Comments | cpratt: The Food

cpratt

The Food

Sep 30, 2010 05:30

Without question, one of the things I was most looking forward to about visiting Southeast Asia was the food. Although I enjoy seeing a YAFTE as much as the next guy (that's short hand for Yet Another Fucking Temple, by the way), being on vacation means good food and drink as much, if not more, than schlepping around the Vietnamese outback staring ( Read more... )

Comments 5

realaustinman September 30 2010, 13:01:57 UTC

Terrific bite-by-bite description - you took great notes!

I could happily spend a week in Laos doing absolutely nothing.

I highly recommend this. One place I remember vividly was a backpacker restaurant we went to on the Nam Khan side of the city that had a broad patio over the river. We were eating a bit later than the rest of the early off-season crowd, the sun had set already, the place was empty, and most of the staff was watching some Thai game show. A few moments after ordering our papaya salad, a little woman came out of the kitchen with an enormous bamboo stick and walked over to a tree. *whap*whap*whap*thunk* She picked up the fruit and walked back to the kitchen. Chaz and I looked at each other and shared the epiphany that there are few places we've been quite like Laos.

Grea

inbhirnis September 30 2010, 14:41:43 UTC

Loved the Ha Ha tale - funny and frightening at the same time!

Doubt that I'll get out there (although with my friend from high school living out there, you never know), but between his local knowledge and your post, I'll know what to try, and what not to...

kybearfuzz September 30 2010, 16:26:50 UTC

I saw Mr. Glass at the bar last night and I'm giving you a returned howdy!

A beard as a sexual organ? Didn't we already know about those? Poor Ha Ha!

Sounds like you guys had a brilliant trip! A great descriptions of all the food that was great to eat!

By the way, I saw a guy at the local Cincinnati Comic Expo a few weekends back that easily could have been your brother! The eyes, the beard, etc., so handsome, all reminded me of you :)

Inquiring minds want to know.... bear_with_me October 1 2010, 04:35:44 UTC

You left out the other end of the equation......How did your GI tract deal with all the strange food and water and drinks? Was it a nightly round of pepto bismol?

Re: Inquiring minds want to know.... cpratt October 1 2010, 11:39:21 UTC

We all experienced GI distress of one kind or another (as well as an, ahem, interesting range of additional medical problems that I'd be happy to discuss in person, but not in public). However, I'd mostly chalk that up to Malarone, which was hugely annoying, especially as it turned out we probably didn't need to take it (the malaria risk in Laos and Cambodia turned out to be have been grossly overestimated by the CDC et al).

I only resorted to Lomotil at one point, knowing that I'd be stuck on a long van ride for an entire day. Overall, though, it was just fine. The one thing that really killed a couple of us was the fresh fruit (apple slices) served in Lao Airways, which resulted in violent diarrhea for two of us, alas. Otherwise, all of the food we had was prepared to extremely hygienic standards - with the possible exception of that one backpacker joint in Phnom Penh, which skeeved me out so much that I avoided anything with fresh/uncooked ingredients.