Sao Lao

A documentary about Hor Phrakeo in Vientiane, Laos.

Shrimps and Noodles Salad is quite refreshing during the summer months.

I love to eat shrimps and can never get enough of them. LOL. As you can see I also like to eat a great deal of tomatoes. Sometimes I eat only tomatoes for lunch, fresh pick from our garden of course.

When we first arrived in the US and there was only one Lao Grocery Store in the area, getting our hands on green papaya was quite expensive. It was not also available all year round. So what did we do when we had a craving for Som Tum? We turned to carrots as alternative.

On a big bed of lettuce or salad mix, this is a nice meal for me. To make Tum Carrot, just subsitute green papaya with carrot.

Another habit I have taken up since my arrival in the Netherlands is drinking coffee.

Now and then I indulge myself in a rich and warm up of Nesspresso with a creamy piece of cake.

I eat a great deal of Salmon Salad. I have never eaten salmon before until I came to the Netherlands.

I like my salad with lots of tomatoes.

A music video by Maintenance Crew.

The only thing I know about Japanese Cuisine is sushi and sashimi. I’m very fortunate to have a sushi restaurant that you can dine in or carry out in town so I can visit on a regular basis.

Today’s weather is very wet and cold. After walking around the center for a few hours of shopping I didn’t feel like making anything for dinner or go out for that matter. Since Johan was such a good helper with carrying my shopping bags I told him dinner was on me. We picked up sushi and sashimi package and had a nice meal.

Guess who got to eat the only two oysters? Me, of course.

I recently discovered Tum Ruba, thanks to Nye and her blog. I bought two ruba so far and have been making a few tum ruba the last couple of weeks. I was going to make a batch of tum ruba last night for dinner but decided to make Lao string beans salad (tum maak thua) instead.

String beans

String Beans cut and ready to be smashed in the mortar.

Lao string beans salad aka tum maak thua.

For lunch today I wanted to make tum ruba. There were some string beans left from last night so I thought why not mix the string beans with ruba. It would not be much difference from adding the string beans to the typical Lao green papaya salad (tum maak houng). I was curious about the taste of the two ingredients together.

Making tum ruba and string beans.

Tum ruba and string beans, ready to be eaten.

Even though I don’t like the taste of string beans with tum maak houng and have never made a habit of blending the two ingredients together, I find the mixing of string beans and ruba to be very delicious. The little amount of string beans blended well with ruba, a very good compliment I thought.

An MV of Juk and Alexandra Bounxouei (Lao’s first teen pop idol), from Khun Pra Chuay show on Thai TV.

I wish I can attend the 3rd Annual Laotian American Society (LAS) Charity Ball. It’s wonderful to see a group of Laotians dedicated their time and energy and making a difference in the community. All the proceeds of the event will go toward a scholarship fund. That is such a worthy project for the Laotian community in the greater Atlanta area.

We don’t even have a scholarship fund for Lao students in Kansas. Somehow the Hmong community has such a fund, even for a little amount.

The last time I got to dress up all pretty was at college prom night. I went with a group of friends (all girls) and we had so much fun, dancing and eating all night long. For those that can attend the 3rd Annual LAS Charity Ball, please do some eating and dancing for me, lol.