SEA Trip Day 17 – River Weed, Silk Worm Poo Tea, and a Culinary Adventure
We had a bit of an unfortunate start to the day, when we woke up early to make an 8:15 call time for a rice field tour, which ended up with us calling at 9 and the manager telling us to just wait, and then 10:15 comes around, our hotel shouts a little bit at the tour manager, and we decide to find something else to do. (It’s actually supposed to be a really good tour, under the living land company, started for charity, and rated pretty highly on Trip Advisor, but I guess there was some miscommunication. Unfortunately the manager emailed us offering to let us go the next day for free, but we were gone by then. Sad day..)
With so much time on our hands, we decided to take a stroll south to see what else was around town. There’s a few day markets around, some open grassy areas, but a good part is just residential or typical shops. Luang Prabang is definitely just a small quiet town (I don’t even think I can really call it a “city”). We did come upon Ock Pop Tock, another crafts and textiles place. Since it had a restaurant with a beautiful view of the water, we decided to try it out.
We first took a tour around the facilities. They guide was very informative about the entire weaving process, starting with the silk worm cycle (we saw a couple of mating moths with their butts stuck together. Apparently the process takes 24 hours). Then we went through the different natural dyes, how colors can be made by single or multiple ingredients (and temperatures/preparations), and finally the weaving room. Because this facility is a lot bigger than the one we saw in Vientiane, there were more weavers and patterns to look at. It was pretty cool seeing how the premade pattern was taken apart as it moved into whatever was being woven.
After a quick peek in their shop, we settled down to a lovely lunch by the river. We ordered the silk worm poo tea and some tamarind juice, which were both delicious and a little sweet. I’m guessing the poop gets its sweetness from mulberry leaves, because that’s all they eat anyways (at least the ones from china. Indian silk works eat banana leaves.) We also tried some fried Mekong Weed, which is like a thicker (and more delicious) version of seaweed. It was an adventurous little snack time, and we enjoyed the sun and the breeze, watching a few fishermen working knee-deep in the water.
We dropped by the local market afterwards, then took a little nap.
Our afternoon was another foodie trip. We walked along the Nam Khan to Tamarind for a cooking class. Along the way we spied an old rickety bamboo bridge, and made a mental post it to visit the next day.
The Tamarind Cooking Classes are highly rated, and are pretty much held every day. There’s a morning session where you also visit the local market, then an afternoon session where you just cook. There were 8 of us for this session, and we hopped into the provided tuk tuk to head out of the city to the actual cooking class, which is located on a patio area next to the river at the owner’s house.
The chef took us through 3 dishes and a dessert, starting with a roasted eggplant and tomato salsa/salad, then banana leaf wrapped steamed fish, fried stuffed lemongrass (you cut the lemongrass lengthwise and make a basket to stuff chicken into, and purple sticky rice with fruit. It was pretty cool working with a mortar and pestle, bamboo baskets (for steaming and boiling), and coal stoves (no gas here, but it was actually really nice to use). The food was obviously delicious, and we topped off the meal with shots of honey lime (which they actually call lemons) Lao Lao (a rice liquor). It was super fun, and the fact that we were basically all travelers meant there was some great dinner conversations to be had.
We also heard from a couple that the bamboo bridge we had been eyeing leads to a delicious restaurant, so I shall keep that in mind for next trip.
The night ended with last minute shopping, and packing, and more eating, then sleep. We did have a lovely incident of bug avoiding, where a swarm of bees suddenly decided to come through the night market. Stalls had to turn off their lights because the bees would swarm towards the bulbs. It was a little scary, and there was one point where a bee flew onto my face and got caught between my hair, but it made its way out safely and I was able to avoid getting my first sting ever (thank goodness, especially not on the face).