A PRIZED possession is a reprint of the manuscript recipe books of the Royal Palace at Luang Prabang in Laos. The book was edited by the famed ichthyologist and then ambassador to Laos, Alan Davidson. His notes, the recipes and even facsimiles of the original pages are fascinating.
But the real reason I love this book is because the food of Laos and northeast Thailand is - like everything else - so distinct from prevailing Thai customs.
The speech is more direct, the music is more harmonic and rhythmical, the jokes are more bawdy, the grades of class and social respect are less rigid, and the food . . . Well, Laotian recipes are simply earthier, with less pretence than Thai dishes. Unlike the more ceremonial preparations of Thai food, Laotians start by chopping. Chopping meats and vegetables is essential, because the quality is usually tough.
They eat their food spicy, and love their ginger and the fruit of the pepper even more than the Thais. They make their food sour - not with lemon but with Kaffir lime and tamarind.
Their salads are actually hot dishes, and to this they add bananas, lettuce, cabbages, onions, coconut, tiny eggplant and all manner of exotica. A few Thai restaurants in Hong Kong will prepare Laotian dishes on request. But so far, only the newly opened Patong Thai Restaurant has issarn (northeast Thai) recipes right on the classy menu. Patong Thai is brightly lit, clean and appetising. The ground floor can sit around 80, the two private rooms can open up to sit around 25. And while it doesn't quite have Thai/Lao amiability, they try. They try with three Thai waitresses and seven Thai chefs.
We two decided to stick with issarn dishes. And for that, we needed a bottle of Mekhong.