laocook

There are certain times in your life that you are required to Dress Up. Going to Parties, Weddings and other Important or Celebratory occasions.

Then there are times when you are required to go “Fancy Dress”, mostly these occasions result in heavy drinking and “the play of the day”. Like most tourists, when visiting other countries, I like to get involved in a bit of History, and many visitors to Vientiane inevitable end up having their photo taken “a la Fancy Dress”. Some with disastrous results. Whilst some people are naturally photogenic, others need a little help from the “Make-Up Lady”. In my case, she either had a hangover or just didn’t like the look of the heavy Laotian with the “Funny Accent”.

I look pale or sick, okay, I was actually tanned, but you would never guess with the layers of make-up she applied (in good faith I was told…). However, my little cousin Marina looks adorable.

King refused to have make-up applied, I should have listened to his advice.

Lauren’s Half-sister and her look fantastic. Laurene would continue to keep the make-up on the entire day…

Rose and Laurene´s Half-sister. Don’t laugh, I am sure that Laotians in Spanish Costume would look just as funny.

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An early morning visit to the Temple, and Rose dons a traditional dress.

Rose, my Auntie Tata Nuan Chun with my cousin Melody (Mariana´s younger sister), my Thai Auntie Rung and Laurene.

Another site that we enjoy visiting is Lao Ocean Girl. (Laotian Girl, geddit!).

She is based in South Korea and her Photo-Blog is rich in content about her everyday life. It´s well worth a visit.

20 small Lobsters arrived earlier during the week, all destined to be eaten and enjoyed…yummy.. We like to par-steam our Lobsters, and have to tie them together, that way when they are cooked, the remain straight. Normally we would tie a spoon to the underside of the Lobster before rapidly steaming it, but when you have more than one, its easier to tie them together. You should shell the Lobsters when they are lukewarm, that way the meat is easily removed from the shell and retains its lovely red colour. We enjoy fresh Lobsters medium rare.

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Sushi is one of our best dishes, above Saki adds the finishing touches to a large Restaurant booking. The pinkness of the Tuna is from the cut that has originated near the stomach, it just melts in your mouth… We have also used Salmon and Seabass.

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Our Pastry section has come up with a mouthwatering Chocolate Dream. Here we present it with “Creme Anglais” and Chocolate Sauce. The base of the cake is a crunchy Coffee Biscuit. The rich Chocolate, especially sent over from Belgium is a Chocoholics fantasy.

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We are based about a 30 minutes drive from the sea. The beaches we choose to chill out at are unspoilt and at this moment, not over crowded. We are lucky that we have a space that is far from the madding crowd, and when we can, we like to take full advantage of it.

Laurene and Patty arrive at our secret location. The Atlantic waters are clean and cool, the sand is soft and warm.

Laurene makes a splash….

:)

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Now that the days are longer, BBQ´s are great. I love the aroma of Char-grilled meats, especially with Ice Cold Beer. Above Peng and I enjoy and early evening drink.

Toys for Boys.

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Outside the restaurant window a couple of birds have decided to set up home. I envy the freedom that they have, being able to soar the skies, carefree and happy. We have decided not to remove the nest, and when the eggs hatch, I am sure that we will name each one of the chicks. No, we are not going to eat them….

;)

We are very happy for all the visitors that browse The Lao Cook Website, the whole inspiration for site was for you. Alas, it is dedicated to you.We want to share with you some other interesting blogs from our friends that feature the Lao Kitchen.

Laocuisine is a site set up by our dearest friend Darly. The site is about sharing the Lao Kitchen and features recipes from well known Authors and Cooks.

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Blogtest de Dara is an interesting site from our French based Lao-Viet friend. She is wonderfully interested in all types of foods and her step-by-step recipes are an inspiration to the Lao Cook Team. The site is in French, but if you email Dara, I am sure that she will send you the recipe in English. (A big hug to Pammy from Laoplanet for introducing Dara´s site to us).

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Canada based Manivan Larprom´s site is another great Laotian Food site. She carefully explains her recipes and also uses Narrative Video Clips to show you the techniques used to create her wonderful Lao dishes, which she learnt from her Father.

Darly, Dara and Manivan have put in a great deal of time to broadcast their love and respect for Lao Foods, and The Lao Cook Team hope that we can do the same.