Ping Moo, Jeao Maclen

Jeao Maclen, grill with meat cooking in the background

The other day I was in town and it had been a long time since breakfast. Seeing this lady frying up some flesh in front of the post office I decided to give it a go. She had a large discerning clientele with all the tuk tuk drivers and the Hmong women that sell herbs and embroidery. Mostly she had tongue, liver, and intestines for sale, but I did spot a good cut of meat.
Oh.. An explanation… Ping means to cook over a fire as in barbeque, Moo is pork, Jeao is any one of a million dipping sauces for eating sticky rice and mac-len is vegetable-tomato.
The pork had just come off the grill but she put it back on to sear both sides. Most people like their meat back on the grill for a couple of seconds before they take it to insure that any germs it has picked up from flies are killed. I also ordered a thousand kip of sticky rice, the pork was five thousand so the meal cost sixty cents.
When I asked if she had jeao and what kind the woman replied jeao tamada. Tamada means regular. I don’t think there is such a thing as regular jeao, every jeao needs a name. I was very happy when she showed it to me. Jeao maclen is my favourite. I was even happier when she served it up.
Look carefully, see that dark colour. Not the red of tomatoes. That’s the charcoal that flaked off the tomatoes. I like all the ingredients for Jeao cooked on the fire. Not just cooked but slightly blackened on the outside. The taste is different. I’m going to do a post on how to make it later. For now, the other ingredients are green onions, garlic, hot peppers, fish sauce, bang nua. I don’t like it with pa dek, too earthy.

Sorry couldn't wait for the photo
I’ve gotten jeao maclen in Vang Vien, Hway Xai, and Luang Prabang on the street and always been disappointed. Fried tomatoes, tastes like tomato sauce for spaghetti.
The rice was fresh and hot, the water free and plentiful with the communal cup being clean. There was a big umbrella for shade.

Jeao Maeng Kang

This didn’t taste as good as it looks. The beetles are of a type that live in the mai mak neeow tree. They eat the leaves. My wife bought the beetles pre cooked at the market. They should have been lightly toasted over the fire, I assume they were. Pictured are the typical ingredients for Jeao, fresh green peppers and cilantro, toasted shallots, garlic, and hot peppers. Fish sauce in the background. Not pictured to save delicate sensibilities, bang nua.
It tasted too strong for me. I think often strong flavours are used in jeao because the rice thins it out. I thought the similar jeao maeng dah that also is made of a big bug tasted better. My wife suggested that perhaps this one had more actual meat to it, and so tasted stronger. Also it often takes me a while to warm to strong tastes.
Before crushing in the coke my wife removed the heads and wings.
Maybe it’s just a food that takes a while to appreciate.

Completed Jeao ready for dipping

On Language and Transliteration

Looking at this wall hanging should give you some idea of the issues involved. Across the top are the consonants with accompanying pictures of typical words that begin with the sound. The next two thirds is a complicated series of columns representing vowels and their length of pronunciation as well as tones and god knows what else. Now which do you think might be the most easy to understand.

