A Trip to Laos with Tony Bourdain

This Week’s Film: Air America

Cuisine: Laotian

In the six years that I?ve been creating recipes for Chopstick Cinema, this will be the first time I?ve featured Laotian food. So the learning curve is going to be a bit steep this week.

I began my research by watching the Laos episode of Tony Bourdain?s No Reservations series that airs on the Travel Channel. True to form, this savvy yet down-to-earth travel and food documentary features geographical, historical, cultural, and culinary components, with plenty of time devoted dining with the locals. In his travels this episode, he sat down to five different meals, all of which contained the same basic elements: a broth based soup, a fish or poultry main dish, several vegetable side dishes, sticky rice, and the ubiquitous Laotian chili paste.

An hour spent watching Tony Bourdain traipse around the culinary globe is always a pleasure, especially when the episode dovetails with my featured country and cuisine. Over the next couple of days, I will be delving deeper into Laotian food and will zero in on a recipe to try in my own kitchen. My Laotian recipe will be posted at the end of the week along with my Air America film review.