============================================================== To reach ALL SJD members, please send to sjd@satjadham.net ... Do NOT include any other addresses when sending to the list... Include as LITTLE of the original messages as possible........ Message sent by: "Toon S.Phapphayboun" *** Announcement: *** Please register for SatJaDham Fifth Annual conference at the website http://www.satjadham.org/sjd5sd/ ============================================================== All, Get ready to salivate over Guy's best recipe for laab poop, or is it laab pia, or is it soy seau (sliced tiger)? I say we use our ever famous Forced Volunteerism Movement (FVM) on Guy, so he can put this recipe into practice at our SJD5SD. What do you say, Guy? And Connie can bring the "Black Label". Bon appetite, Toon Publication Core Facilitator _________________________________ The Art of Laotian Food When you come into Laotian cuisine, there are many varieties of dishes to be offered. People from different regions of Laos create and consume their food in their own unique styles. Thus, in Laos, food can be an expression of one's root or identity. Laotian food consists of a variety of ingredients- ranging from exotic vegetables to the juice of the beef intestine (young cow poop or 'pia'). Yes..cow poop :) ..sure some may say we eat the strangest thing, but these meals do conform to the four essential Food Group (well, most of them anyway) For instance, let's talk about Larp Pia, a favourite dish of Southern Laos. This meal covers the basic Lao Food Group, which is similar to North American Food Group. They are raw meat (Meat and sustitute), vegetable (a food group itself), rice (bread) and Lao spices. So where is Milk or Dairy Product group, you ask? Well, since most Asians are lacto intolerent, we don't like to consume milk, butter or cheese (except for those who grew up here). However, we do use padaek, a sauce made from pickled fish, on most of our dishes. This can be considered the Dairy (or daily) Product of Laotian Food Group. Let's examine these food groups in more details: Meat: In North America, most restaurants like to hang their meat for couple weeks before they serve it. But in Laos, we prefer fresh meat-right from the butcher's hands. In fact, it's traditional that we go out and kill a water buffalo or cow for special occassions. Butchering the water buffalo on the spot is an important part of the Laotian festivity. We take pride in doing such works, and sometimes it requires skills to cut the buffalo in the proper manners. Since meat is so scarce in Laos, we do not waste any parts of the buffalo at all-from head to tails. Besides the the meat, we take all the internal organs, the head, tail, skin, etc.. Some people even take the external organ. For Larp Pia, the beef should be thinly sliced into small pieces. The size of these pieces should be half inch square. Boil the Pia (the juice from the small intestine). Let the hot pia cool off before mixing it witht the beef. When you drop the beef into the Pia, you will see it curl because of the acids of the pia....hmm ahh what a sight. Leave the beef soaked in the pia sauce for few hours. Other meat ingredients are sliced liver (preferably raw), beef heart and tripe. Some people like beef kidney too. Lao Spice: "Hey, your rice is burning", my caucasian friend yelled at me when he saw the burnig smoke coming of the pan full of stickie rice. "No, it's supposed to burn", I replied. "Is this why they call you rice burner?" he said jokingly. That is, of course, part of the making 'kout kouir', the ground roasted rice. Once the rice is 'burned' or roasted, let it cool off. Then ground them. In Laos, most people would use 'coke' (a hard bowl-shape pottery) and 'saak' (a small log-shaped wood) to ground them. This will require a bit of strength. But in modern world, we use an electric blender or grounder which only take seconds to ground the burned rice. Kout Kouir is a very essential spice for the any kind of Larp. Another important spice is ground roasted dried chilli. It is recommended that you roast or grill-fried the chilli outside of your house. If you fry the dried chilli in the kitchen, people in the house may suffer from a sneezing marathon. Others Lao spices for the Larp Pia include ground Kha(galanga), Hoa si-kai (lemon grass), puck horm (cilantro, green onion, mint, etc) and fish sauce. Padaek can also fall into this category. Rice: The preparation of sticky or Laotian rice is different from your normal steamed rice. First, you soak the rice in water for a few hours. You must have a special Laotian pot and wooden opened basket in order to steam the rice. Start boling a pot with one fourth full of water. Put soaked rice in a wooden basket. Rinse the rice and let it drain for a few minute. Put the basket on top of the boiling pot Let it steam for certain period of time. The length of time depends on the amount of rice in the basket. Three quarter into cooking time, you have to turn over the rice. By this time, the rice should be sticky and form a ball. The flipping or turning over of the rice can be quite a task for beginners. First, you have to contend with the hot basket. Then you have to throw up the rice ball in right way in order to flip it. Sometimes the rice can end up on the floor (This is speaking from experiece). Once the rice is ready, you have to spread them, roll them into a ball, and put them in the special wooden basket. Vegetables: Back in Laos, there are many vegetables that go really great with Larp. But over here, it's hard to find them. We can use other substitutes such as lettuce, cucumber, radish, celeries, etc. 'Tis Time: Once all the ingredients are ready, first drain out the beef from the pia (don't drain it too much..you don't want to lose the taste of the cow poop). Mix this meat with kout kouir, ground chilli, Ka and hoa si kai, padaek and other beef ingredients (liver, beef heart, tripes, etc). In the old days, we use bare hands to mix them. But nowaday, for sanitary reason, it's strongly recommended that you wear plastic gloves or sandwich bags. Then put in the rest of the other spices. The amount of spices to be added on is up to the persons' tastes. Once all the Laotian spice and the beef are well mixed up to the tastes, it's ready to be served. Laotian style of eating: We, Laotians, eat our food in different manners from others. For larp pia, we roll up the sticking rice into balls. Then with our fingers, we stick some larp into the rice. Gently put them into your mouth (ahh I am so hungry as I am writing this). Or you can use the vegetable to shovel up the larp to you mouth. Then eat the rice right after. For a better taste, a shot of whisky or a glass of iced cold beer or two(highly recommended) will go nicely with the larp, or you can bite a piece of fresh chili with each ball of rice. Well, I can't take this anymore...I am going home to make myself some larp. I hope this piece has been informative to all of you. _____________________________________________________________ = You want FREE web-based email ? = You want your own @qon.lao.net address?? = Then you want LaoNet's WebMail ! = Get it at http://webmail.lao.net !! _ ***************************************************************** Visit SatJaDham Homepage at: http://www.satjadham.org (or .net) *****************************************************************