During my first night in Luang Prabang I had been decidely disapointed in the offerings of the city, day 2 though was to prove much happier hunting with regards to street food in Luang Prabang.
OK, so where to start on this one? I’ll start by explaining my last blog, we went to visit Luang Prabang Night Market, which in itself can only be described as very pleasant. There were handicrafts, paintings, drawing, crepe shops, avocado sandwiches, and lots of middle aged French people everywhere. Now not that any of this a bad thing, it was just not my thing. And the Luang Prabang street food? I had a bacon and cheese spread sandwich (I avoided the nutella crepes, or anything that had an avocado in it).
But like most cities in the world there are the parts the tourists go, the parts the locals go, and those nice fuzzy parts in between, the latter of which largelly being where somone who likes street food can find his jollies!
Street BBQ in Luang Prabang
I won’t go into huge details about this one, but for under $6 we managed a proper BBQ feast of crab, and various forms of meat and pepper on sticks (OK I ate one pepper so as to have consumed a vegetable that day). The difference here was that they serve a spicy oil, and a dark salt. You rub the meat in the oil, then the salt, then eat. Delicious Luang Prabang Street Food, bravo Laos.
Fried Plantain
I wish I could have found out the fancy Laotian name for this, but alas I didn’t. Basically they fry up a plantain, cut a slice down the middle, add bits of coconut, and then add seet coconut milk. I wasn’t huge on this, as I do not have much of a sweet tooth (and the plantain was a bit hard and without flavour), but the dish cost 25 cents, so I was not about to complain.
Best Thai Noodles in Luna Prabang?
On the drive to our meeting we were told that the best Thai noodles in Luang Prabang were but a stones throw from residence at Cold River Hotel, so we nipped in to give them a try. I’m a huge fan of fried noodles, and they got a huge thumbs up from me, and again at $2 dish, little to complain about.
Fusion dinner…….
We were still in the touristy area, but there were a lot of outside dining establishments, one of which was erving buffet style, and had a menu that served what can only be described as game meat. You will be happy to know not the type of game meat that causes pandemics. We opted for a crocodile steak, and buffalo steak, both coming with fries and potato salad.
Buffalo, well its basically like having poor mans beef, but was indeed tasty enough. I’ve had crocodile on many occassions, but the crocodile steak I would describe as a mix between chicken, and frog (yes you read that right), a chewier mix of chicken and frog, with less bones.
The evening was ended with us picking up some Beer Lao, and heading back to our hotel. The plan? In theory get up for the REAL Laotian Luang Prabang morning market. But plans, much like wishes do not always come true.
But if all that fails, we will head to the newly opened North Korean restaurant in Luang Prabang, at least we will get some familiar food.
And if nothing else, at least I had not been assaulted by a Sausage.