Something similar(ish) happens with Burmese restaurants too. If you’re in a community with lots of people from Burma many of the “Thai” restaurants will be run by Burmese people and have some Burmese dishes that may or may not be labeled as such. Big difference is that I don’t think there is as much confusion between Burmese and Thai food. Until fairly recently many of the dishes that I grew up thinking of as Thai are actually Lao!
Thank you so much for sharing that! I love hearing how other communities have experienced this. I love Burmese food and know the difference right away. I think I’ll go eat some this week. Do you have some go to Burmese food recommendations? And yes I’m glad people are finally understanding the origins of a lot of this food! All this is so similar to how a lot of Koreans opened Japanese restaurants but luckily a lot is changing and now people love Korean food. I hope the same for Lao! 🙏💕
@@SaengsKitchenHi, I’m Burmese and my go-to dishes are fermented tea leaf salad (လက်ဖက်သုပ်), Mohinga (မုန့်ဟင်းခါး), Shan noodles (ရှမ်းခေါက်ဆွဲ) and Rakhine Mont Di (ရခိုင်မုန့်တီ). I hope you try out these dishes and enjoy them. Love your content.
That sounds like older Chinese restaurants in much of Europe. They are almost all run by Vietnamese families and usually serve Asian food (as in a best off collection of various countries signature dishes and whatever was the "trendy Asian food" five years ago, it used to be sushi, now it's mochi ice cream and sticky rice pudding). I actually had a classmate who's parents owned a Chinese restaurant that only serves Vietnamese food (one of the best restaurants in town btw) 😂 That said over the last decade or so more specific restaurants have also started to appear.
@@Trekki200 in Italy this happens with japanese/sushi restaurants, they are always run by chinese folks, mainly because japan is seen as cooler than china in popular culture. Only recently they've started to rebrand themselves as "fusion" "asian" or straight up "chinese"
Yes! Most people don't understand the difference between Thai and Lao. And me being Issan, trying to explain THAT is even harder sometimes. So it's just easier to say that I'm Thai. I get where she's coming from.
True. I once read that if you go to a Thai restaurant in the U.S., you might actually be eating Lao food. They name it a Thai restaurant because they think it would appeal to more (American) people since some (American) people don't know what Lao is. She must add the Lao sign.
I lived in Hawaii nearly 40 years and I know this woman. She’s an amazing cook and been going there with my parents since I was a child. Wish the food court was more busy with vendors. There isn’t much going on there now days
First we have to define "what is Thai food?" since Thai food can be grouped into 4 major groups which are northeast, north, south, and central. Lao food is close to northeastern Thai. That's right. Yet for the rest of the groups Lao food is not. Some are not close at all. Northern Thai cuisine are more close to Myanmar since Lanna kingdom was a multicultural since the beginning with lots of people from nowadays Myanmar (eg. Tai Yai or people of Shan). They use a lot of spice. A trait that derived from Myanmar which also derived from India. It's something Lao cuisine rarely use (Please note that herb is not spice) For the rest 2, Lao food is not close to them at all. And very simple reason: they are close to the sea, something Lao don't have, so their cuisine have lots of ingredients from the source: fermented shrimp, dried shrimp, coconut milk (coconut need lots of water hence they grow well in low land. Even north and northeast Thai cuisine hardly use coconut milk) etc. So, if you ask me if Lao food is similar to Thai, overall I tend to say no or at best to avoid conflict my answer would be not really, since of the 4 groups you are close to only 1 -- that only 25%, less than 50% which is my criteria. Those who say that Lao food is similar to Thai have very limited info about their cuisine style. Not to talk that overall Lao food are more bland compare to the northeastern Thai cuisine. Most important for those who say that I would say they've lost track of what the character of their cuisine. They don't even know how their cuisine is. A sure sign of lost identity
@@hoppinggnomethe4154 and also influenced by Malay food in the Southern Thai. Most Thai food that have coconut milks originated from the south close to Malaysia border.
@@hoppinggnomethe4154 For Indian and Chinese, I do agree. For Khmer, I beg to differ. A sample is again the spice. Except northeast cuisine other regions of Thai use a lot of spice. Also historical evidences/records shows that Thai use a lot of coconut. Same thing with Indo-Malay culture. This is believed to be introduce to this region by southern Indian sailors/merchants who traded in the trait of Malacca. However there are no records at all of Khmer or Cambodia doing the same. You can search for historical records eg. the report of Zhou Daguan, a Chinese emissary who visited Khmer empire to see if it's true. In fact historians believe it's the contrary that modern day Cambodian cuisine began adopting Thai cuisine/technics from 13-14th century when they fell under Siam and being ruled by them until early 20th since there are lots of technics/ingredients eg. chili, tomatoes, papaya, etc. (in case you don't know, these ingredients are not originated in the Old World. They are all from American continent and the continent was found by Christopher Columbus as we all know in 1492) which Siam derived from foreigner merchants -- Chinese, Indian, Western, etc. -- because there were many portal/hub cities in their land, yet these ingredients along with technics from outsiders eg. stir fry from Chinese, ingredients and some technics brought by the West, or mixed spice from Indian all used in modern day Cambodia dishes while there are no record of them at all before their falling to Siam. Not to talk in recent years there are many Cambodians worked in TH food shops then bring back the dishes they learned and open restos/shops in their land yet no records eg. diaries of travelers, missionaries, etc. of those dishes in their culture before while TH has.
