Village Food in Laos – SPICY CHILI WOOD and AUTHENTIC KHMU FOOD in Luang Prabang!

Village Food in Laos - SPICY CHILI WOOD and AUTHENTIC KHMU FOOD in Luang Prabang!
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During our trip to Luang Prabang, one of my goals was to experience authentic Laos culture. So we set off on a 2 day excursion, into the mountains, not too far from Luang Prabang. The first day we’d spend learning about the Khmu culture and eating local authentic Khmu food. The next day, we’d move onto a Hmong village to eat Hmong food.

We met up with Alex and his team from White Elephant Adventures (http://www.white-elephant-adventures-laos.com/). This is not sponsored, I paid in full for this tour, but Alex and his team were gracious to really set us up with a custom tour about food and culture. I highly recommend them for off the beaten path, authentic culture tours in Luang Prabang.

It wasn’t too long of a drive, and we stopped at a variety of markets along the way, but we eventually made it to the Khmu village. It happened to be the village of our guide. It was a gorgeous village, by the river. For lunch we had some simple bamboo shoot mixtures wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. Khmu mainly eat sticky rice.

After lunch we walked around, took a swim in the river, and just hung out, waiting for the dinner festivities.

We purposefully didn’t really make too much of a plan, because we wanted to just see what unfolded naturally at the village. They decided to butcher a small pig for the village and for the evening festivities. They also planned a baci ceremony – a Laos ceremony of blessing, which was an amazing experience and left me feeling so incredibly welcome.

Anyway, after the afternoon swim, the men got started butchering the pig and parting off each piece of meat – serious nose to tail dining – to the person who was designated to cook each different dish. What was amazing to me is that everyone in the community had a role, and each worked diligently for the greater community.

There were so many different local Khmu Lao foods being prepared that I could hardly keep up. But one of the most interesting dishes for me was the or lam, a well know Lao Khmu dish, but this version unlike anything I had tried before. One of the single most amazing ingredient is spicy chili wood – it’s actually a vine that grows in the jungle, and it is really spicy and makes your tongue tingle.
The baci ceremony was spectacular, the meal of all things pig with the community was special, and at the end of the night the children from the village sang us a couple of songs.

It was a fantastic day, delicious authentic and fresh Lao Khmu food, and an incredible time to learn about Khmu culture, and interact with the community.

Thank you for watching!

10 Best Things to Do in Luang Prabang: https://migrationology.com/things-to-do-luang-prabang/

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43 Comments

  1. Love these videos. My wife and are planning a trip to Laos mainly after watching these! I can get by with conversational stuff but these have really helped my vocabulary. Lao people are the friendliest people in the world. i learned the language as a missionary over 30 years ago here in the states and this will be a dream trip for me. Thanks to Mark, family and friends.

  2. Mark this shows how humble and simple person you and your famly is.. you mingle with every type of people and their diversities around the world.. thanks mark, yin and micah , joel and the rest for exploring the new culture
    and food tour to us. .

  3. I'm in the southwest Missouri area and I'm impressed by how much the Lao men and women look like the Native Americans in my area including my mother who was a member of the Cherokee Tribe. Amazing.

  4. It’s good you have an Iron stomach Mark, 99% of the people would become very sick from eating that food prepared the way it’s handled

  5. Poor people are the friendliest because they appreciate everything they have and they don’t abuse anything around them. Laos people seem very nice and very welcoming too.

  6. What sad is the reason Lao is the minority is because the U.S bomb Laos with a lots i mean alots of bombs during the vietnam secret war that no one knew about til later. But what so cool is hmong and laos help each other. And their food look so delicious.

  7. Mark, I love your shows and share your passion for food from different lands and cultures. Do you normally live in Thailand when not travelling for your show? Would love to meet you during one of my gastronomic trips!?

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