Morning Market - Vientiane

[technocracy]

Just returned back from a trip down town and eating in the central area of the Morning Market - for those who don't know or are unaware - in the middle there is a whole load of tradition hawker stalls selling true Lao food. Many falang don't eat really since there isn't menus or english speakers around.

Often if you walk around the morning market you'll see or smell delicious food being eaten in the stalls - near all is cooked at these stalls and people phone the hawkers and get it delivered to there shop.

It turns out talking to owner of our normal stall the bulldozers are moving in to commence on the demolish of this area and the central building. So that the Singapore development company who built the new 'Talat Sao Mall' can build an 8 storey central mall in it's place.

Yes it'll be nice to have a new mall but being shoved into one of the ten a penny food centres where you buy tokens for food just won't be the same. There is one of them already in the new 'Talat Sao Mall' and it's doesn't hold a candle in food quality to the hawker stalls. Yes you sit in a nice clean tiled space with nice tables etc - but I couldn't give a crap! Give me great food surround by everyday people living there life, where I can watch the world go by, eat great food and maybe have a nice conversation with some of the locals.

The sense of adventure of wandering around the various stalls all with different sights, sounds and smells made it worth a visit to the morning market alone. I just hope the new mall isn't made as faceless and souless as the numerous malls in downtown Singapore - the new Talat Sao Mall is souless enough but having this old section next door saved it.

Times move on - but tradition and culture shouldn't be destroyed just for the developers sake. I am gonna miss that place!

[sutnyod]

Go to Chinatown (Kum Sihom) or Talad Khoua Din

[technocracy]

Go to Chinatown (Kum Sihom) or Talad Khoua Din

I know there is plenty of other around Vientiane but (in my opinion) the food at both you mention isn't as good - also the Si-hom ones only come out in the evening (although one particular stall does do great bbq'd chickens and bbq pork), also I don't particularly like 'Khoua Din' market as it full of Viets and Chinese and will attempt to rip off any falang, the food market also is over priced!

Anyway the point was it's not just the hawkers at the morning market it's was the whole package - you could wander around in the shops then sit in the midst of it all with some excellent food and watch the world go by. Commercialism is moving in . . .

[sutnyod]

Well, you should have seen Vientiane (and particularly the morning market) 20 years ago. Same story.

The best ping gai is, btw, behind the Dokmai Deng playground at That Luang. Try that.

[Jockstar]

Havent been to Laos for a while. But i did make a point of eating in these places sometimes. Same in Malaysia, i go and find the food on the street. Some of the best, IMHO.

[sutnyod]

Havent been to Laos for a while. But i did make a point of eating in these places sometimes. Same in Malaysia, i go and find the food on the street. Some of the best, IMHO.

Oh yes! And the best part: the names of my favoured dishes are the same as in Thai, yippieh! What a feeling to be able to order food without knowing the language

[Jai Dee]

Oh yes! And the best part: the names of my favoured dishes are the same as in Thai, yippieh! What a feeling to be able to order food without knowing the language

It doesn't always work that way though.

But be careful when ordering whis-a-key... ordering "song gaow" will get you 2 bottles not 2 glasses...

The Lao for glass is "jok"... so "ow whis-a-key, song jok" will get you 2 glasses.

Learnt that one the hard way...

[cdnvic]

But be careful when ordering whis-a-key... ordering "song gaow" will get you 2 bottles not 2 glasses...

The Lao for glass is "jok"... so "ow whis-a-key, song jok" will get you 2 glasses.

Learnt that one the hard way...

Yeah... it was an "accident"

[Jai Dee]

But be careful when ordering whis-a-key... ordering "song gaow" will get you 2 bottles not 2 glasses...

The Lao for glass is "jok"... so "ow whis-a-key, song jok" will get you 2 glasses.

Learnt that one the hard way...

Yeah... it was an "accident"

We had fun though...

[technocracy]

But be careful when ordering whis-a-key... ordering "song gaow" will get you 2 bottles not 2 glasses...

The Lao for glass is "jok"... so "ow whis-a-key, song jok" will get you 2 glasses.

Learnt that one the hard way...

Yeah... it was an "accident"

We had fun though...

That reminds me of when I was first really learning Lao and I'd read in the Beckers Lao dictionary ( ) that 'kuat' was bottle . . . upon saying this to my wife (then gf) I got the grand inquisition as who I'd learnt Thai from!

I had to explain that and show her the book . .. . she was in much hysterics then with this 'Lao' dictionary was half thai.

