Located in the north of Laos, the ancient capital of Luang Prabang is strangely peaceful. Here, people seem to be immersed in another world. Not as crowded as Hanoi's Old Quarter, even less like Saigon. Instead, it reminds them of an old corner of Hoi An.
During the day, Luang Prabang is quiet, but at night, the old town becomes more bustling with a night market selling handicrafts and food. The food court is located at the end of the night market, in a small alley, obscured by grey coal smoke.
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The barbecue counter was a row of tables, covered with green banana leaves, greasy from the meat skewers. The tables were filled with skewers of food.
Here are grilled snakehead fish skewers, there are charcoal-grilled sea bass (or red snapper); golden-brown chicken thighs, chicken wings, or whole chickens are skewered or clamped with bamboo skewers; shiny quails, and pieces of crispy-skinned pork belly lie neatly on green banana leaves.
The fat stall owner, wearing an apron, stood grilling skewers of meat and fish over red-hot coals, occasionally brushing on a sizzling layer of fat. The woman asked us in broken English what we wanted to eat, then quickly pointed to the meats and told us the prices.
The chicken thigh skewer was 30,000 kip (about 90,000 VND), the fish skewer was the same, the smaller pieces of meat were 20,000 kip… We chose a few different types and sat down at the street-side tables.
The owner quickly put all the skewers of meat on the red charcoal stove to heat up, gray smoke rose up when the fat dripped on the hot coals, blown away by the big fan, leaving only the fragrant aroma of grilled meat, mixed with the smell of kitchen smoke.
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Luang Prabang people eat salty food (the taste is somewhat similar to Northern cuisine), but they use a lot of herbs, especially lemongrass.
A typical example is grilled fish: the fish is cleaned, gutted, stuffed with lemongrass stalks, coated with salt and chili, and then grilled over hot coals.
Grilled fish is already fragrant, mixed with the scent of lemongrass, making passersby stop and look back to see what dish is so fragrant?
The pork, although not as firm as the "pig" of the Northwest region, is also firm, the pork skin is grilled over a fire, dripping fat onto the hot coals below making a sizzling sound, giving off a deafening aroma.
The grilled pork belly has a slightly crispy and chewy skin, firm meat, and a smoky smell, making it hard for people to resist taking a bite and sipping Lao beer, then praising how delicious it is.
Besides meats, there is also a Lao pork sausage called “sai gog”. This dish is made from ground pork, rice, lemongrass and other spices.
This type of sausage can be fried and then heated on a charcoal grill. It has a slightly bitter taste similar to our intestines. It is a specialty of the people of Luang Prabang, along with Labb (a salad consisting of finely chopped meat).
In the summer air of the highlands, we sat in the middle of the alley crowded with tourists. The yellow light from the incandescent bulbs under the plastic roof became cozy and magical.
At night in Luang Prabang, there is nothing better than wandering on a small street, drinking some Lao beer, and munching on fragrant grilled meat from the mountain town.
And suddenly I miss the hustle and bustle of Hoi An at night, the lovely noise of small street corners in Saigon...
Alex Tran
