The Lao gourmet way of water buffalo jerky

LUANG PRABANG, Laos, Sept 26 (Reuters Life!) - In the sleepy former home of Lao kings, where stray dogs now roam quiet streets and saffron-robed Buddhist monks seek shade under black parasols, Yannick Upravan has started a culinary revolution.

Born in Vientiane and trained at one of France's best culinary institutes, Upravan has turned rustic and aromatic Lao food into a gourmet experience at his Luang Prabang restaurant called 3 Nagas, arguably the country's most chic Lao eatery.

The cuisine of Laos, like many other things from the sparsely populated country, has been overshadowed by the offerings from its bigger southeast Asian neighbors Vietnam and Thailand.

But Lao food is distinct. In place of Thai curry, Laos has stews thickened with eggplants. Instead of Vietnam's spring rolls, Lao cuisine offers an array of aromatic and spicy sausages made from pork and water buffalo.

And then there is the staple of the Lao diet -- laap. It is a minced meat salad typically made from pork and chicken cooked with mint leaves, lime juice and fermented fish sauce that is eaten with sticky rice pressed into balls with fingers.

"It works well to make Lao food using the techniques I learned in France," Upravan said.

Upravan, along with his French business partner Gilles Vautrin, also run L'Elephant, one of the most successful French restaurants in Laos, located about 100 meters from the Mekong River as it flows through Luang Prabang.

Upravan said techniques he learned in France to tenderize meat helped him add a new twist to Lao dishes such as "or sine fane," which is venison and vegetable stew and "or lam sin krouaille" -- water buffalo stew with light bitter leaves.

SUNDRIED BUFFALO

Lao cuisine lacks the sweetness found in other regional food and it features abundant fresh greens.

It has a lot of game and herbs from local markets-- making it difficult to set up authentic Lao cooking overseas. Fish in the land-locked country only comes from rivers and lakes.

Lao food has oddities that foreigners seldom see such as bats and lizards, and there is the occasional fried insect.

Upravan, 37, escaped to France from Laos in 1980 after its communist revolution. He studied the best of continental food in France then would feast on Lao food at home with his relatives.

"I discovered Lao food in France," Upravan said.

He returned to Laos in 1998 and tried to serve a growing tourist trade visiting Luang Prabang, who came to see the UNESCO World Heritage city's temples, royal palace and French colonial buildings set in the hills.

The French food was easy. Lao food was more difficult. But Upravan had a grandmother, aunt and other relatives who were ready to show him the proper way to roast chilli or grill river fish, stuff it, and wrap in banana leaves for steaming.

A few court cooks who survived the upheavals brought by communism were also around in the town of 20,000 people and shared local recipes favored by the royals.

Lao food is abundant and cheap in Luang Prabang. Stalls sell laap packed in plastic bags, river fish grilled with garlic, papaya salad, bamboo stew and chicken steamed in banana leaves.

Upravan, who plans to open another Lao eatery next year, has upgraded the popular local dish of water buffalo dried with roasted chilli in his restaurant by frying it with sesame seeds and herbs.

"Sundried buffalo is workers' food. I try to make it in a way that would make foreign guests amazed," Upravan said.