Lao cuisine or Laotian cuisine (, , ) is the national cuisine of Laos.
The staple food of the Lao is sticky rice (, khao niao, ). Laos has the highest sticky rice consumption per capita in the world with an average of of sticky rice consumed annually per person. Sticky rice is deeply ingrained in the culture, religious tradition, and national identity of Laos. It is a common belief within the Lao community that no matter where they are in the world, sticky rice will always be the glue that holds the Lao communities together, connecting them to their culture and to Laos. Affinity for sticky rice is considered the essence of what it means to be Lao. Often the Lao will refer to themselves as luk khao niao (, ), which can be translated as 'children or descendants of sticky rice'.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has described Laos as a "collector's paradise". Laos has the highest degrees of biodiversity of sticky rice in the world. As of 2013, approximately 6,530 glutinous rice varieties were collected from five continents (Asia, South America, North America, Europe and Africa) where glutinous rice are grown for preservation at the International Rice Genebank (IRGC). The IRRI gathered more than 13,500 samples and 3,200 varieties of glutinous rice from Laos.
The trifecta of Laos' national cuisine are sticky rice, laab, and green papaya salad (, ). The most famous Lao dish is laab (, ; sometimes also spelled larb, larp or laap), a spicy mixture of marinated meat or fish that is sometimes raw (prepared like ceviche) with a variable combination of herbs, greens, and spices.
Lao cuisine has many regional variations, corresponding in part to the fresh foods local to each region. A French legacy is still evident in the capital city, Vientiane, where baguettes (, ) are sold on the street and French restaurants are common and popular, which were first introduced when Laos was a part of French Indochina.
Origins of the Lao cuisine The Lao originally came from a northern region that is now part of China. As they moved south they brought their traditions with them.Fairbank, J. K., Loewe, M., & Twitchett, D. C. (1986). "The Ch'in and Han Empires 221 B.C.-A.D. 220" (1986). The Cambridge history of China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Due to historical Lao migrations from Laos into neighboring regions, Lao cuisine has influenced the mainly Lao-populated region of Northeastern Thailand,McDermott, Nancie. Real Thai the best of Thailand's regional cooking. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1992. p. 79. and Lao foods were also introduced to Cambodia and Northern Thailand where the Lao have migrated.
Like most Southeast Asian nations, Laos has been heavily influenced by Indian and Chinese culture. From time immemorial, Lao people traded directly with ancient China. It was the Indianization of Laos, however, that has had the most impact. The spread of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam into Southeast Asia during this period took with it Indian traditions and culture to what are now Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos where it took roots and continues to flourish to this day. It is also during this time that Buddhist monks introduced traditional Indian spices, curry, and coconut milk to Laos. However, unlike most of its neighbours, Lao people's affinity for glutinous or sticky rice and Lao cuisine's heavy focus on sticky rice meant that coconut milk and noodles never played a significant role in Lao cuisine. Instead, coconut milk, curry and noodles are limited to a few Laotian soups, noodle dishes and sticky rice-based desserts.
With the Columbian exchange, non-native crops—such as tomato, papaya, sweetcorn, pineapple, and chili peppers—were introduced to Southeast Asia probably through the various sea ports of modern-day Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam via the Philippines and Malacca. Through trades with the Portuguese and other Europeans, acceptance and cultivation of non-native crops and ingredients quickly spread throughout Southeast Asia.
By the mid-1500s, Europeans were exploring and trading with mainland Southeast Asia, reaching as far as Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Some of the more notable Europeans who had travelled there or wrote extensively about their experiences were Fernão Mendes Pinto (1542-1545),Mendes Pinto, F. and Catz, R. (2013). The Travels of Mendes Pinto. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. xxxi, 231, 306, 365. Diogo Veloso and Blas Ruiz (1596), Geebard van Wusthof (1641),Staunton, Sidney Augustus. The War in Tong-King: Why the French Are in Tong-King, and What They Are Doing There. Cupples, Upham, 1884. Giovanni Filippo de Marini (1642-1648),Marini, Gio Filippo de. A New and Interesting Description of Lao Kingdom (1642-1648). White Lotus Press, 1998. Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix (1830), and Henri Mouhot (1861).
Simon de la Loubère (1642-1729) observed that the cultivation of the papaya was already widespread in Siam around the early-1700sDe la Laloubère, Simon. Description Du Royaume De Siam, Par Simon De Laloubère, envoyé Extraordinaire Du Roy auprès Du Roy De Siam: où l'on voit quelles sont les opinions, les moeurs & la religion des Siamois: avec plusieurs remarques de physique touchant les plantes & les animaux du pais. Vol. 2, Amsterdam: Chez David Mortier, 1714. 67. and by the time Pallegoix arrived as missionary to Bangkok, the papaya and chili peppers was already fully integrated in the Lao territory, dependencies and the Southeast Asian food culture as a whole.Pavie, Auguste, Lefèvre-Pontalis, Pierre. Mission Pavie, exploration de l'Indo-Chine: mémoires et documents, Volume 2, Part 2 Mission Pavie, exploration de l'Indo-Chine: mémoires et documents, Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1894.Pavie, Auguste, et al. Exploration De L'Indo-Chine: mémoires Et Documents. Ernest Leroux, 1894.Massie, M. Dictionnaire Laotien. Ernest Leroux, 1894.Garnier, Francis. Voyage d'exploration en Indochine, effectué pendant les années 1866, 1867 et 1868 par une commission française présidée par M. le capitaine de frégate, Doudart de Lagrée, 2 vols. Paris: Hachette et Cie, 1873. 454.
