The Mango Lassie

The May issue of Gourmet magazine was all about cooking schools around the world. One of the schools was in Laos, and the blurb about it said that Laotian food can be distinguished from Thai food by its heavier use of herbs, and its more bitter, less sweet profile. I knew I had tasted dishes at places like Pok Pok that were supposed to be Laotian in origin, but I was eager to try them again with these new rules in mind. My chance came less than a week later when Empanada Boy and I were in Madison. We hadn’t seen EB’s friend English Muffin Pizza for months, so we asked him if he would join us for dinner on Sunday before we left town. He suggested a number of places, but the one that stood out to us was Lao Laan-Xang, a Laotian restaurant so popular it had to open another location. As it turned out, EMP had been there the night before to celebrate his birthday. Still, he said he didn’t mind going two nights in a row because it is his favorite restaurant. Now that is dedication.

The smaller, original location isn’t open on Sunday nights, but EMP says he likes it for its intimacy. We were limited to the larger spot, which is perfectly pleasant. It was also completely packed when we arrived. We waited at the bar for a while and sampled a Laotian beer, fittingly called Beer Lao. It had more substance than many of the mass-produced Asian beers I’ve tried, and it hit the spot. We finally got a table about half an hour later and were able to order our food. The service was pretty slow from here on out, but delicious food greatly diminishes such concerns. In an attempt to get at the heart of Laotian cuisine and put the bitter vs. sweet question to a test, I decided to order one of the “House Specialties.” The description focused on the side salad— made with unripe papaya, dried shrimp and chili peppers— so much that I thought is was the main component of the dish. But when it arrived, I was surprised to find the chicken leg piece dominating the plate with a green papaya salad on the side. I was surprised, but I was not disappointed. The chicken had wonderful, crackly, spice-laden skin, recalling some of the chicken I tried at Pok Pok. The meat beneath it was a little dry, but the depth of flavor kept me interested. The accompanying papaya salad was bright with tangy fish sauce and vibrantly spicy. I had ordered it “adventurous” on the restaurant’s spicy scale, just one step below “native.”

Empanada Boy tried another choice from the list of specialties. His was a catfish filet coated in dill and a little spicy chili and cooked in a banana leaf. It came with a spicy-sweet dipping sauce and steamed vegetables. The fish was incredibly moist and flavorful when he unwrapped it. The dill played a significant role, but there must have been something else giving it an extra layer of flavor. Perhaps it was the banana leaf itself. The steamed vegetables were a somewhat boring side note, but the fish was superb, dipped in a little of the sauce and eaten with a bite of sticky rice.

English Muffin Pizza ordered something different from what he’d had the night before. It was a peanut curry with sweet pineapple and tofu. The flavors were interesting, but not as complex as either of the other two dishes. I also found the peanut and pineapple combination to be a little too rich and a little too sweet. It needed more spice or more of the tang that comes from fish sauce or bitter herbs. This dish was similar to the curries I’ve tried at many a Thai restaurant and seemed to be more oriented toward flavors that appeal to an American palate.

But, hey, what do I know about Laotian food? Not very much. As I thought about the food I tried, I had a hard time recognizing the bitterness that the Gourmet magazine article had described. While spicy, my green papaya salad definitely had sugar in it. And it was similar to one I’d tried at Spoon Thai in Chicago. My chicken was savory, but not what I would call bitter. It too probably had some sugar. The sweet curry was obviously not a good example of this principle. EB’s dish may have fit the bitter, herbal description the best out of all of ours. Still, those weren’t really the first descriptors that came to mind. Maybe, despite its hardcore spice scale, Lao Laan-Xang is toning the traditional flavors down for its clientele. Or maybe Laotian food is more diverse than the brief magazine article suggested, with some regions sharing more Thai characteristics than others. Or perhaps it is a combination of both factors. All I know is when you face such unanswerable questions, the only thing to do is break away from the analysis and enjoy the food. And that is exactly what I did.

Lao Laan-Xang
2098 Atwood Ave.
Madison, WI 53704
608.819.0140

or

1146 Williamson St.
Madison, WI 53703
608.280.0104