Lao

Sticky rice, fresh vegetables, mountains of fresh herbs, fish and meat, fish sauce, chilli, spices, fruit and more sticky rice ... one of the wonderful features of the Lao diet is the almost complete absence of processed foods. Ironically, it’s the poor economic status of this small, landlocked South-East Asian country that has kept its cuisine fresh, vibrant and healthy for hundreds of years.

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is one of the world’s few remaining communist states, moving tentatively towards capitalism but otherwise seemingly frozen in time. Bordering China, Cambodia, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, Laos is mountainous and covered by largely virgin tropical forest, with most of the population of 6.5 million living in valleys of the Mekong River and its tributaries. The vast majority of Laotians live off the less than 5 per cent of land suitable for subsistence farming.