat and stir, add water, salt, clove of garlic,msg, galanga, chinese 5 spice powder, add more sugar if needed to give it the sweetness, add dark soy sauce let it come to a boil...Then add in boiled chicken eggs or quail eggs...let it boil until it's done.

Making sweet dark poached chicken or "gai ung" is similar to this.  We make the same broth using same exact ingredient drop the whole chicken in there darken it up until fully cooked and then discard the juice. Eat it with "jeo".

There are so many recipe from the north, central, and southern parts of Laos.  "Tom kem moo" is still very popular in Laos and also among Thai Issan.

Admin Saovaluck wrote on 30^th May, 2011 at 9:54am:

It'll do more damage than good with all the fat I've just mentioned.

Do you workout too, Valuck?

How often do you eat per day?