By the way you could order the whiskey as so 'ao lao gaow nung gap song jok', as lao is the local name for the local whiskey.

For those who have never tried the 'gaeng nom mai' in Laos I would highly recommend it. Yes it contains 'bpaa dek' (plaa laa in Thai I think) but it's sooooo very tasty. Easily recognisable as brown thickish soup with bamboo in it!

[sutnyod]

Oh yes! And the best part: the names of my favoured dishes are the same as in Thai, yippieh! What a feeling to be able to order food without knowing the language

It doesn't always work that way though.

But be careful when ordering whis-a-key... ordering "song gaow" will get you 2 bottles not 2 glasses...

Misunderstanding. I was referring to Malaysian and Thai, not Lao and Thai. In Malaysia, you want Mee you get Mee. You order Kuai Tiew you get Kuai Tiew. Great!

[sutnyod]

For those who have never tried the 'gaeng nom mai' in Laos I would highly recommend it.

What do you mean? There is no gaeng nom mai in Laos. Do you refer to gaeng noh mai? (bamboo-shoots soup?)

[technocracy]

For those who have never tried the 'gaeng nom mai' in Laos I would highly recommend it.

What do you mean? There is no gaeng nom mai in Laos. Do you refer to gaeng noh mai? (bamboo-shoots soup?)

Well lets be honest there is neither is there, although there is: Á¡¤ ÎðÄ´-

Arguing over transliterations is as pointless as a very pointless thing - and even more so in Lao since there isn't any standardised transliterations.

Edited October 3, 2007 by technocracy

[Mmajjikk]

I enjoyed the blog about the Morning Market in Vientiane.

I lived in Laos for a number of years in the late 60's and early 70's. Whenever I visited Vientiane during those days, my favorite place to eat was the food stall area at "talat sao."

I've been around the world a few times now, and have eaten just about everything you can imagine. But, my favorite meal of all times is one that I often ate at the Morning Market. It was a breakfast that still makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

I love Lao food - lap. sticky rice, etc. I certainly had my share of those foods, bowls of steamy hot Vietnamese Pho, and I would now admit that I helped keep certain "lao-lao" vendors in business as well as they sat on little stools with their lao-lao, lao beer, dried squid and individual 555 cigarets spread out on ratty blankets for the customer to choose his vice. A bottle of Johnny Walker Red would buy me a year's worth of free drinks at those places.

However, in spite of all of those things, my favorite talat sao food was not Laotian. The breakfast I really enjoyed was an Indian meal - "loti" - heated on an open grill with an egg broken onto it, sprinkled with grainy lumps of sugar, and then bathed in a torrent of thick, syrupy-sweet carnation cream poured from a small red and white can that had been opened with a knife blade rather than a can opener.

That meal, plus a cup of pungent Indian tea, needed to cut the sweetness of the loti, made a breakfast that was indescribable in words and undescribably delicious in taste. My palate still waters just thinking about the "Indian" breakfast specials at Vientiane's

morning market.

Over my many years of breakfasting at the morning market, I always frequented the same stall. The elderly Indian gentleman who owned the stall, and who was its only employee, cook, dish washer, cashier, meeter and greeter, hawker, etc., was a beautiful human being. We became the best of friends.

I usually traveled to Vientiane a couple of times a month, and always started my first morning at the Indian gentleman's loti stand. He would grin a toothless smile when he saw me coming, and by the time I had situated myself on one of the two or three stools at his stand, he already had my loti heating on his grill.

I could understand the old man's Lao better than his English, so we would chat in Lao, usually about "things Lao" or "things Indian." He was very observant of life and human nature. Our conversations were always one-sided, with him talking and me listening as I stuffed my mouth with loti, washed down with tea.

I may have eaten at his stand close to a hundred times over a number of years. In all of those times, I can only recall a handful of others sitting at his stall. Perhaps my timing was too early or too late for his peak hours of business.

Busy or not, his stand was one of my favorite places to eat "in the whole world." There is something "universal" about the short-order cook at a diner, and this man was a "classic" in that regard. His gift for cooking and for banter was unmathed.

I returned to Laos on business in the early 90's. On the first morning I hurriedly made my way to the Morning Market to see my friend and feast on his "Indian breakfast." I searched high and wide for my favorite loti stand in what was already being called "talat sao mai" (the new morning market) because it had been upgraded from the dirt floors that I remembered to a supposedly cleaner place with concrete floors.

