That Luang festival comes around, noodle soup, boiled chicken are highly recommended dishes
Introduction: Every year when the That Luang festival comes around, local people prepare noodle soup, boiled chicken, and beef or pork salad to welcome friends and relatives who have come from the provinces or from overseas. It is a longstanding tradition to offer free food and drink on the last day of the festival. Our LNTV news team has the atmosphere there.
Successive generations have kept this custom alive. On the last day of the festival, everyone in the area will spend almost the whole day preparing food for visitors. From early in the morning to late evening they will be busy serving up plates of food. This year the last day of the festival falls on Thursday the 6th of November, which is a holiday for almost everyone. This means friends and relatives from all corners of the country will have time to share food and drink with their friends in That Luang village.
One of the most popular items on the menu will be noodles made from jasmine rice. Lao people use noodles in soup, with papaya salad, or as part of a noodle salad. Wherever there is a festival, there will be noodle soup. All Lao people lap up a bowl of noodle soup whenever they get the chance and certainly no one would refuse it at a festival.
On the last day of the That Luang festival, large pots of broth and big trays of vegetables will appear in long lines on the esplanade.
If you attend the festival, or even just pass through Laos, you will inevitably tuck into a bowl of noodle soup at some point. This will probably be a vastly different experience from eating noodle soup in your home country. It goes without saying that the last day of the That Luang festival is one of the best times to sample this quintessential Lao dish. And if that doesn’t fill you up, there’ll be plenty of boiled chicken and other festival favourites on offer.
Source: Lao National Television News in English
Broadcast on November 05, 2014
