• Capitals: Vientiane
• Population: about 7 million
• Area:  236 800 km²
• Currency: Kip

For Laos I made laap which is a minced meat and herb salad. I made it with beef but you can use minced chicken, duck or pork instead. It is a delicious and refreshing dish with mint and a bunch of spices.

Laap

Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound ground beef
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 clove of garlic
• 3 scallions
• 1 tablespoon cilantro
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 1/2 cup mint
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 red chili
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 3-4 green beans
• 1 1/2 cup rice
• 1/2 cup bean sprouts

Directions:

First prepare all the ingredients. Chop the mint, the scallions, the cilantro, the chili, the lemongrass (only use the white part, discard the rest). Finely chop the green beans and the ginger. Measure the lime juice and fish sauce.

In a wok on high heat, sauté the beef with half the fish sauce (1 teaspoon), the chopped chili and some salt (about 1/2 teaspoon).

When the beef is cooked, remove from heat and let cool in a bowl.

In the meantime, cook the rice as indicated on the package. I used brown rice but any rice will do although lapp is traditionally  served with thai sticky rice.

Once the meat is cooled down, add all the other ingredients in the bowl and mix well.

Serve with rice.