After Eating in Vientiane, Laos – Part 1 – French Bakeries and Breakfasts, I’ve organised this chapter of our food adventures by Lao/Asian eateries.
Kung’s Cafe Lao
We made a stop at Kung’s Café Lao for lunch which isn’t along the main road, but down a small alley nestled between two buildings.
The hanging gourd inside the café and pot plants give it a nice character, and it did feel like we were eating in someone’s backyard. There are low plastic tables covered with table cloths and stools.
We start off with some drinks, a pineapple smoothie and a mango smoothie, both come with bamboo straws. (I also forgot to take a photo of the menu so have no clue what the prices are).
I order the red Mekong fish curry which came with steamed rice in a heart shape. I’m not sure if that was because it was nearing Valentine’s Day or if it’s a regular occurrence. The curry isn’t too spicy and had very small bits of fish in it. There isn’t much of it but I actually don’t mind as to me, it’s all about the curry sauce!
Mr FPJ orders the yellow curry with chicken and potato. There is a very minimal, almost non-existent, amount of chicken so he wasn’t too impressed with that.
Our friend orders a chicken noodle soup with vermicelli, spring oinions, coriander and tomatoes.
While another friend orders a pork and vegetable stir fry with rice. It is a cute little authentic café, with nice ambiance, and you get a glimpse of the chefs cooking at the back in the outdoor kitchen.
PVO
After some exploring around town, our friends drive us to PVO Vietnamese Food to pick up some banh mi for lunch.
These banh mi are on French baguettes rather than the traditional Saigon roll, so it is slightly different still works. Two of us order the special pork with salad (10,000 kip or AUD $1.70 for half), and Mr FPJ orders the chicken with salad (12,000 kip or AUD $2.00 for half). Tasty and so cheap.
Vientiane Night Markets
One night, our friends drop us off at the Vientiane Night Markets to explore. There are lots of clothes, shoes, scarves and cheap souvenirs, and this all seems to repeat in a blur the further we walk. The markets are bigger than anticipated and we walk a fair way. Sadly there aren’t many food options but I did purchase a coconut milk ice cream. It melted far too quickly but was nice.
We decide it’s time to get some dinner a few blocks towards the city. While crossing the road, I spot three food stalls parked on the footpath to the right of the main road. But to reach the stall, and order, we have to wait on the main road. And pray that a car or scooter doesn’t hit us. Though it seems a little dangerous, traffic simply went around us as if it was completely normal for a food stall to be right smack bang on the road. I imagine it is a regular set up considering the markets are a daily event. Nothing stood out to me so we keep walking a few blocks as originally planned.
Lao Kitchen
I had read and we had been told by friends that Lao Kitchen was worth a try, so Mr FPJ navigated us to the restaurant after the Vientiane Night Markets.
Lao Kitchen is packed, mainly with tourists from what I can see, but luckily there is an upstairs dining area. There is only one other table of diners upstairs, so it’s relatively quiet. Menus are brought over to us. It’s interesting to note on the menu that Laos has the highest per capita consumption of sticky rice in the world.
Our friends had given us a heads up that the fermented fish sauce that locals eat is very strong, and recommended we leave it off our dishes. To accommodate various tastes (like those that don’t like anything too spicy or the fermented fish sauce), Lao Kitchen offer ‘tourist-style’ versions of some of their dishes, which lessens the amount of chilli and completely removes the fermented fish in the meals. Tourist-style options are clearly marked on the menu.
We first order drinks – a 750ml bottle of Beerlao and a mixed smoothie (I don’t remember the price but beer is extremely cheap, far cheaper than my smoothie).
We order the chicken in pandan leaves (39,000 kip or AUD $6.50) as an entree. This is really just deep fried chicken without many spices steamed with a subtle aromatic pandan flavour from the leaves. It was rather plain and I regretted ordering it. Not fantastic.
For the mains, we order the traditional southern-style stew with chicken (39,000 kip) which came with chilli, shallots, lemongrass, long beans, eggplant, ivy gourd and dill. It is interesting to note that frog is also a protein option on Lao Kitchen’s menu, but I wasn’t keen to try it. We order the dish ‘tourist-style’ as I can’t appreciate too much chilli. We both enjoy this comforting home-style stew which is relatively mild but we love the assortment of vegetables and polished the whole thing off. Filling and tasty. Stew and sticky rice goes so well together.
We also order the house specialty duck laab (46,000 kip or AUD $7.80) which comes with banana flower, fish sauce, lime juice and herbs. We request it without coriander (one of Mr FPJ’s allergies). I am expecting duck mince but am pleasantly surprised to find thinly sliced duck breast in the laab (this is actually specified on the menu). It’s filled with other herbs and spices, and we are happy with the generous portion of duck. To be honest, it would have been even better with coriander!
On another day in Vientiane, Mr FPJ and I wandered around town to do our souvenir shopping. As we were both really happy with the food at Lao Kitchen, we wandered over to try more of the menu for lunch. I order the lemon soda, a popular refreshing drink usually consisting of fresh lemon juice, lemonade or soda water. It goes down very quickly in the heat.
This time we order the pork spring rolls (28,000 kip for 4) which are served piping hot. These are delicious and fat stuffed with pork mince, mushrooms, glass noodles, carrots, shallots and herbs. The perfect amount of crunch and flavour. Highly recommended.
