Food Trip in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng

Posting these culinary delights is always such a pleasure. Could travel be as fun and adventurous without the gastronomic and gustatory experience to be had in these interesting places? They’re more than half the thrill as I partake the delicious and the not-so-delicious; the not-so-pricey and the dirt cheap. Here are a few of those which I was able to document. Several have not been documented out of the urgency of an appetite. Ha ha ;-> Bon appétit!


Fried chicken with vermicelli soup (the microscopic chicken bits are somewhere in the mix), Phousi Guesthouse and Restaurant, 20,000 kip ($2.50). Pepsi was 4,000 kip ($0.50). It took me half an hour to decide where to have this meal coz there’s so much option. This is located at one of the side streets of Sisavangvong; one which leads to the Mekong riverside.

Phousi Guesthouse and Restaurant



A sidestreet of Sisavangvong where Phousi Restaurant is located.

A sticky rice cake with a very tentative taste. You need to dunk it into any of the sauces provided. 10,000 kip, 2 pieces.

Bakery Restaurant and Guesthouse. A favorite hang out and dining place along Sisavangvong.

My 27,000 kip ($3.38) meal at the Le Tam Tam Garden Restaurant; Coke at 8,000 kip ($1); steamed rice at 5,000 kip ($0.65). It is delicious as it looks. My dessert was dragonfruit. I bought a pineapple pie for 5,000 kip and forgot to take it along with me.

Le Tam Tam Garden Restaurant and Guesthouse, Sisavangvong Road. Laos people are a brilliant culinary people; the way they mix their spices, vegetables and garnishes.

Luang Prabang’s dragonfruit has a purplish juice which stains your hand and lips. It took several vigorous washes before I was able to remove (not completely) the reddish stain. A dragonfruit I bought from the Robinsons in Manila has an offwhite or colorless flesh and Laos’variety is way sweeter, juicier and messier to eat. Price: 5,000 kip per piece ($0.65)

Fruits galore: elongated mangoes, green oranges. Durian, watermelon, lansones, rambutan, mangosteen. Manila mangoes are a lot sweeter. Ask big band crooner and actor Harry Connick, Jr. (last seen in the movie “P.S. I Love You” and “Bug” - and recently had an immensely entertaining concert at the Philippine Interternational Convention Center.)


Stir fried chicken with cashew nuts. Tatmor Restaurant, along Sisavangvong. 20,000 kip ($2.50). Now I enjoyed this meal thoroughly, the taste and crunch of cashew on a fantastic mixture of ingredients and the perfect and mildest of spiciness. As a rule, I don’t like spicy food. But I loved this one. That’s why I was wondering why Tatmor had so few customers.

Tatmor Restaurant, along Sisavangvong. A cozy dining place.

Roast pork, just along the main highway in Vang Vieng. Ang sarap! 14,000 kip ($1.75). Khao nio (sticky rice) is 2,000 kip ($0.25). Pepsi can is 6,000 kip ($0.75). Donuts – 2 pieces,10,000 kip ($1.25). Laos is Pepsi Country. This is probably one of the few places on earth where Coca Cola plays second fiddle to Pepsi. I found that a lot of the locals aren’t very familiar with Coke. I am a Coke person myself.

Pork rice meal. Bus stop, Vang Vieng, 15,000 kip ($1.88). A horrendous meal that needed bone crackers.