@@wewenang5167 Nothing surprise. Indo-malay culture, not just food but others eg. their early faith, were influenced by Southern Indian. See Borobudur which based on Mahayana Buddhism in ID for example. See the comment above about the tarde root of that time for more info
@@SaengsKitchen not the history, but I know that back in the day when Thailand was Siam, the borders where different and Siam was bigger, Issan and Lao, at least in Vientiane even speak much similar, but if you have history, I would love to hear all about it, I'm curious to learn 🙏
My wife is Isaan in Ubon Ratchathani province. We’re over by the border in PhoSai. Pretty much everyone speaks Isaan/Lao. Mainly use Thai with me until my Isaan vocabulary grows. The food is almost identical I’ve been to lao a few times! Love SE Asia!
Im Lao, Thai, and Chinese and there is definitely a difference between Lao and Thai food. My parents always made Lao & Thai food but i always preferred Lao food. i always ate sticky rice with all my food even with my noodles especially my favorite Thai dish yum woon sen. I always ate it with sticky rice. My favorite Lao dish is gang key leck & papaya salad.
Look closer to her menus and you will see why it’s Thai restaurant . She probably from Isan if you said she speak Laos. The food on the table are what we eat in northern and northeastern of Thailand as well. She probably put Thai restaurant because Thai food is more variety and cover all the food she’s serving in my opinion.I’m HalfThai/Laos and I know all the food you are pointing.
I hope this changes, i love Lao food! One thing that makes me happy is a really trendy restaurant opened near me that advertises as Lao food, with a Laotian head chef/owner. It feels like everyone wants to eat there (including me haha).
all Lao restaurants need to stop label themself as Thai so ppl will start to recognize Lao cuisine. No one will know if they keep telling ppl their foods are thai
It gets tricky when Isaan are involved in the conversation. I noticed Lao from Laos are making headway in promotion of Lao food, but Isaan (of Lao ethnic heritage) are at a crossroads because of the shared Thai nationality they have. It’s unfortunate, cause for every step forward, it feels like two steps are taken back. And all for what? Fear? Shame? Classism? Popular food trends/ delicious introductions to unknown foods ONLY go away once people stop fearing how others will perceive them.
I agree! Same with Cambodian restaurants. I get it, it was tactic to get people to come since Thai food is very well known, but at this age and time, we should have our food be known as well. I’ll take Laos food over Thai.
@@wolo8107 Thai people didn't really originate any cuisine if you look at their history, Thai are influenced by Southern Chinese, Khmer, and will straight copy Lao food and call it as their own. Lao beef Larb is called Nam Tok in Thailand 😭. Thai people will slap their name on something and try to claim they're the originals.
@@Israeli_Prince more like nam thoht 😂 than Nam Tok .issaan people are the problem! Being a hybrid of mostly lao u eat sticky rice and Jeow padak and speak our language honey. Then I mix thai into and think your all sweet. Sorry honey u issaan better give credit where credit is dued don't forget your speaking lao language 80 percent vocabulary.
I prefer Authentic Laos food. I'll say this. Southeast Asian dishes have some similar tastes. But each has their own method,culture, and styles of cooking. But also based on ingredients they used. Different regions have different soil,that nutrition will in distance taste,even though they are the same ingredients. I always told my children Laos cuisine is Laos cuisine,they aren't Thai.
It may also be different in each home or restaurant. So pick one random Thai (Issan) restaurant and Lao restaurant, there would be a really REALLY slim chance they would taste the same.
It's not fair Thailand gets credit for lao food due to the existence of issaan people in Eastern Thailand which with lao food and speaking lao language.
it's so interesting bc i see so many people saying restaurants in some countries are almost always run by another ethnic group. like thai places in burma run by thai, and chinese places in europe run by viet. in america, most japenese sushi places are almost always run by s.koreans xD
I was studying abroad in Barcelona last summer and I was craving Lao food since I grew up eating it. I couldn’t find any Lao food but there were a lot of Thai food/restaurants. I also realize that people don’t even know that Laos is a country or where it was located.
At first I thought they're similar, but the more I learn about lao food, the more I get the difference. Sure, there are similar ingredients used, but the essence is very different. I guess people think so because Isaan kitchen is pretty similar, but i guess that's because i close to laos and food doesn't know any borders :D Anyway, because I'm half thai I find part of my identity in food and i'm always happy to learn more about foodculture and enjoy your videos and getting to know more about lao kitchen
Yes you’re right on the essence for sure. Since you are half Thai, I was wondering if you know about the history of isaan? From the history I read, it use to be part of Laos until it was divided by the french and given to Thailand so that’s why there are so many Lao people there and food is similar. Would love to hear your thoughts. 🙏💕
@@SaengsKitchen TBH I don’t know that much about Isaan, but I know my Laab and Sai krok/sai ua. My family lives in the Bangkok area and I grew up in Germany, so I’ve only been to north Thailand once on a round trip. But ever since these were some of my favorite dishes. Also som tam and khao niao are dishes I love and those are also part of lao cuisine. Thanks by the way for teaching me the fastest method of cooking sticky rice 😄
I am so interested in your content, and i love that you are working to expose the world to Lao cuisine, but it's hard to follow when you start listing dishes and ingredients without explaining the key takeaways. Is it spicier? More acidic? Meatier? Lighter? Funkier? Like, if someone asked me the difference between North and South Indian food, listing the spice differences wouldn't mean anything unless you were already familiar with them, so i might note that South Indian food is lighter, more delicate and fresher tasting, while North Indian has more curries and is heartier. I only say this because i really and truly am interested.