Recently I got a message asking about the way I turn Lao, sorry I mean Laotian, into written English.
Most especially with the name that I spell as Tdooee, but could also be spelled Twee, Doee, Tui, and so forth, all of these examples are approximately right. I often mangle the language in other ways that I’m sure drive Lao speakers nuts. My apologies.
Spoken Lao, has no official way to put it into English. Complicating things, there are also sounds we don’t have in English, and also different phonetic alphabet to use.
I first ran into this problem when I started trying to speak Thai. I wanted to take the bus to get back to where I was living, and the woman selling tickets didn’t speak English. I lived in Lampang and so I said “I go Lampang”, she said “where?” I repeated myself and so on. Eventually I got out my guidebook, pointed, and she pronounced something close to Lambang. The B being close to the B in bong. Often this P/B sound is spelled with a ph. I think it’s called an aspirated P.
When I write words in my notebook to learn vocabulary often I just write the two consonants on top of each other. I also do this with T and D,
My wife has a buddy named Gow. Spelled with the same letter that begins the word for chicken, gai. My wife spells her friend’s nam Keo. Now the K and the G sounds in Lao are different and you would think they would be hard to confuse. I think the problem lies in our G being too soft, the Lao pronounce it harder or with more carry through.
Adding further complications your way to put Lao sounds into the Roman Alphabet might well depend on which school of learning Lao you come from. In Lao they have one way that mostly comes from the sounds as they are spelled in French, and the Thai that most people migrated from use a more English spelling. I began to learn Thai first but try to use Lao spelling because I think it’s more fashionable. Sometimes there is just a problem because the Lao who translate place names can’t speak English and they are just guessing, or they were guessing fifty years ago and now no one dares correct the misspelling because there are issues of face.
I will admit I love misspelling things and being able to get away with it. Without a spell check I’d be lost in the English speaking world.
Besides having tones there are also long and short vowel sounds. My studies have all been, ahem, “informal” so I’ve never learned tones, I just mimic the way Lao people speak and it mostly works. Informal in this case means once a month I might write something down.
Now it’s time for some true apologies. There are a small number of real Laotian Language Scholars out there. If you are reading, sorry. I promise to stop acting as if I know what I’m talking about. I probably fool most others, don’t you think? I’ll also try to stop using Lao words in English when there is a perfectly good English word to use. Except for the flavour enhancer Bang Nua. I do that to protect food Nazis from going completely around the bend. Maybe it’s time for a glossary.

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.

Luang Namtha

Tatu and His Handlers

This is an extremely nice Spanish couple I met in Luang Namtha. I saw them at the restaurant next door to the internet place and when they left I rushed up the street to ask them for a photo. I thought them very photogenic. They also signified to me the coming of age of Luang Namtha, the town is now a destination in itself with quite a few guest houses and people coming to stay for a week or even more. The peace sign isn’t posed, I didn’t ask him to do that.
The little dogs name is Tatu. Tatu also comes from Spain. They brought him on the airplane without a problem. The only difficulties they encountered were at hotels in Thailand. Being somewhat tuned in to the culture here I can only imagine. Try to bring a dog in our house and my wife would hit the roof, wouldn’t even allow it in the soup pot.
I wrote down these people's names but lost my notebook. Like more than a couple young “hippies” I met on my travels they were very friendly and down to earth. I think people just stereotype too often. They never used “man” as slang once.
There are two things to note in the picture. Above them in the background is the sign at the entrance to Zuelas Guest House, and both of these young folks are wearing a Tong, as in the man purse I posted about. Cool.

Luang Namtha Airport 2/07


This other picture is of the airport. More than anything else the airport will open up Luang Namtha and it’s environs to the casual tourist. If people can fly, they will come. Only the most daring of tourists will take an hour or two bus ride, anyone will fly. As of today to get to Luang Namtha you can either take a 5 hour from Luang Prabang bus to Udomxai then bus to Luang Namtha. Fly to Udomxai then bus. Fly to Huay Xai over on the Thai border then a five hour minimum very dusty in dry season maybe a lot longer and muddy in wet season bus ride. Bus ride down from Boten on the China border. Or even more unlikely from Huay Xai fast boat Xiengkok, then Sawngthaews to Muang Sing and Luang Namtha. There is no easy way.
Today I estimate there are at least fifty tourists a day in Luang Namtha. A lot more than you see on the street. A lot of people don’t even stay on the street, but in some of the guest houses over towards the bus station. Three years ago Luang Namtha was more a place to stop on the way to Muang Sing, very few used it as a destination in itself. I met people in Luang Namtha for whom this was it, their most off the beaten track destination. I’d guess the tourist visits have doubled since three years ago.
The airport as well as the new banked hard surface road are going to be done someday. It seems as if that day will never come to look at things. Such big projects such teeny machines. They are working at them both. Work goes on seven days a week, and they are using a lot of heavy equipment. I saw the only bottom load dumps I‘ve seen in Laos on the road. When they are done watch out, Luang Namtha would be a different place with another hundred and fifty visits per day.

