Lao cuisine

Lao cooking is hotter and less sweet than Thai: sticky rice, fermented fish and mountains of fresh herbs.

Sticky rice is a utensil rather than a side: it is rolled into a ball with the fingers and used to pick up everything else. Laotians eat more of it than any other people in the world.

Padaek — a thick fermented fish sauce with pieces of fish in it — separates Lao dishes from their Thai counterparts more than anything else does.