In Thailand, if you show me that, id say Thai food… Lao-Thai, we share similar genealogy and history. Im a Thai and when I went to Luang Pra Bang, the food there, as well the music and ceremonies are all very nostalgic. I know its Lao, but honestly from an ASEAN perspective, I dont see the need to differentiate.
Can I get vegan Lao food recipes?! I want to cook for friends and want to know what YOU would recommend. I know banana flower tacos are something we have done before but what else?
I used to be a vegetarian and eat so much plant based foods so I def have it in my head but haven't gotten the chance to put them online yet. I hope to do it soon though! some Lao foods you can easily make vegan are nam khao, grilled sticky rice, fermented soy bean paste dip, etc. hope thats a start!
I'm white, but I did a fun learning experiment last summer where my family went to a Viet restaurant (Saigon Cafe, Jersey City), a Thai restaurant (One Dee Siam, Jersey City), and a Lao restaurant (Khe-yo, NYC) so we could experience the similarities and differences. In my ill-informed personal observations, I found the main difference to be "lightness/heaviness" and prevalence of seafood, with Vietnamese food being the lightest and most seafoody and Lao being the heaviest and most land meaty (their beef broth made me buss on the spot my GOD). And looking at the three countries geographically, that makes sense! Vietnam has hella coastline, Thailand has a smaller one, and Laos is landlocked and on a higher elevation which would make people there a bit colder and craving heavier, meaty foods. I love learning through food :)
Sticky rice with every meal?! Sounds like a dream! I was always warned agaibst eating too much Cantonese style fried sticky rice since it supposedly is hard to digest or something? Have people been keeping me down or is there a trick to it?
Things like this are why I love telling people of other cuisines that are not as well known by word of mouth because the only reason people know my own country's cuisine within my community is because my family had chances to teach people
I love sharing about Lao food and invite more people to ask about it. thats the only way others will learn. I am thankful I can share Lao food over the internet and teach people :)
I think this may be the place where I first tried papaya salad. She asked me if I wanted hot or mild and I chose hot. My friends were laughing because I was sweating but it was sooooo good.
The Thai restaurant in our small town is actually Hmong and Laotian with a smattering of Thai. A lot of our Hmong/Laotian residents grew up or at least lived in Thailand before coming to the US so it makes sense from that perspective. It’s a great mashup and a really solid choice for food.
Papaya salad is spicy and it's really yummy the ingredients are smash and all of my friends like Matelyn I gave her some at school she said it was spicy and delicious❤
Arab living in the US here. This happens a lot with our food too. Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian food will be sold as "Greek" or "Middle Eastern". It's a real shame, there's such unique differences between the foods of every country
This video was recommended to me today out of the blue and I can't stop looking at that sausage (wrapped in a leaf ?). I want to eat it so badly without even knowing what it is XD
Do you know the history of northern Thailand isaan?it used to be part of laos until the French gave it over to Thailand hence millions of lao people being in Thailand including the culture and food. Because of thaification, the lao people were not allowed to call themselves Lao hence isaan was created. With time, the area has evolved but a lot of the food and culture has stayed the similar to its Lao roots and influence. Hope that helps.
@@SaengsKitchen thanks for sharing your perspective. Another perspective I've heard was that Lao and Thai people are one family and the colonial powers encouraged their separation to weaken the region and make them more controllable.
It’s slightly different. I’ve never been to Laos. I’m from the north of Thailand. I also grew up eating those foods in your video. The names are also quite similar. I love sticky rice too.
Do you know the history of northern Thailand isaan?it used to be part of laos until the French gave it over to Thailand hence millions of lao people being in Thailand including the culture and food. Because of thaification, the lao people were not allowed to call themselves Lao hence isaan was created. With time, the area has evolved but a lot of the food and culture has stayed the similar to its Lao roots and influence. Hope that helps.
@@SaengsKitchen No. Not Isaan. Isaan is northeast. I’m from the north. And yes I know the history of my country. It’s interesting how you said that the French gave Laos to Thailand. Because, it’s the other way around. Thailand gave up Laos to the French to avoid being colonized. What was the reason, in your history, for the French to give Laos to Thailand? I don’t think it makes sense, because Thailand had no military power to fight with the French. They could just colonize Thailand easily. And it wasn’t only just France but England also wanted Thailand as well. So why would a powerful country like France give away their cake? Anyway, I’m not saying that Thai food is better than Lao food, or Lao food and culture is originally from Thailand. I mean the food is quite similar because we’re neighbors. Of course there’re going to be some similarities in culture especially the border part. People moved around all the time. I can’t speak your language but I can understand most of it because of the similarities. The dialect in Isaan is different from the north but I can also understand it, if spoken slowly, because of the similarities as well. About food, we have a lot kind of food that are influenced from other countries. And of course, we adapted to Thai’s taste. It’s the same thing everywhere in the world. For me, it doesn’t matter where the food is originally from. It’s the extra twist that you put in there is what makes it unique.
@@patbamm4926 True, as a Vietnamese, I also learnt that Thailand have to give up land to France in order not to be colonized, Thailand acted as a buffer between the English ruled Burma and French ruled Indochina.
Interesting it seems some of the peoples country's history only starts form 1800's and after but dont mention about how south east asia as a whole looked like before 1800s? south east asia is much older that last 200 years. Lao people have been in south east asia much longer. i agree saeng might have gotten that mixed around, thailand had to cede the recently conquered lao territories to france but i believe what he is referring to is the Lao kingdom from 1300s-1700s. Siam later managed to beat 2 of the 4 broken lao kingdoms (seperately) around 1780 until france came in 1890s. not to mention western weapons changed the game in south east asia way before colonization happened. Laos was last to receive these weapons. so this question is at what point in history are you starting from. also he is referring to lao cuisne. thai food is thai food no matter what country its cooked in wouldn't that same logic apply lao cuisne?
