**** You can find an updated post here
I'm a bit under the weather – so just a short post tonight.
Recently, while sitting at my PC wool-gathering; basically looking at photos from past trips, I opened my Luang Prabang folder and all the memories came flooding back. The sights and sounds of the Morning Fresh Market….the "River of Orange" as I call, more widely known as the "Saffron Circuit" as the monks collect their morning alms each morning.
Rain or shine…..
Which brought me back to one of our favorite places in Luang Prabang. We never knew the name of the place; it was simply a booth located at the end of the Fresh Market we called "Same-Same", because we'd stop by every morning and the woman running the place would look at us and ask "same-same"? Of course the answer was "yes". And we'd have our coffee and a bowl of Khao Piak, what I pretty much consider the Lao National Noodle Soup.
I'd forgotten how much I loved Luang Prabang……. And the recent cooler-rainy weather led me back to Mekong Cuisine Lao and Thai.
Not sure how things are going as I had the place pretty much to myself during my visit. The young man serving me was pretty serious and stoic; until I started talking to him about the food. He became more and more friendly as my lunch went on.
I hadn't had the Khao Piak (Khao Peak Sen on the menu), so I decided to try that.
In many versions; like this one, the tapioca starch isn't dusted from the noodles and thickens the simple broth. This creates a rather thick soup….this one was perhaps the thickest I'd had in a while, almost like a potage. It was super hot and the density of the broth meant that it stayed lip singing hot for the entire meal. The noodles had a nice chew to them. The flavoring of the broth was very simple; I'm used to having more cilantro and perhaps lemongrass notes; but this one was fine. As I had figured; the chicken, it was white meat was dry and tasteless. But let me tell you, because of the viscosity, this is pretty filling.
And of course I had to have the Sai Ua (Sai Ou on the menu) as during my previous visits, I thought this place made a good Lao Sausage. And yes, it did deliver.
Lovely, slightly sour porkiness, nice lemongrass – kaffir lime leaf – gingery tones, a hint of spice. The rice in the sausage gives it a wonderful texture and every time I've had this here, the sausage casing had been crisped up nicely. As I've before; that tamarind based sauce really isn't needed for this.
The young man said; "it's good, yes? We make our own sausage here." He seemed quite proud, rightfully so. Now, I gotta find other dishes on the menu, because man does not live on sausage alone, right? Hmmm……
Mekong Cuisine Lao and Thai
3904 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
hope you’ll be able to find some other dishes to try
I do too Kat!
Nice! Never tried Khao Piak before. I’ll try it out if I come across it at a restaurant.
It’s a very simple; but satisfying noodle soup Junichi! I’ve got to try it at some other places as well.
Speaking of Thai/Lao sausage – have you ever tried the Nam Khao from Supannee? (I haven’t but keep intending to try it).
I will have to try this place for that sausage!
No I haven’t Derek. Thai style nem khao tends to be a bit different from Lao style – unless it’s from Issan.
Check them out CC!
Interesting – I’ll have to do some research. All I know of nem khao is what I’ve learned from the blog and the handful of places you’ve recommended trying it from. Guess it’s time to eat more!
Have fun Derek!