River Weed & Sticky Rice

Have I already said it? Minus the meats, I enjoy Laotian food very much. The vegetables are juicy and lovely. Due to the country's slower rate of development, pesticides haven't invaded the agricultural lands in a huge way. The vegetables are as fresh as they come. I love those tomatoes and lettuce.

The dinners also featured a lot of sticky rice in its various versions. I loved them all. There was white and black sticky rice in a bamboo roll. I picked the black roll which also had bits of mushrooms in it. It was served along with river shrimp and river weed. I loved this combination so much that it was my main for dinner.

This is definitely NOT seaweed or nori. The dried river weed is called khai peen. It has a distinctly murky smell. But when dried and treated this way with seasame seeds and deep frying, it's fairly salty tasty. I'm sure that it will go perfectly with a cold glass of Beer Lao dark. A pity I didn't dare to ask for beer. :p Water would have to do.