@@lemongrass568 It doesn’t matter at what of history I’m referring to. The incident when France gave part of Loas to Thailand never happened. That’s what I’ve learned in school. I don’t know what teach in Laos. I just said that this is what I know. I’m not saying that I’m right. I’m just surprised to hear a different point of view. About the food, I just share that we also have these foods because I was surprised that even the name is the same. I’m not claiming the authenticity or origin of the food. I actually don’t care about that at all. It’s like you see you friend wearing the same shoes as yours and you say “oh w have the same shoes. That’s cool” ….. Something like that.
My friend and coworker,Ya ( thats his name) makes amazing Lao food . And his mom makes this super spicey shredded dish. Its out of this world. I forgot the name, does anybody know what it's called??
This is my problem in Indiana. There are thai restaurants everywhere. But no Lao food. Why? There are many cultures out here in Indy, I dont understand. 😢
I have a list of lao restaurants around the world and it says there’s two that are in Indianapolis: Phan's Kitchen Indianapolis, Indiana Pho Real Indianapolis, Indiana Here’s the list if you want to see if there are others: www.saengskitchen.com/lao-eats-list-1
Interesting it seems some of the peoples country's history only starts form 1800's and after but dont mention about how south east asia as a whole looked like before 1800s? south east asia is much older that last 200 years. Lao people have been in south east asia much longer. i agree saeng might have gotten that mixed around, thailand had to cede the recently conquered lao territories to france but i believe what he is referring to is the Lao kingdom from 1300s-1700s. Siam later managed to beat 2 of the broken lao kingdoms (seperately) around 1780 until france came in 1890s. not to mention western weapons changed the game in south east asia way before colonization happened. Laos was last to receive these weapons. so this question is at what point in history are you starting from. also he is referring to lao cuisne. thai food is thai food no matter what country its cooked in wouldn't that same logic apply lao cuisne?
thai food is not a monolith. We have different cuisines that correspond to the geographical regions. We have central(aka basically all the well known thai food in the west), southern which borders the malay states, north bordering laos myanmar and almost china, and north east and (isaan) which borders laos and cambodia and has more ten times more lao people than laos itself, they just call themselves thai due to thaification policies and massive population transfer due to anouvong's failed rebellion almost two centuries ago. Isaan food is pretty much lao food.
There are four cuisines in Thai food: North, South, Central, North-East food. So you've got to be more specific how you compare Lao food with what cuisine.
I ate there too when I was in Hawaii. She overheard my friend and I speaking Lao so she called us over. Food was good, didn't disappoint
I would def come back for the Thum mak hoong. It was soooo good
Something similar(ish) happens with Burmese restaurants too. If you’re in a community with lots of people from Burma many of the “Thai” restaurants will be run by Burmese people and have some Burmese dishes that may or may not be labeled as such. Big difference is that I don’t think there is as much confusion between Burmese and Thai food. Until fairly recently many of the dishes that I grew up thinking of as Thai are actually Lao!
Thank you so much for sharing that! I love hearing how other communities have experienced this. I love Burmese food and know the difference right away. I think I’ll go eat some this week. Do you have some go to Burmese food recommendations? And yes I’m glad people are finally understanding the origins of a lot of this food! All this is so similar to how a lot of Koreans opened Japanese restaurants but luckily a lot is changing and now people love Korean food. I hope the same for Lao! 🙏💕
I'm a big fan of you❤🎉
@@SaengsKitchenHi, I’m Burmese and my go-to dishes are fermented tea leaf salad (လက်ဖက်သုပ်), Mohinga (မုန့်ဟင်းခါး), Shan noodles (ရှမ်းခေါက်ဆွဲ) and Rakhine Mont Di (ရခိုင်မုန့်တီ). I hope you try out these dishes and enjoy them. Love your content.
That sounds like older Chinese restaurants in much of Europe. They are almost all run by Vietnamese families and usually serve Asian food (as in a best off collection of various countries signature dishes and whatever was the "trendy Asian food" five years ago, it used to be sushi, now it's mochi ice cream and sticky rice pudding).
I actually had a classmate who's parents owned a Chinese restaurant that only serves Vietnamese food (one of the best restaurants in town btw) 😂
That said over the last decade or so more specific restaurants have also started to appear.
@@Trekki200 in Italy this happens with japanese/sushi restaurants, they are always run by chinese folks, mainly because japan is seen as cooler than china in popular culture. Only recently they've started to rebrand themselves as "fusion" "asian" or straight up "chinese"
Yes! Most people don't understand the difference between Thai and Lao. And me being Issan, trying to explain THAT is even harder sometimes. So it's just easier to say that I'm Thai. I get where she's coming from.
True. I once read that if you go to a Thai restaurant in the U.S., you might actually be eating Lao food. They name it a Thai restaurant because they think it would appeal to more (American) people since some (American) people don't know what Lao is. She must add the Lao sign.