It was now a more orderly market place as well. All of the stands were fabricated from the same Russian-Lao pattern, and if sameness represents order then the place was ordered. That new order, however, took away from the wonderful disorder of the sticks, strings, straightened-out fuel barrel and wired-tied construction that was the "character" of the market that I remembered from yesteryear.

I couldn't find my friend and master loti chef. None of the food stand vendors knew what had happened to the elderly Indian gentlemen who made the best loti on earth. A few did remember him, and I was flattered that one or two even remembered that I had been a frequent visitor to his stand in decades past.

Bulldozing the market will certainly mark the end of an era. I'm sure that the bulldozer will remove the concrete and wood of the market with great ease. It will not, however, erase from my

memory the taste of the loti and hot Indian tea at my friend's stand in the old, dirty, muddy, smelly, but oh so wonderfully Lao

talat sao.

Paul White

Just returned back from a trip down town and eating in the central area of the Morning Market - for those who don't know or are unaware - in the middle there is a whole load of tradition hawker stalls selling true Lao food. Many falang don't eat really since there isn't menus or english speakers around.

Often if you walk around the morning market you'll see or smell delicious food being eaten in the stalls - near all is cooked at these stalls and people phone the hawkers and get it delivered to there shop.

It turns out talking to owner of our normal stall the bulldozers are moving in to commence on the demolish of this area and the central building. So that the Singapore development company who built the new 'Talat Sao Mall' can build an 8 storey central mall in it's place.

Yes it'll be nice to have a new mall but being shoved into one of the ten a penny food centres where you buy tokens for food just won't be the same. There is one of them already in the new 'Talat Sao Mall' and it's doesn't hold a candle in food quality to the hawker stalls. Yes you sit in a nice clean tiled space with nice tables etc - but I couldn't give a crap! Give me great food surround by everyday people living there life, where I can watch the world go by, eat great food and maybe have a nice conversation with some of the locals.

The sense of adventure of wandering around the various stalls all with different sights, sounds and smells made it worth a visit to the morning market alone. I just hope the new mall isn't made as faceless and souless as the numerous malls in downtown Singapore - the new Talat Sao Mall is souless enough but having this old section next door saved it.

Times move on - but tradition and culture shouldn't be destroyed just for the developers sake. I am gonna miss that place!

[technocracy]

I enjoyed the blog about the Morning Market in Vientiane.

~snip

The pleasures mine! Thanks for yours - those are the kinds of wonderful memories and images are what makes life what it is. The carnation milk opened with a knife is something still seen here every day! A great first post . . welcome to the forum!

My only wish is I could of visited Laos earlier in my life but even if I'd of come over at the age of 18 I'd only of seen it 15 years ago. The only physical history my wife has only starts when she was approx 18 years old - no photos prior to this not even a birth certificate - only memories. She is 26 now and myself 33, for these reason I try to take in as many of these small nuances in every day life as I can since things change quick.

Here's a small story as for one of the primary reasons for my heart being won by the Lao country which took place on my first bus journey from Vientiane to Savannahkhet.

I was backpacking at the time and arrived only just in time to get the bus, the bus was full - people were sitting on plastic stools down the middle of the bus. I thought 'oh great - looks like I am on the plastic!' but without a word from me one drivers assistants stood up and offered me his seat 'I said no worries' but they insisted they just move and sat on the dashboard area of the bus. No one in the plastic seats complained - far from it.

At this time I couldn't understand Lao apart from the odd phrase or word all I could remember was the overwelming warmth and friendliness of the people, also the amount of joking and laughter that filled the bus as we were setting off. The driver was on the mic cracking jokes in Lao with the whole bus in hysterics. All I did was sitting smiling and laughing to myself and thinking - I could live here, unbeknownst to me I had previously met my future wife in Vientiane.

Edited October 3, 2007 by technocracy

[kat]

I enjoyed the blog about the Morning Market in Vientiane.

I lived in Laos for a number of years in the late 60's and early 70's. Whenever I visited Vientiane during those days, my favorite place to eat was the food stall area at "talat sao."

I've been around the world a few times now, and have eaten just about everything you can imagine. But, my favorite meal of all times is one that I often ate at the Morning Market. It was a breakfast that still makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

I love Lao food - lap. sticky rice, etc. I certainly had my share of those foods, bowls of steamy hot Vietnamese Pho, and I would now admit that I helped keep certain "lao-lao" vendors in business as well as they sat on little stools with their lao-lao, lao beer, dried squid and individual 555 cigarets spread out on ratty blankets for the customer to choose his vice. A bottle of Johnny Walker Red would buy me a year's worth of free drinks at those places.