For the mains, I chose something a bit different to what I would usually order – the pon with parboiled vegetables and tilapia fish (45,000 kip). Pon literally means ‘mixed’ and is a type of Lao stew made from wild fish, garlic, shallots, chillies, herbs and fermented fish sauce. The stew comes with parboiled wombok, baby bok choy, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and mushrooms. There is a generous portion of vegetables which is great as we hadn’t been eating very healthily during the trip. The pon is a good choice and the stew is mildly fragrant and packed with lots of herbs and spices. Again, great with sticky rice (10,000 kip) which always comes served in a bamboo basket.
Mr FPJ chooses the glass noodle stir fry with pork and vegetables (42,000 kip) which is another very large and filling dish. Fresh vegetables, lots of glass noodles, all stir fried with a nice oyster/soy sauce.
I really wanted to try mango sticky rice for dessert but we are just too full.
That Dum Beef Noodle
Our friends take us to the main part of town and we wander over to the black stupa That Dam, a 16th century Buddhist stupa now covered in moss but said to have been covered in gold. To the side of the stupa, we dine in at That Dum Beef Noodle Restaurant for beef noodle soup. The broth is actually quite tasty, not too rich but with good flavour. The noodles are fresh and chewy but firm. The beef however was extremely sinewy and not pleasant. I wouldn’t go back for the noodle soup, but at least we got to visit the black stupa.
Doi Ka Noi
We head to Doi Ka Noi for dinner, a restaurant tacked onto someone’s house and yard in the middle of the suburbs. Because of this, there’s really not much parking except for the side of the road. Our friends tell us Doi Ka Noi is extremely packed out during the day for lunch. The owners uses her grandmother’s recipes and the menu changes daily. We choose a table outdoors in the courtyard surrounded by reptilian décor with some real geckos hanging around. Our friends ask our waitress if there are any recommendations from the menu, but of course, everything on the menu is good! They let me decide on what to order, so I choose four main dishes with a side of sticky rice.
The pork and papaya salad is spicier than expected but very fresh and crunchy. The marinated pork ribs (60,000 kip or AUD $10) come served with a cucumber salad. The ribs have minimal meat, but the cucumber salad is spicy and fresh.
The stir fried Mekong fish with Chinese peppercorns (60,000 kip) is a mild dish. The only spice comes from if you accidentally bite into a whole peppercorn.
The lao-style chicken stew with pickled bamboo (60,000 kip) has a strong taste of anise in it which is a bit too overpowering for me, but the others enjoyed it.
The lemongrass stuffed pork includes glass noodles and herbs (60,000 kip) and is served with Luang Prabang riverweed and a tomato chilli dip. This is my favourite dish of the night. So fragrant and the minced stuffing is full of herbs and flavour. This is meant to be eaten with the dried riverweed (similar to seaweed) wrapped around it, giving it a yummy umami taste.
We also order the white ‘little chick’ sticky rice from Xieng Khouang (15,000 kip) which is just a regular sticky rice (not sure what the name ‘little chick’ means. But I am also curious to try the black steamed rice (15,000 kip) and order it to go with our meals.
Dessert is house made ice cream in various flavours – coconut, coffee, ginger, roasted banana, rum and raisin and vanilla. The menu on the night includes a special strawberry frozen yoghurt made with housemade yoghurt and fresh strawberries from Pakxong. I decide on this froyo special which tastes just like fresh strawberries and cream.
Doi Ka Noi prides itself on serving authentic Lao cuisine and so they do not adjust the spice levels (probably not best if you can’t handle spicy food). Instead, we asked the waitress to point out the dishes on the menu that are mild. The menu specifically states that they cannot cater for vegans as fish sauce is used in a lot of the dishes. There is no MSG or stock powder used either. Prices are more on the expensive side but still cheap in comparison to Australian prices. It was a lovely night and we really enjoyed the generations old home style comfort food.
Home made
Our friends have a cook who made a chicken larb for dinner one night. I can never eat too much larb as I find it’s always filled with chillies and too spicy. But this version was fantastic! Not too much spice, lots of fresh herbs like coriander mixed throughout and punchy flavour.
She also prepared home made traditional pork spring rolls, with rice vermicelli and lots of raw leafy greens so we could make up lettuce wraps (sang choi bao style) or our own vermicelli salad. The house smelled amazing!
On one of our last nights, a home made chicken, glass noodles and herb mixture wrapped and steamed in pandan leaves had been made for us, along with sticky rice and boiled vegetables.
For dessert, I am introduced to home made Thai pumpkin custard. It looks incredible.
The pumpkin’s lid comes off, and you just cut through the pumpkin to see the custard that had set inside. I had to look the recipe up and it’s basically eggs, coconut milk, vanilla, and sugar mix. The hardest part is carving out the pumpkin seeds. The smooth, creamy and sweet pumpkin works well with the more subdued sweetness and texture of pumpkin. Delicious! I wonder where I can get it in Australia?
More on the non-Asian eateries visited in Vientiane in the next chapter…
Eateries visited:
- PVO Vietnamese – small unnamed street in Vientiane – just ask a local
- Kung’s Café Lao – Ban Phiawat
- Lao Kitchen – Unit 15, Rue Hengboun, Baan Anou, Vientiane
- That Dum Beef Noodle – next to the Black Stupa That Dam – Chantha Khoumane Road | Between the Fountain and the Victory Monument
- Doi Ka Noi – Sisangvong Road, Vientiane
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