I lived in Hawaii nearly 40 years and I know this woman. She’s an amazing cook and been going there with my parents since I was a child. Wish the food court was more busy with vendors. There isn’t much going on there now days
Lao, Thai , anything with sticky rice and papaya salad get in my belly 🤗🤗🤤🤤🤤
First we have to define "what is Thai food?" since Thai food can be grouped into 4 major groups which are northeast, north, south, and central. Lao food is close to northeastern Thai. That's right. Yet for the rest of the groups Lao food is not. Some are not close at all. Northern Thai cuisine are more close to Myanmar since Lanna kingdom was a multicultural since the beginning with lots of people from nowadays Myanmar (eg. Tai Yai or people of Shan). They use a lot of spice. A trait that derived from Myanmar which also derived from India. It's something Lao cuisine rarely use (Please note that herb is not spice) For the rest 2, Lao food is not close to them at all. And very simple reason: they are close to the sea, something Lao don't have, so their cuisine have lots of ingredients from the source: fermented shrimp, dried shrimp, coconut milk (coconut need lots of water hence they grow well in low land. Even north and northeast Thai cuisine hardly use coconut milk) etc. So, if you ask me if Lao food is similar to Thai, overall I tend to say no or at best to avoid conflict my answer would be not really, since of the 4 groups you are close to only 1 -- that only 25%, less than 50% which is my criteria. Those who say that Lao food is similar to Thai have very limited info about their cuisine style. Not to talk that overall Lao food are more bland compare to the northeastern Thai cuisine. Most important for those who say that I would say they've lost track of what the character of their cuisine. They don't even know how their cuisine is. A sure sign of lost identity
Thai food was influenced by Khmer, Indian, and Chinese food.
@@hoppinggnomethe4154 and also influenced by Malay food in the Southern Thai. Most Thai food that have coconut milks originated from the south close to Malaysia border.
@@hoppinggnomethe4154 For Indian and Chinese, I do agree. For Khmer, I beg to differ. A sample is again the spice. Except northeast cuisine other regions of Thai use a lot of spice. Also historical evidences/records shows that Thai use a lot of coconut. Same thing with Indo-Malay culture. This is believed to be introduce to this region by southern Indian sailors/merchants who traded in the trait of Malacca. However there are no records at all of Khmer or Cambodia doing the same. You can search for historical records eg. the report of Zhou Daguan, a Chinese emissary who visited Khmer empire to see if it's true. In fact historians believe it's the contrary that modern day Cambodian cuisine began adopting Thai cuisine/technics from 13-14th century when they fell under Siam and being ruled by them until early 20th since there are lots of technics/ingredients eg. chili, tomatoes, papaya, etc. (in case you don't know, these ingredients are not originated in the Old World. They are all from American continent and the continent was found by Christopher Columbus as we all know in 1492) which Siam derived from foreigner merchants -- Chinese, Indian, Western, etc. -- because there were many portal/hub cities in their land, yet these ingredients along with technics from outsiders eg. stir fry from Chinese, ingredients and some technics brought by the West, or mixed spice from Indian all used in modern day Cambodia dishes while there are no record of them at all before their falling to Siam. Not to talk in recent years there are many Cambodians worked in TH food shops then bring back the dishes they learned and open restos/shops in their land yet no records eg. diaries of travelers, missionaries, etc. of those dishes in their culture before while TH has.
@@wewenang5167 Nothing surprise. Indo-malay culture, not just food but others eg. their early faith, were influenced by Southern Indian. See Borobudur which based on Mahayana Buddhism in ID for example. See the comment above about the tarde root of that time for more info
Issan and Lao food is much the same, although,from my experience, Lao uses more herbs and vegetables, i really loved it there
🙏🇹🇭🥳🥰🥳🇹🇭🙏
Do you know the history on with issan food is similar to Lao food?
@@SaengsKitchen not the history, but I know that back in the day when Thailand was Siam, the borders where different and Siam was bigger, Issan and Lao, at least in Vientiane even speak much similar, but if you have history, I would love to hear all about it, I'm curious to learn 🙏
My wife is Isaan in Ubon Ratchathani province. We’re over by the border in PhoSai. Pretty much everyone speaks Isaan/Lao. Mainly use Thai with me until my Isaan vocabulary grows. The food is almost identical I’ve been to lao a few times! Love SE Asia!
Im Lao, Thai, and Chinese and there is definitely a difference between Lao and Thai food. My parents always made Lao & Thai food but i always preferred Lao food. i always ate sticky rice with all my food even with my noodles especially my favorite Thai dish yum woon sen. I always ate it with sticky rice. My favorite Lao dish is gang key leck & papaya salad.
Look closer to her menus and you will see why it’s Thai restaurant . She probably from Isan if you said she speak Laos. The food on the table are what we eat in northern and northeastern of Thailand as well. She probably put Thai restaurant because Thai food is more variety and cover all the food she’s serving in my opinion.I’m HalfThai/Laos and I know all the food you are pointing.
Agree
Lao food is very authentic 😋👌and I'm so glad more and more people are getting familiar with our food I'm so proud of my culture!
Same sis same!! So delicious and underrated.
I hope this changes, i love Lao food! One thing that makes me happy is a really trendy restaurant opened near me that advertises as Lao food, with a Laotian head chef/owner. It feels like everyone wants to eat there (including me haha).
As a northeastern thai myself lao food and thai food are diffrent go try it its probably might look the same but the spice are just diffrent
all Lao restaurants need to stop label themself as Thai so ppl will start to recognize Lao cuisine. No one will know if they keep telling ppl their foods are thai
Exactly! My mom complain that to the lao restaurant that says Thai as their name. Lao people y'all need to get smarter.
It gets tricky when Isaan are involved in the conversation. I noticed Lao from Laos are making headway in promotion of Lao food, but Isaan (of Lao ethnic heritage) are at a crossroads because of the shared Thai nationality they have. It’s unfortunate, cause for every step forward, it feels like two steps are taken back. And all for what? Fear? Shame? Classism? Popular food trends/ delicious introductions to unknown foods ONLY go away once people stop fearing how others will perceive them.