French explorer Mouhot, during his trip to Luang Prabang, noted that the Laotians adored chili peppers.Mouhot, Henri, and Ferdinand de. Lanoye. Voyage Dans Les Royaumes De Siam, De Cambodge, De Laos Et Autres Parties Centrales De L'Indo-Chine: Relation Extraite Du Journal Et De La Correspondance De L'auteur. Hachette, 1868. 322.
Lao and Thai cuisine In his book Culture and Customs of Laos, Arne Kislenko noted: Any discussion about Lao cuisine cannot be limited to Laos. There are approximately six times more ethnic Lao in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand than in Laos itself, which makes it necessary to go beyond national boundaries in search of definitively Lao food. In fact, with the recent droves of migrants from Isan further south to Bangkok, the Thai capital has in many respects become the epicenter of Lao cuisine. Some estimate that more Lao are there than in any other city in the world, including Vientiane. There are also sizable expatriate communities in places like the United States and France that make for numerous culinary variations abroad.
According to the cultural anthropologist Penny Van Esterik, during the 1950s and 1960s, Lao food was little known by the central Thais and could be found only where there were gatherings of Lao or northeasterners: In the 1950s and 1960s glutinous rice, roast chicken, laab, somtam (papaya salad), and other Lao favorites were available in Bangkok only around the boxing stadium where northeastern boxers and fans gathered to eat and drink before and after boxing matches. Lao food could also be found outside construction sites in mobile food carts providing construction workers from the northeast with their regional foods and beside gas stations serving long-distance bus drivers.
At the conclusion of the Vietnam War, between 1975 and 1995, it was estimated that approximately 200,000 Lao refugees crossed the Mekong River into Thailand. Most stayed in the refugee camps while others moved to Bangkok looking for work.
The opening of the Mittraphap Road and the northeastern railway connecting central Thailand to its northern provinces created a gateway for one of Thailand's biggest inter-regional migrations during the economic boom of the 1980s, as demand for labour increased. It was estimated that between 1980 and 1990, about 1.1 million northeasterners moved from the northeast to central Thailand and Bangkok.Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Chris Baker. Thailand's boom. St Leonards: AlIen & Unwin; 1996. This, in turn, helped popularize and create an unprecedented demand for Lao food outside of Laos and the northeast.
Van Esterik also noted that, "[i]n attempting to include northeastern food in a standardized national cuisine, middle-class Bangkok selected and modified the taste of a few dishes—grilled chicken, somtam, laab—by reducing the chili peppers and increasing the sugar, and ignored other dishes such as fermented fish and insects". According to Professor Sirijit Sunanta, these dishes were then represented as Thai food when presented to the world.Sunanta, Sirijit. 2005. "The globalization of Thai cuisine". Paper presented at the Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies Conference, York University, 14–16 October in Toronto, Canada
Although more ethnic Lao live in Thailand than in Laos and Lao cuisine is key to popularising Thai food abroad,Warren, William. Bangkok. London: Reaktion, 2002. 130. the word "Lao" is hardly mentioned. This is perhaps due to forced Thaification, an official attempt to promote national unity and "Thainess", in which any mention of "Lao" and other non-Thai descriptors were removed and replaced with "northeastern Thai" or "Isan".
Consequently, Thaification has led to social discrimination against northeasterners, and the word "Lao" became a derogatory term. Being "Lao" was stigmatized as being uneducated and backward, causing many northeasterners to be ashamed to be known as Lao.Smalley, William Allen. Linguistic Diversity and National Unity: Language Ecology in Thailand. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. However, there is a sense of resurgence and pride in Lao identity as it loses its stigma, particularly among the Isan youth.
In the West, even with sizable expatriate communities, Lao cuisine is still virtually unknown, even though much of what is served in Thai restaurants is likely to be Lao or Lao-owned. Unbeknownst to most people, when they eat their favourite som tam, larb, and sticky rice at their favourite Thai or northeastern Thai (Isan) restaurants they are actually eating the Thai versions of traditional Lao food.Stokes, Daniel. 2003. "Low language in high places: social and political perspectives on grammar in the prose of 'Rong Wongsawan'". Thesis (M.A.). University of Wisconsin—Madison, 2003. p. 38.Cranmer, Jeff, and Steven Martin. Laos. 2nd ed. London: Rough Guides, 2002. 43.Burke, Andrew, and Austin Bush. "Eating." Bangkok: city guide. 9th ed. Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet, 2010. 157. This accidental reinforcement of Thaification by expatriate Lao communities and Lao restaurateurs is observed by Malaphone Phommasa and Celestine Detvongsa in their article "Lao American Ethnic Economy":