However, in spite of all of those things, my favorite talat sao food was not Laotian. The breakfast I really enjoyed was an Indian meal - "loti" - heated on an open grill with an egg broken onto it, sprinkled with grainy lumps of sugar, and then bathed in a torrent of thick, syrupy-sweet carnation cream poured from a small red and white can that had been opened with a knife blade rather than a can opener.

That meal, plus a cup of pungent Indian tea, needed to cut the sweetness of the loti, made a breakfast that was indescribable in words and undescribably delicious in taste. My palate still waters just thinking about the "Indian" breakfast specials at Vientiane's

morning market.

Over my many years of breakfasting at the morning market, I always frequented the same stall. The elderly Indian gentleman who owned the stall, and who was its only employee, cook, dish washer, cashier, meeter and greeter, hawker, etc., was a beautiful human being. We became the best of friends.

I usually traveled to Vientiane a couple of times a month, and always started my first morning at the Indian gentleman's loti stand. He would grin a toothless smile when he saw me coming, and by the time I had situated myself on one of the two or three stools at his stand, he already had my loti heating on his grill.

I could understand the old man's Lao better than his English, so we would chat in Lao, usually about "things Lao" or "things Indian." He was very observant of life and human nature. Our conversations were always one-sided, with him talking and me listening as I stuffed my mouth with loti, washed down with tea.

I may have eaten at his stand close to a hundred times over a number of years. In all of those times, I can only recall a handful of others sitting at his stall. Perhaps my timing was too early or too late for his peak hours of business.

Busy or not, his stand was one of my favorite places to eat "in the whole world." There is something "universal" about the short-order cook at a diner, and this man was a "classic" in that regard. His gift for cooking and for banter was unmathed.

I returned to Laos on business in the early 90's. On the first morning I hurriedly made my way to the Morning Market to see my friend and feast on his "Indian breakfast." I searched high and wide for my favorite loti stand in what was already being called "talat sao mai" (the new morning market) because it had been upgraded from the dirt floors that I remembered to a supposedly cleaner place with concrete floors.

It was now a more orderly market place as well. All of the stands were fabricated from the same Russian-Lao pattern, and if sameness represents order then the place was ordered. That new order, however, took away from the wonderful disorder of the sticks, strings, straightened-out fuel barrel and wired-tied construction that was the "character" of the market that I remembered from yesteryear.

I couldn't find my friend and master loti chef. None of the food stand vendors knew what had happened to the elderly Indian gentlemen who made the best loti on earth. A few did remember him, and I was flattered that one or two even remembered that I had been a frequent visitor to his stand in decades past.

Bulldozing the market will certainly mark the end of an era. I'm sure that the bulldozer will remove the concrete and wood of the market with great ease. It will not, however, erase from my

memory the taste of the loti and hot Indian tea at my friend's stand in the old, dirty, muddy, smelly, but oh so wonderfully Lao

talat sao.

Paul White

What a beautiful memory. I really enjoyed reading it - thank you.

[sabaijai]

Nostalgia is funny in the way it's related to one's lifespan. I thought the Talat Sao's nostalgic value was lost after they moved all the vendors out of the south side of the property years ago. For me that signalled the end. Even by then the market was already a mere shadow of its formal self, compared to 10-15 years ago, and especially compared to its peak pre-1975 years as Paul White's memoir affirms. There were far more hawkers there even in 1989. The current building is not all that attractive, in its pseudo-Lao-Soviet-function-Vietnamese-construction quality, I doubt many people will miss it. Despite a brief post-75 revival in the 90s it has been in decline. Meanwhile there are more vibrant local markets (with better quality food) elsewhere in the city, IMO, eg Dong Palan, Thong Khan Kham.

[sceadugenga]

Bad news about the Talat Sao, it's what's known as progress.

One of my favorite snacks was the BBQ sweet corn at the bus station market.

I remember going back there after a lengthy absence from Vientiane and most of the market had gone, just a blackened mark where a bomb had gone off right next to my sweet corn stall. I often wonder what happened to the happy serving girls who used to laugh at my atrocious Lao.

[technocracy]

And there went the hawker section . . earlier today...

The outer U shaped building of the morning market is going to remain the building to the left of the second picture will be demolished also and in the centre there will be a 8 storey (it could be 5 . . depending on who you ask!) mall.

[sabaijai]

The photos really drive the message home.