How it works
What to eat with larb? Sticky rice and a plate of raw vegetables, the way it is served in Laos. These 33 ideas add pounded salads, soups, grilled things, dips, three sweets and three drinks without alcohol.
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How a Lao table is set
Larb comes to the table at room temperature. A Lao meal sets it beside a soup, something grilled, a sauce and a plate of greens, all at once: the dishes are not eaten in sequence, and the soup is sipped throughout. Sticky rice is shared from a basket and traditionally handled with the fingers.
What to eat larb with at home
Steam sticky rice if you can, jasmine rice if you cannot. Put out three or four raw things: cabbage, yardlong beans, cucumber, mint. Then add one dish from another group, a papaya salad, a soup or grilled chicken, and the table is complete.
- Larb is sour, salty and hot, so keep the sides plain: no dressing on the vegetables and no salt in the rice.
- Wet your fingers before pinching off sticky rice and it will not cling to them.
Questions and answers
What vegetables go with larb?
Raw ones. In Lao cooking yardlong beans, small round eggplants, mint and wild betel leaves are all eaten raw, and cucumber is used as a garnish. Cabbage wedges and lettuce leaves work as scoops and wrappers.
What soup goes with larb?
A broth made from the bones of the same meat is the usual one. For a fuller table, bamboo shoot stew, the Luang Prabang vegetable stew called or lam, or a spicy fish soup can stand beside it.
What sauce goes with larb?
Larb is already dressed, so the dips are for the rice and vegetables: jaew made from roasted tomatoes or roasted eggplant, or jaew bong, a sweet and spicy chili paste.
What dessert goes with larb?
Something built on sticky rice or coconut: khao lam, sweet sticky rice cooked in bamboo, coconut dumplings from a griddle, or a pumpkin custard.
What do you drink with larb?
In Laos drinks, even water, are not usually part of the meal. At home, sugarcane juice or coconut juice over ice suits the chili, and coffee over condensed milk can follow, with green tea after it.