Sticky Rice

Sticky rice is the most commonly eaten food in Laos, and it is delicious! It is sticky, so you just reach into the big basket and squish a little ball together with your fingers. Then dip the ball into some jeo or scoop up some papaya salad to shove in your mouth. Eating with your fingers is also more fun! Much better than regular rice. And ViengPhone let me help cook it!

 This is ViengPhone and 3 of her sisters. One is studying agriculture at the National University. Phan is in high school, so she helps on the farm and such too, and Pang quit high school so she can stay home with the one year old, Noy. Pang sews Lao shirts while she is home watching the baby. Nang is in the middle, she is ViengPhone's niece (from her older sister.)

 Eating lunch around the little table. We probably had fish soup.

 ViengPhone is putting the rice that had been soaking for the last 4 hours into the basket to cook.

 The rice is in the basket above the pot on the fire. Their kitchen is a separate room from the house.

 The sticky rice is steaming. This is rice grown from her field. When they plant, they plant mostly sticky rice, and only a little white rice.

 Her sister and baby sister in the kitchen.

 After the rice steams for maybe 30 minutes, she dumps it on this wooden board thing to spread it out.

 I'm spreading out the rice. I don't know why, she told me to.

 Then she forms the rice into balls and puts them in the baskets that you can see in the background.

 Eating dinner. Also with her dad!

Because I was the guest, everyone wanted to cook me some yummy food! Some of her sister's friends came over to cook me noodle salad and to see the foreigner. ViengPhone kept telling me that no foreigner had ever slept in her village before. So the kids wanted to come see me. I think I was a bit of a disappointment. :) I tried to speak to them in Lao.... but they usually couldn't understand what I was saying. I think they were a little bored that I also ate sticky rice and noodle salad.... I don't know what they expected to be different about me. But they were sweet! And her sisters were really fun!!