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Jak prepares green papaya salad 

Usually my blog posts are from the opposite season from most other people. That’s because most of the time I live in the southern hemisphere.
For this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Scott at Real Epicurean, Jak and I in the northern hemisphere at the Three Elephants Cooking School in Luang Prabang Laos. Unusually, we are cooperating with each other in the kitchen in what is the only food we have prepared for the past month.
It’s as near as it gets to winter here being the cool dry season. Cool means about 30 degree centigrade days. Nights get down to about 10C.
It’s the perfect weather for a green papaya salad. The Three Elephant cooking school subscribes to the view that Lao food isn’t as hot as Thai.
I’ve found plenty of hot food here though. I’ve also noticed that the locals like to add plenty of a thermonuclear chilli paste, called Tamnak Lao Jeowbong, to their dishes. Just to make the chilli powder 50 dried red chillis are needed. Bang!
This green papaya salad uses only one chilli, bottled fish sauce and a tub of shrimp paste. I’m told it is tuned-down from what the locals might eat at street stall in the capital, Vientiane. There up to ten chillis may be used in a salad plus either a raw or cooked version of home made fish sauce.
The way he fish sauce is made is by adding fish to a jar and letting them rot outside the back of the house. You can see the grey stuff with chunks of fermented fish floating in it in the market. It really does look and smell pretty rough – worse than the stuff in bottles.

Brown soup-like stuff at the back with silver floating bits? That’s fish sauce. 

Ingredients
Grated papaya (or 8 Asian snake nbeans/16 European green beans or cucumber)
6 cherry tomatoes
1 red chilli (or ten for the strong)
1 garlic clove
2 teaspoons sugar (I prefer palm sugar)
Half a teaspoon shrimp paste (wimps!)
Quarter a teaspoon fish sauce (Yes, wimps!)
pinch of salt
Juice of one lime (or a lemon)
Method
There’s a special device than can strip green papaya but you can also probably use a zester. Soak in water to soften (If using beans slice. this recipe doesn’t cook them but I suspect blanching them would improve results).
In a pestle, pound the chilli(s), garlic, sugar, shrimp paste and salt until the mixture becomes liquid.
Add tomatoes and pond gently.
Add the fish sauce and the lime or lemon juice.
Finally drain the papaya and add it (or the beans) to the mortar and pound.
It’s time to taste and add more of the stinky fish sauce or chillis to taste.

Serve with an ice cold beer.

NB: I’ll be hosting the next Weekend Herb Blogging with a deadline mid afternoon Sunday 28th January for entries. Email me at edcharlesATmacDOT.com. You can check out the rules and regulations over at Kalyn’s Kitchen.

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s happy hour. Instead of one tumbler of rice whisky I am served two.
At least a snack of deep fried Meekong seaweed helps line my stomach.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I think it may be water rat season in Phonsvanh in Laos. There are also voles, flying squirrels and deer in the market. In five minutes though the whole lot is sold.
Only a single haunch and head of deer is left.

What really catch my eye are the beuatiful game birds. It’s a shame you just can’t get this stuff to eat in restaurants or at street BBQs.

Popularity: 11% [?]

As most of us know, curry is an English invention, Indian food being spicy but very different and regional in its styles. Chicken Tikka Massala, the national dish of England now, is apparently a Scottish invention.

If you are lucky the chicken tikka element is made in a tandoor oven and the sauce is defrosted as the dish tastes okay.

At Nisha on the main drag at Phgonsavanh, the sauce also seems to be prepared freshly. Cream doesn’t drown out what spicy flavours are in the sauce. In fact this chicken tikka is very spicy which is why I like it; it has body and flavour.

This isn’t your run off the mill cop out for people who don’t really like spicy food (as Baileys is the cop out for people who don’t realy like alcohol).

The only problem is that on this cold windswept night the restaurant is open to the elements. Beer is too cold for somebody who is wearing every item of clothing brought on holiday. Instead I drink the Massala Tea, which warms me for at least the walk back to our icy hotel room.

There are also branches of Nisha at VangVieng and Luang Prabang. It’s very much a back packer restaurant. But it serves great curry and is worth a try.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Actually, I hope this ordinance has been decommisioned. We’re at Phonsavanh, near the Plain of Jars.
If you are familiar with the Vietnam War you will know that more bombs were dropped in this area than just about anywhere else on earth in a secret war wage by the CIA. Unexploded ordinance is still a massive problem and people are killed weekly.
More to come soon…

Popularity: 6% [?]

There’s nothing quite like a beer at sunset next to the Meekong whereever you are along its length. Tonight we are in Luang Prabang enjoying the Carlsberg-owned Beer Laos.
If you ever wanted to visit Asia and been a bit to scared then this is the place to be. Or perhaps you are an inner-city Buddhist who has been looking to find yourself but only found a granny running meditation sessions in the suburbs.
Luang Prabang is a very laid back down, populated by a docile people. Rarely will they try and rip you off. Yes, they will try and sell you stuff but their hearts aren’t really in for the hard sell as is Vietnam.
Think Noosa (that’s a fairly upmarket Australian condo resort) on the Meekong.
Here grannies mix with backpackers and Thai film stars. Some bugger is driving down the mainstreet in a Hummer and aside from some Toyota utes, the rest of the cars are decidely fifth hand.
The average annual pay in Laos is about $300. Three years ago in Luang Prabang a house could be rented for $500 a year. Now it costs that much a month. Such is the impact of tourism.
The town probably has the highest concentration of Buddhist temples in SE Asia. Monks are everywhere, walking down the street with umbrellas, surfing the internet, banging very large drums calling their mates to prayer.

There are plenty of European-style bakeries, cafés and restaurants. There is even a wine bar selling $15 bottles of French tablewine.

While the food here is good it is less spicy than Thai food. Green papaya salad is a speciality but for me the best value and most tasty food is on the street.

Whole fish are skewered on bamboo and barbequed. The same goes for sausages, kebabs and ribs of pork. And there is not a single snake in sight.

Popularity: 6% [?]