Just out. See it here: Food from Northern Laos.
We don’t cook, but this looks like it may be of some interest here. The book has 200 pages and 400 photos, writen in English and Lao. And there seem to be a fair number of recipes on the website itself.
Thanks, Siam Sam. I’m trying to find something I can find all the ingredients for over here.
Just another service from your friendly neighborhood Siam Sam. 
Thanks, I will be ordering this! There’s a couple places in Chicago that serve northern Thai dishes, but not too much Lao cuisine.
Not too long ago, the wife and I stopped by the excellent Sticky Fingers Bar in Vientiane, the Lao capital. They make a special “Tom Yum Martini,” that contains some special herbs and spices and, instead of an olive, one of those long, thin, extremely fiery bright-red chilli peppers on a toothpick. It really was spicy! A spicy martini. Very good. It’s mentioned in that link. (Vientiane is probably really more central Laos and not northern, but it’s definitely not southern.)
(“Sticky fingers” is an idiom in both Thai and Lao that means “stingy” or “tightwad.” In both languages, the term literally translates to “shitty fingers” – khee niao – and the idea is you have shit all over your fingers, making money stick to it, but it’s always translated as “sticky fingers.”
One of my all-time favorite restaurants is Sticky Rice in Ithaca, New York, serving Laotian and Thai food, home of chef Sisay Sisouphone, who is truly a genius. I’m getting all drooly just thinking about it. I’ll have to check out the cookbook.
That’s a very Lao spelling of the chef’s name, so he must be from Laos, which would explain why he can do those dishes well. I don’t think I’ve seen Lao dishes in Thai restaurants in the US before, but I can’t say I’ve looked that hard.
Yep, he’s from Laos.
I wonder how he fled. The communist takeover was in December 1975. There have been some pretty interesting stories. I know of one old Air America veteran who set up a sham travel agency in Thailand after the war as a front to help Lao escape. An Aussie photojournalist went in and rescued his Lao sweetheart by strapping her to his back and swimming across the Mekong back into Thailand. Their story was re-created in an American TV movie called Love Is Forever, with Michael Landon playing the Aussie. Their son is popular local actor Ananda Everingham. Sadly, love may be forever, but marriage is not, as they are divorced now.
Nowadays though, Thais and Lao cross freely back and forth. You can even cut through Laos to travel overland between Thailand and central Vietnam. Times change.
Good Lord.
Not even an omelet for breakfast?
I can slap a sandwich together, if we’ve bought sliced meat to heat up in the microwave.
needscoffee >Thanks, Siam Sam. I’m trying to find something I can find all the ingredients for over here. <
Hi,you’ll find that the book mentioned by Siam Sam has a long “ingredients section”, with pictures of all ingredients, their name in English, Laos and phonetic Lao. It describes what main dishes each ingredient is used in, and what to replace it with when you cannot find that ingredient. That should make the finding of ingredients in your city a bit easier, after all, not every town in your country may have “Red ant eggs” or “Maengda” (Giant water beetle) for sale…