Village Food in Laos - SPICY CHILI WOOD and AUTHENTIC KHMU FOOD in Luang Prabang

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Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

Highly recommend White Elephant Adventures: During our trip to Luang Prabang, one of my goals was to experience authentic Laos culture. So we set off on a 2 day excursion, into the mountains, not too far from Luang Prabang. The first day wed spend learning about the Khmu culture and eating local authentic Khmu food. The next day, wed move onto a Hmong village to eat Hmong food. We met up with Alex and his team from White Elephant Adventures This is not sponsored, I paid in full for this tour, but Alex and his team were gracious to really set us up with a custom tour about food and culture. I highly recommend them for off the beaten path, authentic culture tours in Luang Prabang. It wasnt too long of a drive, and we stopped at a variety of markets along the way, but we eventually made it to the Khmu village. It happened to be the village of our guide. It was a gorgeous village, by the river. For lunch we had some simple bamboo shoot mixtures wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. Khmu mainly eat sticky rice. After lunch we walked around, took a swim in the river, and just hung out, waiting for the dinner festivities. We purposefully didnt really make too much of a plan, because we wanted to just see what unfolded naturally at the village. They decided to butcher a small pig for the village and for the evening festivities. They also planned a baci ceremony - a Laos ceremony of blessing, which was an amazing experience and left me feeling so incredibly welcome. Anyway, after the afternoon swim, the men got started butchering the pig and parting off each piece of meat - serious nose to tail dining - to the person who was designated to cook each different dish. What was amazing to me is that everyone in the community had a role, and each worked diligently for the greater community. There were so many different local Khmu Lao foods being prepared that I could hardly keep up. But one of the most interesting dishes for me was the or lam, a well know Lao Khmu dish, but this version unlike anything I had tried before. One of the single most amazing ingredient is spicy chili wood - its actually a vine that grows in the jungle, and it is really spicy and makes your tongue tingle. The baci ceremony was spectacular, the meal of all things pig with the community was special, and at the end of the night the children from the village sang us a couple of songs. It was a fantastic day, delicious authentic and fresh Lao Khmu food, and an incredible time to learn about Khmu culture, and interact with the community. 10 Best Things to Do in Luang Prabang
Date: 2019-08-19

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Comments and reviews: 10

Nkaujcoobcuasluam Tsab
What youll noticed in this episode is that all the food are very natural. No fatting or greasing ingredients. Everything is fresh. You have to understand the culture to appreciate them. In the Khamu village they treat you guys with a lot of respect by the hand tying a lot of blessing there already. Next butchered a whole pig just to welcome you and have feast together thats another respect. In the hmong village same thing in every hmong house when your eating you have to that bowl of peas juice or pumpkin juice and or green mustard juice. It is like your having a water bottle to flush down your food. Really appreciate you took the time the effort to travel to the hmong village. It was hard for you to understand because of the language barrier but you did a good job
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Amit Chauhaan
You Know Mark, Its Seldom We Come Across such opportunity once in a life time witch become Remembrances of Deep. the kind of Hospitality and the Culture they have shown is so embracing and loving. I do understand as such Innocent ppl so simple do not have Urban etiquette but I Regard you for embracing them with their ethnic Culture and their habits. This Video of yours is Remarkable and I loved it. Stay Blessed forever my Friend Good Luck ++++++
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Jody Mullins
Love these videos. My wife and are planning a trip to Laos mainly after watching these I can get by with conversational stuff but these have really helped my vocabulary. Lao people are the friendliest people in the world. i learned the language as a missionary over 30 years ago here in the states and this will be a dream trip for me. Thanks to Mark, family and friends.
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Sai Bounsalat
Btw, we as Asians in California don't know any hmong people that eat that way, they only eat rice with water and boil chickin, o i know cuz my sister in law is hmong, btw ur video suck cuz ur tour guy was wrong, but it's not ur fault cuz they lied, stil love ur videos when they are facts
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raveenet
Khamu people are linguistically related to Khmer people of Cambodia and Khasi people of Meghalaya, India. Many historians belive, these people are descendants of the first people to domesticate rice from a wild rice about 6000 years ago. They are also the indigenous people of Laos.
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Alton Williams
Wow That was a really great video Mark. So great how they all came together and prepared the meal together and truly spent quality time with one another. You can see families here in America eating at a restaurant and each one of them are staring at their cell phone.
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Silentc Breezy
What sad is the reason Lao is the minority is because the U. S bomb Laos with a lots i mean alots of bombs during the vietnam secret war that no one knew about til later. But what so cool is hmong and laos help each other. And their food look so delicious.
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Gei Xiong
You guys are couple Looney Tunes. I don't think I can eat the foods you showed now. I have been eating the crappy Western foods for so long. One good thing is that all the foods you eat there are all Natural. not shitty artificial like in the States.
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priya das gupta
Mark this shows how humble and simple person you and your famly is. you mingle with every type of people and their diversities around the world. thanks mark, yin and micah, joel and the rest for exploring the new culture and food tour to us. .
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Tsering dolker
Hi Mark- you always go to different part of the world. If ever you visit toronto please let me know. I want to take you some nice place to eat Tibetan and Indian food. I love your vlog. With regards tsering. Say hi to your wife and micah.
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