I agree! Same with Cambodian restaurants. I get it, it was tactic to get people to come since Thai food is very well known, but at this age and time, we should have our food be known as well. I’ll take Laos food over Thai.
@@wolo8107 Thai people didn't really originate any cuisine if you look at their history, Thai are influenced by Southern Chinese, Khmer, and will straight copy Lao food and call it as their own. Lao beef Larb is called Nam Tok in Thailand 😭. Thai people will slap their name on something and try to claim they're the originals.
@@Israeli_Prince more like nam thoht 😂 than Nam Tok .issaan people are the problem! Being a hybrid of mostly lao u eat sticky rice and Jeow padak and speak our language honey. Then I mix thai into and think your all sweet. Sorry honey u issaan better give credit where credit is dued don't forget your speaking lao language 80 percent vocabulary.
I prefer Authentic Laos food. I'll say this. Southeast Asian dishes have some similar tastes. But each has their own method,culture, and styles of cooking. But also based on ingredients they used. Different regions have different soil,that nutrition will in distance taste,even though they are the same ingredients. I always told my children Laos cuisine is Laos cuisine,they aren't Thai.
Of course it’s deferent. We in the country of Mexico have different cuisine in each state sometimes they are even different in the same state.
It may also be different in each home or restaurant. So pick one random Thai (Issan) restaurant and Lao restaurant, there would be a really REALLY slim chance they would taste the same.
Papaya salad goes well with everything
True! What’s your favorite thing to eat it with?
@@SaengsKitchenSticky Rice because Sticky Rice
Love from Thailand! ❤
It's not fair Thailand gets credit for lao food due to the existence of issaan people in Eastern Thailand which with lao food and speaking lao language.
It’s called shared culture. Vice versa, why wouldn’t you assume that Laos are speaking Isaan dialects?
The term Laos and Isaan only came afterwards after dividing boundary. Assuming it as a Lao food and that Thai gets credit from it is logical fallacy.
Papaya salad is my fav - I love when my mom makes it with carrots too❤❤❤❤❤
Love it with carrot too! How many peppers do you like in it?
it's so interesting bc i see so many people saying restaurants in some countries are almost always run by another ethnic group. like thai places in burma run by thai, and chinese places in europe run by viet. in america, most japenese sushi places are almost always run by s.koreans xD
That’s all so true! And I wonder why it has to be like that? 🤔 I didn’t know Chinese places in Europe are run by Viet
I was studying abroad in Barcelona last summer and I was craving Lao food since I grew up eating it. I couldn’t find any Lao food but there were a lot of Thai food/restaurants. I also realize that people don’t even know that Laos is a country or where it was located.
Every time I see your videos I really want to try Lao food. I'll have to look for a restaurant in my area because it always looks so delicious
Here’s a list I compiled of the lao restaurants around the world. Hope it helps www.saengskitchen.com/lao-eats-list-1
That looks delicious ❤❤❤
At first I thought they're similar, but the more I learn about lao food, the more I get the difference. Sure, there are similar ingredients used, but the essence is very different. I guess people think so because Isaan kitchen is pretty similar, but i guess that's because i close to laos and food doesn't know any borders :D Anyway, because I'm half thai I find part of my identity in food and i'm always happy to learn more about foodculture and enjoy your videos and getting to know more about lao kitchen
Yes you’re right on the essence for sure. Since you are half Thai, I was wondering if you know about the history of isaan? From the history I read, it use to be part of Laos until it was divided by the french and given to Thailand so that’s why there are so many Lao people there and food is similar. Would love to hear your thoughts. 🙏💕
@@SaengsKitchen TBH I don’t know that much about Isaan, but I know my Laab and Sai krok/sai ua. My family lives in the Bangkok area and I grew up in Germany, so I’ve only been to north Thailand once on a round trip. But ever since these were some of my favorite dishes. Also som tam and khao niao are dishes I love and those are also part of lao cuisine. Thanks by the way for teaching me the fastest method of cooking sticky rice 😄
@@gilean1986 wow Germany! There must be all types of different food there
@@SaengsKitchen yeah especially big city’s like Berlin.
I am so interested in your content, and i love that you are working to expose the world to Lao cuisine, but it's hard to follow when you start listing dishes and ingredients without explaining the key takeaways. Is it spicier? More acidic? Meatier? Lighter? Funkier?
Like, if someone asked me the difference between North and South Indian food, listing the spice differences wouldn't mean anything unless you were already familiar with them, so i might note that South Indian food is lighter, more delicate and fresher tasting, while North Indian has more curries and is heartier.
I only say this because i really and truly am interested.
In Thailand, if you show me that, id say Thai food… Lao-Thai, we share similar genealogy and history. Im a Thai and when I went to Luang Pra Bang, the food there, as well the music and ceremonies are all very nostalgic. I know its Lao, but honestly from an ASEAN perspective, I dont see the need to differentiate.
Can I get vegan Lao food recipes?! I want to cook for friends and want to know what YOU would recommend. I know banana flower tacos are something we have done before but what else?
I used to be a vegetarian and eat so much plant based foods so I def have it in my head but haven't gotten the chance to put them online yet. I hope to do it soon though! some Lao foods you can easily make vegan are nam khao, grilled sticky rice, fermented soy bean paste dip, etc. hope thats a start!
I'm white, but I did a fun learning experiment last summer where my family went to a Viet restaurant (Saigon Cafe, Jersey City), a Thai restaurant (One Dee Siam, Jersey City), and a Lao restaurant (Khe-yo, NYC) so we could experience the similarities and differences.
