Christmas/New Year- Laos style

The  Yao store around the corner.

Love it.

This is "the girls" on Christmas day.

Gail, Sarah and myself.

Christmas brunch at Ock Pok Tok 

.... which went on for a very long time with lots of laughs ..........

Sounds perfect.

Gail

These are huge poinciana plants growing wild.  

At L'estranger bookshop

La Silapa had Bamboo as a Christmas Tree.

Pretty ugly - it's made of Heineken beer bottles

Sometime between Christmas and New Year.

Sindao - Lao Bar be que.  

The table is made of cement and has a hole in the centre

Into that hole goes a terracotta pot full of glowing charcoal

You then sit a large aluminium dome shaped dish on top.  

The dish has sides that come up about 10 cm.  

On top of the dome you put fatty meat.  Into the well around the outer side you put stock.

As the meat cooks, it adds flavour to the stock.

You collect all kinds of meat to cook on the dome 

and veggies and noodles and tofu 

to cook in the stock at the side.  

So you have cooked meat and veggies with a beautiful soup stock.

Quite a communal cooking experience.

This is really yummy and fun.

Left to right: Chen, Melissa, Sarah, Emi and David.

And of course, what would New Year be without 2016 made out of Laos beer boxes 

and surrounded by fairy lights.

It goes perfectly with Karaoke.