laocook

We buy our chickens whole and section them in the kitchens. The thighs are destined for our Teppenyaki Tables as well as our Ping Gai dish, the breast meat is used for our Wok section, the wings and legs are used for our Staff Dining Room and the bones are used for stocks and sauces.

The giblets are used for snacks!

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The hearts are simply marinated with the 3G´s (grated ginger, garlic and galangal) then seasoned with pepper, sweet soy sauce and mushroom soy sauce.

Back in Laos they are grilled over red coals, which give them a lovely BBQ aroma. I have fond memories of buying a few sticks from a lady selling them at a Vientiane Bar next to the Mekong river. She would carry her (very hot) concrete BBQ “bucket” to tables and grill them to order.

In our kitchen we have to settle with pan frying them over a hot flame.

Notice that we dont use oil for the frying. The fat around the hearts provides the oil.

In order to get the smokey BBQ aroma, we give the pan a few heavy shakes.

At the moment we are not serving the hearts to our guests, that would just raise a few eyebrows!

Instead they are used for a late night snack by the Laocooks, accompanied with a cold bottle of beer after Service.

Sometimes it is the simplest things that make us happy.

(and yes, that’s a fish eye in the first photo)