You've never been to Pakse

if you haven't had foe at the Lankham Hotel, but I'll start at the beginning.


Up on the Bolaven Plateau I met a guy driving one of those Honda 200cc Enduros. He told me that he rented it from the Lankham so that's directly where I headed on return to Pakse.

Usually I speak Lao to people working in hotels, my 200 word vocabulary is easier than the usual 20 words of English spoken at the reception desk. At the Lankham I switched to English after the first sentence. The owner's son and his wife manage the hotel and both are very fluent English speakers.



Owner and grandson

The owners of the Lankham are an ethnic Vietnamese family. I say ethnic because they are 100% Lao by nationality. They all speak Lao when talking amongst themselves, even grandma. The family is educated, one son received advanced degrees in China, the other in America, both by scholarship.

The hotel is a smoothly functioning business as it needs to be with so many working there. The lobby is always attended and has many people checking in and out, getting left luggage, renting motorcycles, using the net, or booking tickets, all the time. The room I rented was cheaper than the competition, and though small, was clean, with AC, TV, fridge, and it all worked. A heck of a lot of Thai and Chinese stay there, good value. I think the rooms on the second floor are better and higher priced. I don't remember what I paid, not too much. There are two halls with rooms both sides and 3 upper floors, maybe 60 rooms or more. Out front is an espresso cart with a blender for smoothies too.


Ashtray Lankham

I was forthcoming about what I intended to use the bike for, and daughter in law suggested I didn't need a large bike but one of the made in Thailand Suzuki 125s might be plenty of power for the slow roads. Not as expensive as the dirt bike, but a lot more solid than the Kaolaos. Good call. Unstated, but in my mind, parts and repairs are a lot easier too. Try getting a large unusual bike worked on in a small village, might not have the right sized tires. The bike I was shown was shiny new looking, I checked the lights and brakes then hopped on to take it around the block, odometer read 450km, the thing was brand spanking new. I left it at the attached mechanics shop around back for the night and they changed the oil and adjusted up the brakes a smidgen.


Street in front of Lankham

But good rooms, great service, informed conversation, and reputable rental is not what really impressed me, it was the foe. In Vietnamese spelled "pho" and in all languages pronounced like the fur of the dog that bit you but without the R. Maybe more resembling the Fur of Fur Elise the famous bagatelle by Beethoven. Like Fur Elise good foe is understated excellence when done right.




Not the usual piano and not understated excellence but I liked it, in the style of Jimi Hendrix.

I'm not sure how foe is made in Vietnam where it comes from but in Laos the broth is light but extremely flavorful. Very little color to the soup but packed full of tastes that combine and compliment each other and are hard to pin down. At the Lankham in the early morning I saw them bringing the ribs of two whole cows fresh from the butcher to make the broth. Over twenty people are employed in the preparation, cooking, and serving of the foe. Everyone has their special job from preparing the ribs by trimming off the bits they don't want to cutting vegetables, setting and clearing tables and so on.

What's in the soup besides cow bones? I don't know. Often foe tastes of cinnamon or anise, and probably they were in the water at the Lankham, I don't know, but in no way did I taste them. Maybe they don't use them, I don't know, same with salt and bang nua. All of the flavors are subtle enough that they can't be pinned down. When the broth pours it shines, clear it is, thin it's not.


Second best thing in the world, foe at the Lankham



I only saw one person cooking the noodles, I have to assume it was the woman in charge of the business. The foe restaurant is operated by the sister of the owner. Of course the thin sen foe (foe noodles) are just barely cooked enough. Thin sliced beef and green onions minced are added so that they are barely cooked and they cool the soup down enough so that when it arrives it is hot, but not scalding, you can eat it right away.

On the side and complimentary is a large glass of unsweetened weak iced tea in a bottomless glass. Also you get a bowl of just barely cooked, still slightly stiff, boiled cabbage chunks and green beans without any added flavoring. More of the same uncooked in a bowl in front of you, and a tin with a lid and chunks of lime to squeeze. Lettuce leaves, cilantro, basil, sprouts, hot peppers, everything you could use with foe.

I squeeze a couple slices of lime and dig in, after half a bowl I devour all the boiled cabbage and half the beans. The boiled veggies are great, clean the pallet, tasty, a break from the constant chomping on lettuce, mint, and cilantro that usually accompanies me eating of foe.

