The Slow Road
Two Women Wandering the World
Scenes from the street markets of Luang Prabang and from the class where Melissa learned to cook Laotian food.
It may not be an official franchise, but it sure was good!
Part of a traditional Lao communal dinner we had at a restaurant: Red snapper steamed in banana leaves, and a plate of noodles and vegetables for making lettuce roll-ups
Even the street markets in Luang Prabang are quiet
Laotians grow a lot of fresh greens and herbs, including dill, scallions, mint, and Thai basil. In the center are purple egglants and galangal (a ginger-like root)
The offerings used for spirit houses here are almost exclusively made from banana leaves and orange marigolds
These covered baskets are used for storing or serving the sticky rice that accompanies every meal in Laos
Lao ingenuity: homemade graters fashioned from bamboo and bent pieces of old soda cans
Baskets used for steaming rice
Tanks of live fish in a market
Street markets sell lots of things besides food
Laos is the first place in Asia where we've seen babies carried on people's back
Hot chilis (foreground) are used to make a popular chili powder (background) for flavoring dishes
Bags of dried fruit and lime leaves (for tea) and dried river weed with sesame seeds (a popular snack)
Ingrediants laid out for the Laotian cooking class that Melissa took
Cooking sticky rice in a bamboo steamer over a pot of boiling water on a brazier
The wonderful chef from Tamarind restaurant who taught Melissa's class
Cooking students sitting down to enjoy what they made in class
The finished lunch: fish steamed in banana leaves, stalks of lemongrass stuffed with chicken and deep fried, a raw beef salad, and various sauces, plus a basket of sticky rice to eat them with
Melissa proved talented at slicing and stuffing the stalks of lemongrass
The view from the cooking-class pavilion
Tents set up for Luang Prabang's nightly craft market at the base of Phousi hill
One of the many stalls selling cheap and tasty fruit drinks, sandwiches, and crepes
Which combination of fruit juice should I try tonight? (The answer usually involves pineapples, oranges, and mangos)
A baby sleeping under a little mosquito net while its parents sell goods in the night market
Fresh spring rolls fried while you wait
