| Half Way Around the word without a plane |
Exploring new gastronomic territories…Anthropology may not be a hazardous sport (cf. Nigel Barley’s “Not a Hazardous Sport”), but can be a gastronomic adventure…I’ll explain... Laos’ mountains areas, where ethnic minorities live, are rather inhospitable places: dry heats, rocky grounds, thick forest, etc. Food resources are therefore quite limited: few vegetables, mainly sticky rice cultivated using slash and burn methods (though irrigated rice paddies are getting more common). A few farm animals too: pigs, buffaloes, chickens … but these are mainly used for traditional rituals (sacrifices for healing or for burial ceremonies) and for barter transaction with low land Lao (the majority, more economically developed). So, where do mountains Lao find proteins? Sensitive soul, don’t read further down! (some of you may have notice that my gustative curiosity has no limit…) 
Grasshopper kebabs … taste like a mix of dry shrimps and meadow grass … very crunchy. The only problem is the legs, which tend to get stuck in your teeth!
Tarnish plant bugs kebabs, leave a foamy squirt in the palate, taste like cheese.
 Monitor lizards (alive) on their way to the central market – too difficult to prepare, I didn’t test it. It’s fairly simple, while tramping in the forest, each time we would spot an animal the guide would reply “good for BBQ” (gecko, gecko’s eggs), “good for soups” (red ants, red ants’ eggs), or just “good as it is”, i.e. raw! We also tried all kind of plants, including flowers, roots, cardamom shoots, bamboo shoots, etc. 
Our guide, Nic, is preparing cardamom shoots for tonight’s soup.
Kuang, our other guide, show us which flowers to pick up for our diner.
Romain too is pushing out its own gastronomic limits when eating pumpkin … and finding it good! I think that the  The proof!!! In the “low land”, we’re also enjoying traditional Lao specialties, including pork (or buffaloes, or chicken) Laab (raw minced meat marinated in chili and served with fresh mint leaves and “sacred” basil, tasting like licorice) and the omnipotent sticky rice, a variety of rice different to the ones usually sold in Europe, steam cooked. At the crossroad of Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese gastronomy, the Lao cooking comes in variety and quality, chili and perfumed as we like it! We are collecting hips of savory recipes in our backpack for your pleasure next time we meet … no grasshoppers or Tarnish plant bugs, promise! 01:00 - 14/05/2007 - Ajouter un commentaire
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From New-Caledonia to France without using a plane.
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