Traditional Market Tour and Private Laotian Cooking Class with a Local

Si received his education and learned English as a monk. His parents, who were unable to read and write, wanted their son to be educated and sent Si to a temple far from their countryside home to study. Si was determined to use that opportunity and learned to read and write, taking extra English classes as a monk, and then starting work directly after high school. He now works in operations for a travel company in Luang Prabang. He is a friendly young man who warmly welcomes you into the house that he built for his family. Si is a member of the Tai Lue tribe, a people of the lowlands and one of three tribes in Luang Prabang. He lives in a modest, rural home along with his mother, Tailu, who was orphaned during the war, and his wife, Nee, who is from the Sang Hai village, along with their young children. Nee learned to cook as a way to integrate into her in-laws' family.

Share a meal with this welcoming and relaxed family in their home. At the entrance to the home is Si's mother's loom, upon which she weaves traditional cloth that she sells in the local market. After a tour of their home, sit down together to enjoy a traditional home-cooked Laotian meal that you helped prepare with Nee. You will learn to cook a simple everyday meal that includes dishes such as peeng pa (charcoal-grilled fish) or jao nam poo (green chili sauce with crab), bamboo shoot soup (a rainy season favorite cooked with pumpkin and green leafy vegetables) or ort lam (pork soup with vegetables), and khua mak fak (stir-fried pumpkin with pork) eaten with sticky rice. Some dishes may also be prepared using electric heat. The cooking class portion of the experience will last 2.5 hours.

Please note that this cooking experience takes place outdoors in the family's traditional outdoor kitchen, and it may be hot and sunny; we encourage you to dress appropriately in warm-weather clothing.

Please note that is not a commercial cooking class, rather this is a modest, rural experience that gives you a wonderful glimpse of rural Laotian everyday cooking and life. The bathroom in Si's home does not have a western style toilet but an eastern one.

Travel off the eaten path during this private, authentic Luang Prabang food experience!