Entries from April 2008
This is a quick and easy dish, as well as a good way to use leftover rice. You can add whatever vegetables you have too. Tomatoes and shredded carrots work well. For some reason, nasi goreng is popular with Dutch Americans even though it’s Indonesian. Could it be because of the Dutch spice trade long ago? Ironically, I usually leave out the 2 most Lao spices in this dish because I don’t keep them on hand – Lao root (galingale) and lemon grass. If you have them, use them, but don’t eat the lemon grass. It’s like a bay leaf because it’s too hard to eat. (more…)
Categories: main dishes · vegetarian
Cucumbers are really good and cheap right now – about 12 cents a pound, so it’s a perfect time for this salad. (more…)
Categories: produce · salads · vegan · vegetarian
I love this way of eating mangoes. Many of the mangoes available now are not quite ripe, so this is a good way to eat them. The tartness of the mango is extra zingy with the salty/spicy dip. Mexicans do something similar to this too. The dip also tastes good with watermelon, pineapple, ripe mango, or cantaloupe. (more…)
Categories: Lao · Latino · produce · sauces · vegan · vegetarian
You can make your own hot chocolate mix really easily and then combine it with warm milk. To make the mix, stir together equal proportions of cocoa powder and sugar (like 1/2 C of each). Then whenever you want hot chocolate, warm some milk and add 1 or 2 tablespoons to each mug.
If you want cinnamon hot chocolate, you can add the cinnamon flavor to the milk before stirring in the cocoa mix. To do that, put the amount of milk you want in a small pan. Add 1 cinnamon stick (broken) for each cup of milk. Heat over very low heat for about 10 minutes. Do not let the milk scald. Turn off the heat and let the milk sit for an hour while the cinnamon flavor is released from the sticks. Finally, reheat, pour the milk into mugs, and stir in the cocoa mix that you made.
Categories: drinks · vegetarian
“Lao Red Cross Xiengkhouang Province, Traditional Massage and Sauna”
Doesn’t it look like the sign is telling you to go down the hole 100 meters and then look for the massage place? The arrow really means turn around and go the other way 100 meters. I know that because I’ve been there. It’s a nice, but not fancy, massage place for a really good price and the massage is more like yoga than massages I’ve had outside of Laos.
Categories: Lao culture
