Tamarind Restaurant LP

So for our one month anniversary we decided to check out Tamarind restaurant in Luang Prabang. It comes highly recommended, and we weren't disappointed.

The restaurant prides itself in doing traditional Laos food.
When we got to the restaurant we were worried that we wouldn't get a table as it was pretty busy, but luckily someone was just leaving as we arrived so we managed to grab their table.
The menu explains how traditional Laos food is ordered and how it should be eaten. You should never order one main for yourself but rather a number of dishes for the table and share. It can be considered rude to pull one dish in front of yourself to eat.

Using this advice we ordered the rice & dips set, the stuffed lemongrass and the bean salad to share.

I also ordered a lemongrass granita - which is probably as far from traditional as you can get- but it tasted delicious.

When the food arrived the waiter explained how to eat it. The sticky rice comes in a bamboo basket. You then take a bit out the basket and form it into a ball, which is then dipped into the various dips that come with it. The dips included a tomato and onion dip (kind of like a salsa), a smoked aubergine dip, and sweet and smoky chill dip that comes with dried buffalo skin on top and a green chilli dip. It also came with dried river seaweed with sesame seeds, that were like chips and very delicious.

The stuffed lemongrass is made by rolling minced chicken and herbs into a cigar shape, then stuffing it in the lemon grass and deep frying. It was served witha peanut dipping sauce, that was actually just ground peanuts in a watery type sauce. Very different to the 'normal' satay type peanut sauce but it was delicous nonetheless. The green bean salad was served warm and had a delicious garlic and soya sauce.

Afterwards Jeremy had some coffee and ordered a sweet tray for desert. It was explained that these sweets will normally be eaten as snacks as like a lot of Asian countries Laos people don't normally eat desert.
These were interesting and most had a jelly like texture. One was made from sticky rice that was cooked and slightly sweetened and steamed in banana leaf. This had a very interesting texture.

All in all it was a great meal, the food was really good and it was nice to try some traditional food. Recommended.





The restaurant




The rice dipping platter




Jeremy and the food! Stuffed lemongrass in the front, dipping platter in the middle and the green bean salad back right.



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Location:Luang Prabang