Ghapi

Ghapi, absolutely deadly shrimp paste

This is a brand called Ghapi Lime, from Thailand but the little part in the red dot is Lao writing, something about ingredients. Notice there is no English? Not much call from the export market. This is very strong fermented fish 95% shrimp, 5% salt
Often used in hot papaya salad and the like. I can tell the Ghapi is coming out when my wife’s girl friends come over and I start hearing the saht hitting the coke.
In this case it was served as a side with lunch. The hot peppers are used to dip. You get a little of the hot pepper with every bite. For reference the diameter of the can is a little smaller than a Skol can.
Don’t know why I used this picture. I don’t cook with it, yet. Insects, wild cats, organ meats, ok, but not yet ghapi.

Zuela

OK here we go, my first blatant plug of a business.

A few years ago while in Muang Sing I met a guy Vong who worked at the bank. His English was very good and it turned out I had rented a motorcycle from his business over in Luang Namtha.
That night he took me to a guest house opening party. The guest house was owned by a local oficial. While there, through him as a translator, someone asked my why bother coming to Muang Sing or even Laos it being such a rural out of the way place. I replied (speaking in my limited Lao) how the Lao food was so good, I waved my hand at the view we could all see out the front of the restaurant, the sun was setting over fields of rice all the way to the mountains, and said how beautiful the countryside was, and I mentioned the easy going manner of the Lao people. Actually the normal type of thing you say to anyone when they ask about their own country. The lao lao had already been flowing, and they loved my praise of Loas, hard to go wrong praising a country to it's inhabitants.

When I went back to Luang Namtha this year with photos of Vong and Sai’s young daughter he was standing in front of his brand new guest house. Good connections to be had at the bank? I stayed there that night and a few more nights when I went back up to Luang Namtha province.

Here are the details as of this writing.
All rooms are $6 except the two rooms available out by the kitchen that have a shared bath and are $2. All rooms have hot water but as of now no AC. They are large, clean, have a place to hang clothes, wooden furniture, a painting, ceiling fan etc, There is a lot of wood used in the construction. Most of the walls are brick painted with some kind of sealant to make them shiny and clean, similar to the outside of the guest house.
The restaurant has an extensive menu kind of in the style of large western orientated hotels in Vientiane. (What that means is that if you are expecting something to be like back home fugetaboutit. But it will be very palatable by western standards, look back at my post about Yam Moon Sen three posts ago. Made not very hot, and not too spicy just for you) If you are looking for regular Lao food order from that portion of the menu. Coffee comes in coffee mugs and the restaurant area is a quiet pleasant place to while away time reading or writing post cards.
The entire guest house itself is fairly quiet being set back off the street down as small short alley. The way to find it other than asking or looking for the small sign is to look for the tallest thing on “the street”. That’s the brand new four story tall guest house that was being built by their neighbours next door. Highest building I saw in Luang Namtha.
When I urged Sai, that’s Vong’s wife, to up the rates so to make them comparable to similar rooms in the area she replied that she was more interested in having a full house every night than making tons off one room. They do seem to fill often. Mostly word of mouth but also the mini bus drivers like to take the guided tourists there. The standards meet the requirements of the guided tours and they save ten or fifteen bucks. There is no pressure to eat in the restaurant, rent a motorcycle, change money, or use any of the other services they offer. They are happy that you stay with them.
The hotel is run by Sai, the motorcycle rental by her mom, bikes are serviced by Vong’s brothers, and there are many brothers and sisters working throughout.
The name Zuela comes from Vong and Sai’s little girl who is now of an age to pretend to have tea parties with her friends and is cute as a button.