ラオス料理

March 28, 2012.

 

ラオス料理

Ｓさんが以前に日本で勤めていた会社の同期が今ではラオスの首都、ビエンチャンで仕事をしているのだが、彼女に招かれてラオス料理を食べに行ってきた。Ｓさんと僕の他にもカンボジアで地元の小学校を建てようとしている日本人やベトナムで働いている日本人がいたり、日本に６年間も住んでいたラオス人がいたらして、いろいろと新鮮な話の聞ける楽しい食事会だった。また、久しぶりに日本的な雰囲気・礼儀作法を味わうことができ、懐かしく感じる空間だった。考えてみれば、日本を離れてもう７ヶ月もたつわけだ。早いようにも感じるが、同時にあれからは数え切れないほどたくさん素敵な人々に出会い、不思議なものを見、一生忘れられない体験をしてきたようにも思う。

そして、この夜もまた新たな出会いのある場となったわけだ。特にラオス人の彼の話を聞くと面白かった。日本で学生をやっている時代、ラーメン屋でアルバイトをしていたというが、仕事があまりにも大変で一週間くらいでもうやめようと思ったらしい。しかし、そのときに店長にもう少しがんばるように優しく声をかけられて、結局は４年間も続いたという。同じ留学生として、感情移入しやすい部分があった。

カンボジアで小学校を建てている日本人にはカンボジアに立ち寄った際に手伝うようにと声をかけてもらい、面白そうなのでぜひやってみようと思っている。

と、ここまでどんな人に出会ったかについて熱く語ったわけだが、本当はラオス料理が紹介したいために書いたブログです。ラオスの主食はもち米というもので、赤飯によく似た飯だ。僕はこのもち米が大好きで、いくら食べてもあきない。手で食べるわけだが、スープやソースに漬かしてから食べると特に美味しい。それから、ココナツで甘くしておにぎりのようにして食べることもある。

それから、この日にはひき肉サラダが何種類も出て、健康に良さそうで同時ご飯が進むという絶妙な料理だった。

他にも、ライム入りの米粉（麺類）とか、いろいろとラオス名物はあるが、きりがないので今日はとりあえずこの夜に食べた料理だけを紹介して、終わりにさせていただきます！

Local madness in Vientiane.

March 27, 2012.

Local madness in Vientiane.

In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, I went to a local company funded by the Japanese government together with my friend Shinji. At this company, an old friend of him was working as a supervisor. Seeing something local is always interesting, so I was happy to go with him.

The company existed out of a restaurant, a tailor and a factory for clothes. Local girls are hired to work, supervised by Japanese.

 At the restaurant, local old men were drinking beer. It was only 4 in the afternoon, but these men seem to be drinking here everyday from around 3. Their work ends at 5, but in Laos, it is normal to start drinking hours before the end of your job, which is a huge contradiction to working in Japan.

Shinji and I were invited to join these men, and were happy to do so. One of them spoke pretty good English, and told us about life in Vientiane.

Outside, in front of the company, people were playing a game of petanque, which is popular in Laos due to the period in which it was a French colony. We sat down on a bench to have a look. As a kid, I was fond of playing petanque in the Netherlands, and was hoping that someone would call us to join. Young and old, women and men were all playing together. People came on their bicycles with their own balls to join. After a while, some people came along with food and drink.

"If we stare at this food, they might invite us to have some" I said to Shinji.

Together, we started to stare at the food like madmen. As we had predicted, it didn't take long for a friendly old man to notice us and invite us to have some. We stood up, and politely both took one skewer of chicken.

But, if you decide to have some, you have to take it all. Before we knew it, all the people came to serve the two foreigners. Countless amounts of skewers, pork legs, cucumbers and tomatoes were literally pushed into our mouth. Old men would approach us with a bottle of beer and a glass, hand over the glass and filled it to make us chug it.

After eating our bellies full, we were now introduced to join the game. 

But just when we were about to start, Shinji's friend came out of the building.

"Time to go to dinner" she said, and so we had to say goodbye to our new friends.