Exploring the Luang Prabang locals’ food market was one of those sensory adventures I thrive on, even though
Freshly cooked frogs (that looked like cane toads) Yes, I did ask permission for the photo.
the smell of the cooked ‘frogs’ (the live ones looked too much like cane toads to me) took me straight back to Xiamen in China where I’d done my 5 star impersonation of a human volcano (erupting both ends) after eating ‘frogs’ legs’. Moving quickly on to the rainbow of super fresh fruits and veg, the coconut sweets and treats, live fish and bloody slabs of cow, or perhaps goat? On to the tables of herbs, spices and snack foods, including the yummy caramelised crunchy rice twists and the moreish fried dried bamboo shoots with chili and basil (great with Beer Lao). Oh, and something looking rather like a dried black turd, with a pretty pink label “Tuberculosis”. What?! A buffalo lung perhaps? Nothing is wasted. After a whiff of freshly roasted coffee beans to take my mind off that, I headed back ‘home’ for my own breakfast.
I enjoyed breakfasting in the lush oasis of the simple lodge which was my home for a few nights, especially since my expectations were surpassed by the plate of ‘fruit of the day’ (pineapple or watermelon), fresh baked baguette and jam, and choice of eggs – ‘boiled, fry, scramble or omelette’. Plus on the tea and coffee table there was an additional tray of tiny sweet bananas and dainty mandarins the size of cumquats. It wasn’t the 5 star buffet I’d been enjoying in Vientiane, but then this wasn’t the 5 star hotel either. Relatively speaking, breakfast was better than on par.
A rather flustered, jewellery festooned woman in her late (?) 60’s appeared and asked if she could join me. Of course. My omelette arrived then, hot from the pan and garnished with slices of fresh tomato and onion. The woman then proudly announced that she had made it very clear to the boy how she wanted her omelette cooked properly, with the tomato and onion fried, and that he was to tell the kitchen staff. I realised that was the intense long conversation I’d noticed her having with one of the hotel staff – not really ‘conversation’ as that’s a two way thing, isn’t it?
While I enjoyed my omelette she criticised the size of the complimentary fruit, wanted a different ‘fruit of the day’ (she didn’t feel like watermelon), told the manager there were fish alive in the corner pond so he needed to fill it up or they would die (he’d already done so earlier) and suffered tea-envy as I’d brought some herbal tea from home. If she hadn’t been complaining so much I’d happily have gone to my room to get her some. The look on her face as her breakfast was proudly served was priceless – two eggs with tomato and onion slices added on top, fried. Just to her description, but not the finely chopped, pre-fried then mixed with the beaten eggs and cooked as an omelette she had in mind. The fried eggs were runny, so were messy as she stuffed one into my commandeered roll for her lunch. Unfortunately the young man she’d instructed so carefully was heading out and he was berated for not telling them the right way to cook…until she noticed my face, and quickly ended with a “Well, I suppose you tried. Off you go.” More grizzling continued until I was able to finish eating and escape.
Rather than going with the flow she struggled to paddle upstream in a barbed wire canoe of her own making. She missed so many chances to connect and enjoy the people and place. I certainly wasn’t going to spend my precious last morning nor wait to share a taxi to the airport with her. Later I noticed she didn’t show up at the airport for the flight – I sincerely hope she was OK, and not ill from that runny egg lunch roll…
Are there currently any barbed wire canoes in use in your life? Things you are unnecessarily doing the hard way by insisting there is only one right way, yours? Different doesn’t automatically mean wrong. What if you simply let it go… no more churning in your head, tensing in your body as you try to force it…how would that feel?
Dried something called Tuberculosis, Laos.
Fresh food markets, Luang Prabang
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