The meal isn't cheap. Maybe twenty thousand kip or so. Between eight and nine there's a big office crowd from all the government offices and banks. Tables are big, they can seat eight or ten people, and seating is communal, just pull up a chair. Mid morning us tourists and a few business people wanting to talk away from the office. What better way to clinch the deal than over a great bowl of foe. Lunch crowd is over and done with by 1:30 and by mid-afternoon all the huge pots are scrubbed and dishes washed and stored awaiting the next dawn.

Haven't eaten foe at the Lankham Hotel? Well you haven't really been to Pakse yet.

Foe

Foe

Pronounced Fuhhh. Spelled in Vietnamese as pho, it’s pronounced the same. Whatever you call it, I call it liquid heaven.
When the French brought the Vietnamese to Laos to be their bureaucrats, the Vietnamese brought foe. I’m very appreciative as I like it best of all the things they brought, better than the fresh baguette, better than liver pate, better than the dark coffee in drinking glasses, better even than the pretty Vietnamese girls.
I’ve never been to Vietnam, so I can’t compare. Lao foe is above all fresh tasting, similar to the rest of the food. In Thailand they have a noodle soup called Quway Tyow. Quway Tuow is dead and heavy. Foe is alive.
The basis for foe is above all the good soup stock. When we butchered up an elk back home one of the best parts was that we now had a large supply of good quality bones. We can’t buy good bones in the super market where we live. Normally they are sold for dogs and are old, or with ribs and too meaty. Good bones make a very flavourful but light soup stock. Good foe needs to be transparent and shiny.

Tdooee Foe Jao Gow

This restaurant is called Tdooee Foe Jao Gow and it’s in Dalat Kuwa Din. Dalat Kuwa Din is the wet market next to the bus station in downtown Vientiane. To find this foe restaurant walk all the way to the back of the market to where there is car parking. Not behind the market next to the klong where there is also parking, but rather the car parking that is in the market. Along the south side of the parking lot are a row of dry goods stores, follow that row of stores east past the edge of the parking area and you are there. For reference the big road out by the front of the market is south, the bus station is west. You could print the photo here and take it with you.
We found (meaning my wife found it, I use we in the liberal sense) this market three years ago and it’s still there today, maybe it will be around for a while. The name would lead you to believe so. Tdooee is simply a name like Joe or Mike, foe is the soup, joa gow means the old one, or the old place.
I asked what was in the stock and the daughter of the owner said yes to beef bones, salt, and bang nua, but when I asked what else she just smiled. I tasted a tiny hint of cinnamon, maybe it was star anise, whatever it was it’s not there to be tasted, only in the background. They were light on both the salt and the bang nua. Probably they figured if someone wanted it they could add, it’s on the table, or maybe they figure the sauce is rich enough to stand on it’s own.
The greens on the side were the classic three, mint, basil, and fresh leaves of lettuce. As soon as I would eat some lettuce more would appear. There is another plate with hot peppers and slices of lime on it. I always squeeze in a couple slices of lime, just the kind of guy I am. I always skip all hot stuff in soups, My cilia don’t work and hot stuff goes down the wrong pipe. No cilia from doing hits on short hot pipes for too many years, burnt em.

Daughter of Tdooee

Besides the broth and greens this place does the noodles to a T. At home I always over cook them and they come out droopy. The other sin is to under cook them, and that’s worse. At this place they are cooked only, just barely enough. They have to remain perky even sitting in the hot foe water.
The meat is the least important part for me. Of course if they cut corners they would lose customers, so they do it right. They use good fresh beef, sliced paper thin and placed in the bowl just after the broth and noodles. The heat of the water is the only cooking it gets. When they throw in the meat balls and sausage the temp comes down cool enough so you can dish in right away.
The broth is hot, piping hot. I typically drink the water before eating the noodles. Serves two purposes, one it’s the part I like best, and two, when I eat the noodles they aren’t as wet, and don’t splash all over. The Loa call this draining the pond. The expression comes from the way they drain the water out of the rice field then catch all the fish left stranded. When the girls at the restaurant saw that I had drained the pond they brought me another bowl of just broth, I squeezed in a couple more limes and dug on in, almost couldn’t walk away.