I didn’t know what to expect.
I skipped official novelty snacking in Thailand this time because Molly and I were quite thorough a few years ago. In fact, our snacking required 3 posts! (1, 2, 3). Instead, I eagerly waited to test out Laos’ snacking potential.
Novelty Snack: Potato French Fries Snack with Milk Strawberry
Description: French fries with two packets of strawberry flavored ketchup
Tastes Like: Very cheap and gritty strawberry frosting. Not a winning combination.
Verdict: Thumbs down!
Novelty Snack: Nui Chien Bo Macaroni Mix, butter flavor
Description: Fried macaroni flash fried with butter, chili, and garlic
Tastes Like: A corn based snack, very lightly seasoned, nothing special
Verdict: Thumbs neutral
Description: “A Luang Prabang specialty. River weed dried with garlic and sesame seeds, and deep-fried to a crispy perfection.”
Tastes Like: Reminded me of the flavor of pumpkin seeds. You can also really taste the sesame seeds. Much more delicious than anticipated.
Verdict: Thumbs up!
Novelty Snack: Nutella and Banana Crepe
Description: A crispy version of a crepe with Nutella and banana slices.
Tastes Like: Can’t lie. I knew this would be good. But the style of crepe actually was a bit different than I’m used to. The crispy edges reminded me a lot of thin fortune cookies.
Verdict: Thumbs up!
MMM! That last one looks good. You can’t go wrong when there’s nutella in it! 😀
True… although I still need to sample it… for research, of course!
That first one with the strawberry ketchup just sounds terrible.
OK. While the name ‘fried river reed’ doesn’t exactly conjure up the best mental images, it looks the BEST!! Reminds me of snack a friend and I tried recently while in small-town Korea: dried, puffed seaweed with sesame oil and seeds. Magic 😉
Ohhhh….your novelty snack posts make me smile! I love trying them, even when they’re horrible. Especially those of the strawberry-ketchup variety!
I love your facial expressions!
True on the crepes! How could they mess those up?! Well, I’m sure there could have been a way…
Oh, it was!
I know! I was surprised that it had such a nice flavor. The snack you described sounds really good too.
Thanks! I’m pretty sure snacking is my favorite part of travel.
Hehe… maybe I should practice some of those thumbs down faces to use on future students.
We have those fry chips with the ketchup here in Thailand too and my students LOVE them…I would rather have the real thing though… or those crepes! yummmm