{"id":568,"date":"2010-01-23T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennyw.com\/food\/568"},"modified":"2010-01-23T18:57:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-24T01:57:00","slug":"tamarind-luang-prabang-laos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/?p=568","title":{"rendered":"Tamarind (Luang Prabang, Laos)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rating: <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/kennyRating.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/kennyRating.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In a quiet northeastern section of the old city, near Wat Nong, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tamarindlaos.com\/\">Tamarind<\/a>, a small restaurant that is famous for its Friday night fish feasts and cooking classes. We didn\u2019t manage to make it to either of those events (they were catering a wedding so the weekend cooking classes were cancelled), but we did have a relaxing lunch there yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>Tamarind specializes in Lao food. Though our first Lao restaurant experience <a href=\"http:\/\/lawolf.net\/?p=433\">was a complete bust<\/a>, we decided to give Lao food another shot after reading the many raves about Tamarind. We ordered two of Tamarind\u2019s specialties. The first was an assortment of dips, accompanied by an explanation sheet with pictures and descriptions of the dips. From the sheet we learned that the \u201cpurpose of the dips is to add flavor to the sticky rice that is the staple of Laos food.\u201d The platter consisted of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeow Mak Len \u2013 a tomato-based dip that tasted like a chunky salsa without the jalapenos. <\/li>\n<li>Jeow Pak Hom \u2013 a coriander dip that was my favorite of the bunch. It had some chili-kick, and reminded me of a chunkier form of coriander chutney. <\/li>\n<li>Jeow Mak Keua \u2013 a smoky eggplant dip that tasted like a good <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Baba_ghanoush\">baba ghanoush<\/a> <\/li>\n<li>Jeow Bong \u2013 my least favorite, a garlic based dip where \u201cbuffalo skin adds texture\u201d; for us the buffalo skin only added an icky flavor. <\/li>\n<li>Khai Pene \u2013 sold all over the streets of Luang Prabang, Khai Pene is made from a vegetable that grows in the river (known as seaweed, river moss, or Mekong weed), is pounded flat, laid to dry, and topped with garlic, tomato, and sesame seeds. Tamarind\u2019s house-made version was delicious. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Our sheet mentioned that the dips are very spicy when eaten in a private home, though at Tamarind they are unfortunately served <a href=\"http:\/\/laurenlavoie.com\/travel\/310\">tourist spicy<\/a>. However, it\u2019s in Laos that we have become enamored with sticky rice, and the dips were reasonably tasty and fun to scoop up with the rice.<\/p>\n<p>We also ordered lemongrass stuffed with chicken. This was by far my favorite Lao dish to date. The lemongrass is stuffed with a mixture of herbs and chicken, then the entire ensemble is dipped in egg and pan fried. It would be worth taking Tamarind\u2019s cooking class just to learn how to make this dish.<\/p>\n<p>Tamarind has a cute, cafe-style atmosphere, and friendly staff. While I\u2019m still not a huge fan of Lao food, if you\u2019re in Luang Prabang it\u2019s worth considering a stop at Tamarind to get a taste of the local cuisine. And while you\u2019re there, definitely order the stuffed lemongrass.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Lao dips\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lavoie\/4476046684\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lao dips\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2791\/4476046684_8dd959b969.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a>     <br \/><em>Vegetarian dips that we shared with little Vid<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Chicken stuffed with lemongrass\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/lavoie\/4476050772\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Chicken stuffed with lemongrass\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2780\/4476050772_417218e471.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/><\/a>     <br \/><em>Lemongrass stuffed with chicken, kaffir lime, and coriander, with peanut sauce<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tamarindlaos.com\/\">Tamarind<\/a>     <br \/>Ban Wat Nong, Old Town     <br \/>Luang Prabang, Laos     <br \/>+856 20 7770484<\/p>\n<p>Daily: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rating: In a quiet northeastern section of the old city, near Wat Nong, is Tamarind, a small restaurant that is famous for its Friday night fish feasts and cooking classes. We didn\u2019t manage to make it to either of those events (they were catering a wedding so the weekend cooking classes were cancelled), but we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28,89,50,52,68],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-chilies","tag-food","tag-laos","tag-luang-prabang","tag-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennyw.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}