Food From Northern Laos

Or Lam: Luang Prabang's Peppery Signature Stew If you want to understand Luang Prabang cooking in a single bowl, order or lam. This slow, herb-filled stew is the city's signature — peppery without being fiery, deeply savoury, and thickened not with flour or coconut milk, but with sticky rice. It is comfort food, celebration food, and home food all at once. The ingredient that makes it or lam The defining flavour is mai sakhan — often called pepperwood or chilli wood. It is the dried stem of a woody vine, peeled and cut into short pieces for the pot. It gives or lam a warm, tingling pepperiness, a little like Sichuan pepper crossed with black pepper, and nothing else quite replaces it. Outside Laos it is hard to find; a small pinch of lightly crushed Sichuan peppercorns plus extra black pepper is the closest home substitute. What else goes in the pot Meat — chicken is common at home, beef and pork are also traditional; older recipes use buffalo Round Thai eggplants, qu...