In my ill-informed personal observations, I found the main difference to be "lightness/heaviness" and prevalence of seafood, with Vietnamese food being the lightest and most seafoody and Lao being the heaviest and most land meaty (their beef broth made me buss on the spot my GOD).
And looking at the three countries geographically, that makes sense! Vietnam has hella coastline, Thailand has a smaller one, and Laos is landlocked and on a higher elevation which would make people there a bit colder and craving heavier, meaty foods. I love learning through food :)
Droool!!!!omg!!!!! Lao food is the best!!!!!!!! Love how you can get a sample of everything with that sticky rice❤
It was so good!!! What’s your favorite lao food???
It's Hawaii though... we are probably one of the best crossroads for Asian cuisine. Hope she can add Lao to her signage soon.
Can you recommend a authentic lao restaurant in NYC?
Sticky rice with every meal?! Sounds like a dream! I was always warned agaibst eating too much Cantonese style fried sticky rice since it supposedly is hard to digest or something? Have people been keeping me down or is there a trick to it?
Things like this are why I love telling people of other cuisines that are not as well known by word of mouth because the only reason people know my own country's cuisine within my community is because my family had chances to teach people
I love sharing about Lao food and invite more people to ask about it. thats the only way others will learn. I am thankful I can share Lao food over the internet and teach people :)
I think this may be the place where I first tried papaya salad. She asked me if I wanted hot or mild and I chose hot. My friends were laughing because I was sweating but it was sooooo good.
There’s a saying in Lao “if it’s not spicy it’s not good”. Sounds like you experienced it 😅
Omg the food looks amazing!
Lao foods 😋
I live in Hawaii and a lot of the Thai restaurants are run by Lao people. I love Nam khao
this food looks so good😢 makes me wanna cry haha
Very nice ❤😊
The Thai restaurant in our small town is actually Hmong and Laotian with a smattering of Thai. A lot of our Hmong/Laotian residents grew up or at least lived in Thailand before coming to the US so it makes sense from that perspective. It’s a great mashup and a really solid choice for food.
That’s in my old neighborhood! I lived a few minutes walk away
Papaya salad is spicy and it's really yummy the ingredients are smash and all of my friends like Matelyn I gave her some at school she said it was spicy and delicious❤
❤❤❤
LOOKS BEAUTIFUL
thank you so much
Buy her the sign!
Yum
Maaan i want some Lao food
Is there a lao restaurant in your area?
@@SaengsKitchen Apparently there is, I've never been but I'm gonna fix that. It's called Lao Food Market and is a grocery store and kitchen.
Yummies
That looks so freaking good
Really like to try it.
You should! Is there a lao restaurant in your city?
I want to try it allllll
Hopefully, more people would recognize Cambodian stuff as well as that too gets overshadowed & is often folded into Thai places
Maunakea market place is literally heaven on earth
We basically adapted to them, just like Vietnamese and Thai food, we added our own so it feels more at home ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Everything looks so good
Yes, do label Lao food as Lao food. I want to try it!!!
What’s a typical Laos dish vs Thai dish?
For some reason I think Laotian food is
spicier than Thai.
Lao food is way more spicier and funkier. Check out a Lao papaya salad to a Thai papaya salad is a good start
🤤🤤🤤🤤 food is always good
That all looks mouth-watering 🤤
It is! Have you had lao food before?
@@SaengsKitchen Never! But I need to soon
I much prefer Lao food to Thai food. I find Thai food too sweet. While Lao food is usually lemony savoury spicy. The best combo.
That sausage looks so good
Yummy
😋
Same
No one is going to lift your culture, if you can't even begin to lift it yourself. Be Lao and proud.
It's generally spicier as well?
What about Lao vs Hmong food?
Cute
Arab living in the US here. This happens a lot with our food too. Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian food will be sold as "Greek" or "Middle Eastern". It's a real shame, there's such unique differences between the foods of every country
do people eat less sticky rice since its more filling than reg rice?
This video was recommended to me today out of the blue and I can't stop looking at that sausage (wrapped in a leaf ?). I want to eat it so badly without even knowing what it is XD
different
Oh man, my spice tolerance is almost non existent but I always crave when I see papaya salad..wish I can try Lao food someday
Aww you’ll just have to do some spice practicing! Is there a lao restaurant near you?
🤤
Love Lao food
For sure a difference but like how brother and sister are different
this looks a lot like the food I had in isaan thailand though
Do you know the history of northern Thailand isaan?it used to be part of laos until the French gave it over to Thailand hence millions of lao people being in Thailand including the culture and food. Because of thaification, the lao people were not allowed to call themselves Lao hence isaan was created. With time, the area has evolved but a lot of the food and culture has stayed the similar to its Lao roots and influence. Hope that helps.
@@SaengsKitchen thanks for sharing your perspective. Another perspective I've heard was that Lao and Thai people are one family and the colonial powers encouraged their separation to weaken the region and make them more controllable.
@SaengsKitchen man leaw, that's what my parent tells me too, how laos became isaan
👏🏻
Sooo going
Horrifying ❤
it is just Isan food......delicious
It’s slightly different. I’ve never been to Laos. I’m from the north of Thailand. I also grew up eating those foods in your video. The names are also quite similar. I love sticky rice too.
Do you know the history of northern Thailand isaan?it used to be part of laos until the French gave it over to Thailand hence millions of lao people being in Thailand including the culture and food. Because of thaification, the lao people were not allowed to call themselves Lao hence isaan was created. With time, the area has evolved but a lot of the food and culture has stayed the similar to its Lao roots and influence. Hope that helps.
