CLOSEUP
culinary heritage
FAHTHAI
79
THE 3 NAGAS
Located at the charming 3
Nagas boutique hotel, this
restaurant proudly serves
little-known traditional
Laotian dishes in an open-
air setting.
Sakarine Rd;
3-nagas.com
TAMARIND
This restaurant’s
degustation menu
introduces diners to some
of the more adventurous
Lao dishes – try the
wilted bitter green salad
(pictured) – while at its
cooking school, students
can gain the skills needed
to bring the flavours
home.
Kingkitsalath Rd;
tamarind-laos.com
Where
to eat
Changing tastes, especially among members of the younger generation,
and a flood of cheap processed foods and additives from China, Vietnam
and Thailand have also taken their toll on Luang Prabang’s traditional
cuisine. “When I was a child, a dish’s flavour came from boiling bones for
stock, adding special bark from the forest and lots of fresh herbs,” says Joy
Ngeuamboupha, owner and chef of Tamarind Restaurant and Cooking
School, which he runs with his three sisters and Australian wife. “These days,
young people prefer to flavour dishes with sugar, salt and MSG because
they’re more convenient. There are more Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese
influences. It’s getting harder to find the original dishes.”
Climate change and the construction of three hydroelectric dams along
the Mekong in China’s Yunnan Province have only added to the problem.
Endemic vegetables like
kai peng
– a river weed that’s pounded to form a
paper-like sheet, sprinkled with sesame seeds or garlic chips and deep fried –
are becoming harder to cultivate along the river due to the periodic opening
of dam spillways in China, which raises water levels.
To counter what’s seen as the corruption of Luang Prabang cuisine, some
restaurants have begun offering tasting menus designed to highlight the local
food culture’s time-honoured traditions. The cuisine might not be for all
tastes, but it certainly makes for a memorable meal.
The 3 Nagas is finalising a menu featuring a selection of its existing dishes,
“Many restaurants serving local cuisine
started dumbing down their dishes, offering
weakened, gentler and sweeter versions that
restaurant owners felt weremore palatable
to their overseas guests”
STREET SHOTS
(
Below, from left)
Night market
outside Haw Pha
Bang temple;
young novice in
an open window
