Traditionally the meat or fish in laap is served raw and the dish sports entrails – slithers of lung, kidney or liver – and a dash of pungent fermented fish paste called pradek. Many of the buildings in the UNESCO heritage-listed town have been renovated into hotels, guesthouses, bistros, cafes and patisseries – and it was here that we were introduced to laap (also spelled lahp, larb, lab) – a spicy meat or fish salad, one of Laos’ most famous dishes. Luang Prabang is a tarted up town of French colonial architecture – think elegant, white villas with shuttered windows – peppered by the spires of Laos temples on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers in central Laos. It accompanied just about every meal we ate – except breakfasts! Laaping it up At around 50¢ to $1 for a 640 ml bottle we embraced Beerlao – dubbed the national beer of Laos – as our unexpected traveling companion. We were as chilled as the beer was when it first came out of the rusty fridge at the back of the boat. Before we knew it, we’d slipped into Laos-time – or more specifically Beerlao time – and were whiling away the hours watching fisherman casting nets in a river the colour of cloudy Gravox chicken gravy as we swigged the local amber nectar from 640 ml bottles before it got warm.
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