@@SaengsKitchen No. Not Isaan. Isaan is northeast. I’m from the north. And yes I know the history of my country. It’s interesting how you said that the French gave Laos to Thailand. Because, it’s the other way around. Thailand gave up Laos to the French to avoid being colonized. What was the reason, in your history, for the French to give Laos to Thailand? I don’t think it makes sense, because Thailand had no military power to fight with the French. They could just colonize Thailand easily. And it wasn’t only just France but England also wanted Thailand as well. So why would a powerful country like France give away their cake?
Anyway, I’m not saying that Thai food is better than Lao food, or Lao food and culture is originally from Thailand. I mean the food is quite similar because we’re neighbors. Of course there’re going to be some similarities in culture especially the border part. People moved around all the time. I can’t speak your language but I can understand most of it because of the similarities. The dialect in Isaan is different from the north but I can also understand it, if spoken slowly, because of the similarities as well. About food, we have a lot kind of food that are influenced from other countries. And of course, we adapted to Thai’s taste. It’s the same thing everywhere in the world. For me, it doesn’t matter where the food is originally from. It’s the extra twist that you put in there is what makes it unique.
@@patbamm4926 True, as a Vietnamese, I also learnt that Thailand have to give up land to France in order not to be colonized, Thailand acted as a buffer between the English ruled Burma and French ruled Indochina.
Interesting it seems some of the peoples country's history only starts form 1800's and after but dont mention about how south east asia as a whole looked like before 1800s? south east asia is much older that last 200 years. Lao people have been in south east asia much longer. i agree saeng might have gotten that mixed around, thailand had to cede the recently conquered lao territories to france but i believe what he is referring to is the Lao kingdom from 1300s-1700s. Siam later managed to beat 2 of the 4 broken lao kingdoms (seperately) around 1780 until france came in 1890s. not to mention western weapons changed the game in south east asia way before colonization happened. Laos was last to receive these weapons. so this question is at what point in history are you starting from. also he is referring to lao cuisne. thai food is thai food no matter what country its cooked in wouldn't that same logic apply lao cuisne?
@@lemongrass568 It doesn’t matter at what of history I’m referring to. The incident when France gave part of Loas to Thailand never happened. That’s what I’ve learned in school. I don’t know what teach in Laos. I just said that this is what I know. I’m not saying that I’m right. I’m just surprised to hear a different point of view.
About the food, I just share that we also have these foods because I was surprised that even the name is the same. I’m not claiming the authenticity or origin of the food. I actually don’t care about that at all. It’s like you see you friend wearing the same shoes as yours and you say “oh w have the same shoes. That’s cool” ….. Something like that.
My family is airforce and was stationed in aohu for genrations. This place is ok.
Sticky rice 🤤
There’s a well regarded laotian place near me and when I went I genuinely did not recognize a single food I ate lol
What’s the lao place called?
It's like 85% the same.
My friend and coworker,Ya ( thats his name) makes amazing Lao food . And his mom makes this super spicey shredded dish. Its out of this world. I forgot the name, does anybody know what it's called??
Is it Lao Papaya Salad (Thum Mak Hoong)?
TH-cam WON'T LET ME like the video!!!
This is my problem in Indiana. There are thai restaurants everywhere. But no Lao food. Why? There are many cultures out here in Indy, I dont understand. 😢
I have a list of lao restaurants around the world and it says there’s two that are in Indianapolis: Phan's Kitchen Indianapolis, Indiana
Pho Real Indianapolis, Indiana
Here’s the list if you want to see if there are others: www.saengskitchen.com/lao-eats-list-1
@@SaengsKitchen, thank you!!!
Interesting it seems some of the peoples country's history only starts form 1800's and after but dont mention about how south east asia as a whole looked like before 1800s? south east asia is much older that last 200 years. Lao people have been in south east asia much longer. i agree saeng might have gotten that mixed around, thailand had to cede the recently conquered lao territories to france but i believe what he is referring to is the Lao kingdom from 1300s-1700s. Siam later managed to beat 2 of the broken lao kingdoms (seperately) around 1780 until france came in 1890s. not to mention western weapons changed the game in south east asia way before colonization happened. Laos was last to receive these weapons. so this question is at what point in history are you starting from. also he is referring to lao cuisne. thai food is thai food no matter what country its cooked in wouldn't that same logic apply lao cuisne?
thai food is not a monolith. We have different cuisines that correspond to the geographical regions. We have central(aka basically all the well known thai food in the west), southern which borders the malay states, north bordering laos myanmar and almost china, and north east and (isaan) which borders laos and cambodia and has more ten times more lao people than laos itself, they just call themselves thai due to thaification policies and massive population transfer due to anouvong's failed rebellion almost two centuries ago. Isaan food is pretty much lao food.
Thank you for breaking down the difference.
Thanks for listening!
*king of the hill voice* so is the food chinese or japanese
It's so sad that people have to label as something else. All this food looks so yummy.
There are four cuisines in Thai food: North, South, Central, North-East food. So you've got to be more specific how you compare Lao food with what cuisine.
I wish someone would post vegetarian Lao food. I want to try it so bad
King of the Hill - so are you Chinese or a Japanese?
Laotian XD
Dang I lived in Hawaii most of my life and never heard of this place 😂
And Hmong food is heavily influenced by both, fun fact!
Lao, issan, thai food totally different but some similar
I can understand the thinking of “if people don’t know what Lao food is, we should label it as something appealing to customers” but it makes me sad