Luang Prabang night market is one of the most popular destinations in the city, and a great place for Luang Prabang street food.
I’d been to Laos and Luang Prabang previously many years ago, so I was excited to see how things had changed, maybe even for the better.
Whats Luang Prabang night market like?
I love a good night market me, such as the one in Koror of Palau, one of the least visited countries in the world. This though was not a market geared towards locals, but basically, a huge gift shop aimed at the largely middle-aged European clientele. Now there’s nothing at all wrong with that, but to say it’s “not my bag baby” would be doing it a vast disservice.
Is there street food at Luang Prabang night market?
Well, there’s street food, to a fashion. On the entrance, there’s classic Asian BBQ, and there are hipster-style vegan eateries dotted around the outskirts of the market, but when you hit food street, meh. Basically, it’s offensively aggressive street hawkers selling crepes, fruit juices, and sandwiches. I don’t care about the French influence, this was pure hipster appropriation. They even had avocado. Eat your heart out children of Waitrose. The cat just shat out the worst street food center in Laos.
I did though have a bacon and cheese sandwich, which did keep hunger at bay, but was not exactly earth-shattering.
Is Beer Lao Good?
I used to love Beer Lao, but my time at The DMZ Bar killed that, with the Yangshuo race to the bottom on prices killing any love I had. That being said I tried a Beer Lao IPA, and it was pretty damned good. High five from the Street Food Guy.
If you look hard enough, you shall be rewarded!
On the way back to Cold River our somewhat pretentious, but otherwise a very good hotel we found nirvana. Street meat Asia style, with a small bottle of Beer Lao (hipster size) costing $1 or a huge bottle costing 1.20 (guess what I had).
Balls of meat skewers of fish, hot sauce, and cheap beer. This was street food Luang Prabang, not someone in a costume asking me if I want fecking avocado in my sandwich.
The street food guy wins again.