Pho Ketkeo

LAOS 🇱🇦

[COVID-19 UPDATE: Pho Ketkeo is allowing limited capacity dine-in seating in accordance with current Connecticut rules. Staff are masked and the dining room is well-spaced. Delivery and takeout are options here as well.]

Admittedly, New Haven is pushing the bounds of what this website defines as its territory. If there was great sushi, or Italian, or even regional Chinese, New Haven would probably be considered too far. For Lao food though, the boundaries are being stretched a bit, because it is a cuisine that flirts with New York City here and there, but always leaves it disappointed for something permanent.

There are trains and buses, and for those privileged enough to own a vehicle, once you pass Co-op City in the northern reaches of the Bronx, New Haven is just a bit more than an hour up I-95 on a good day. This Lao restaurant is worth the trouble no matter how you arrive.

As with most Lao restaurants in the country, the cuisine of Thailand is also offered on the sign outside and throughout the menu. Here they do not separate it into sections and dishes unique to each country intermingle on each page. You probably will not be disappointed by the Thai selections, but this will be about Lao food, somewhat harder to find and what makes Pho Ketkeo a special place.

Nam khao (8.95, above) is a staple dish in the country and should not be missed here at Pho Ketkeo. It could not be better. Sometimes classified as a salad, this is a next-level fried rice dish that includes hunks of fried sticky rice that give each bite a beautiful crunch and spice from curry. This intermingles with the sourness of Lao fermented sausages and plenty of fresh herbs.

Having recently enjoyed a couple bowls of khao poon in soup form, it was with a great eagerness that the thum khao poon ($7.95, above) was ordered. This is served as a salad (thum) rather than in broth, which they have as well. It looks simple but is full of so much flavor that comes at you from all directions.

The soup of this order was all-time favorite kaeg nor mai ($12.95, below right), a bamboo soup originally served to kings and queens. Eating it usually makes you feel like royalty even today, as it is so luxurious and delicious. Along with the bamboo, there are different types of mushrooms, squash and zucchini, lemongrass, and flavored by yanang leaves

Despite its absence in most versions anywhere on the east coast, tripe is an essential part of larb seen ($10.95, below), a beef larb also full of Thai chilies, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, onions, mint, cilantro, lemon juice and fish sauce, and the crunchiness of toasted bits of sticky rice.

The larb might be the best example of a dish that proves the kitchen's insistence on bringing the most real foods to New Haven that Lao people miss from back home. They also serve a few types of pho, which are widely consumed for breakfast in Laos, a country full of Vietnamese people as well.

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NEW HAVEN Connecticut
21 Temple Street

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I Eat Lao Food

LAOS 🇱🇦

With so few Lao people in New York City and the eastern seaboard, the best chance to get some sense of what Lao cuisine is all about is to visit some of the most traditional Isan restaurants in the city. The northeastern province of Thailand has much in common with Laos and in fact is populated by more Lao people than the whole of Laos. Their languages are from the same family, and many of the spicy dishes go back and forth over the border.

But if you visit Laos, you will notice many differences as well, and many dishes that are never a part of the menus of Isan restaurants. Luckily we have a new chef who has been popping up here and there to serve traditional Lao food, and most recently was found in the North 3rd Street Market in Williamsburg.

The first four or five times I sampled his cooking was at the Queens International Night Market, grabbing a delicious $5 portion of nam khao tod between other plates from other vendors. I could not resist returning to the plate of crispy rice and fermented sour sausage full of lime juice and fish sauce. It never disappointed.

In Laos you would be served leaves of lettuce to wrap the rice in, but I always found the multiple crisp textures fought each other when  employed together and liked to focus on the rice alone.

The full kitchen at the Williamsburg market has allowed the chef to expand his operation and the menu has followed suit. One dish that is found on both sides of the border is laab ($13, above), a "salad" of minced or ground meats. In Laos, this always includes all the inside bits of the animal involved, although you see that less here. The version served at the market is actually with fish, and wonderful. All the right parts are there to make the dish the intense combination of flavors and textures that it should be, and despite not having a conversation about spice, a decent amount of peppers were sliced up in there to make it right.

Like many Lao dishes, this is a dish meant to be eaten with your hands. It is served with a generous hunk of sticky rice, pick a small piece of that and use it to pick up a bite of larb. Heaven.

Kapoon ($11, above and below) is another uniquely Lao dish of rice vermicelli. It is not altogether different from Malaysian laksa if you have had the chance to try that and not this, a curry soup of coconut milk and spices. This Lao dish will have galangal, lime leaves, and fish sauce though, setting it apart from other similar soups.

The dish is complex and fresh, as is everything on the menu I suspect. It looks like the month-long run at the market is coming to an end soon for I Eat Lao Food, but keep a watch on their social media to catch up with them in the future.

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POP UP RESTAURANT/Changing Locations

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Pho Thai-Lao Kitchen

LAOS
THAILAND

There is an overall shortage of Southeast Asian cuisine in New York City, and even when you find it, nothing will be guaranteed tasty. Our Cambodian and Myanma chefs have moved on. Our Vietnamese restaurants are flat. Thai food is having somewhat of a renaissance, but is in pockets, sometimes far away. There is one Lao chef who has served exciting cuisine in Tribeca for some years, but even she has left her restaurant to others and the results show.

Fear not citizens! A tiny place in Maywood, New Jersey is cooking up some seriously good Lao food. Their menu is split evenly between Thai and Lao, representing the birthplaces of the parents of the two sibling owners. Knowing I can get Thai in good restaurants back closer to home, I stuck exclusively to the Lao side of the menu. [And the "pho" in the title refers to the leaves of the bodhi tree Buddha sits under, pronounced more like "poh" and has nothing to do with a certain Vietnamese soup.]

On the Lao side of the restaurant, an homage to sticky rice.

When traveling in Laos, it is hard to avoid the similarities and influence from Vietnam in their cuisine. Many Vietnamese people live in Laos, and have for generations. One such dish was the Lao fresh rolls ($7, below), arriving just like any pair of gỏi cuốn. The sweet fish sauce is the only big difference, but even this can be found depending on taste of the individual. Here even pretty late into the evening on a Sunday, my fresh rolls were indeed still fresh, with just a hint of chewiness from the wrapper.

On this night, there were not many others dining and I had the attention of my soft-spoken Vietnamese waitress and even the chef at times would come out to check on everyone, welcoming her regulars with hugs. While discussing my options, they talked about the special Lao soup ($16, below), and it seemed my waitress gave some information she was not supposed to. While shaking her head, the chef said only one was left, and then of course I had to ask if I could have it.

It was a marvelously tangy sour broth with a lot of bamboo and mushroom. It comes with a small bowl of rice that I was encouraged to eat with it, but I had decided to order five items and was alone on this evening, so I left my stomach for other battles. The broth gets your tastebuds working, the spiciness starts, and of course it is so hot when served that it cannot be gulped down by any means.

The best larb I had in Laos came from a window of someone's home in a residential neighborhood, a proprietor who decided to make her home cooking available to neighbors. Ordering a portion was a massive affair, not only was the larb itself given, but a vast array of vegetables and a good hunk of sticky rice, all of which was certainly not already prepared for takeout. After waiting and collecting the feast, you find somewhere to sit down and eat it, scooping up the delicious meats and intestines with the rice by hand, pausing for fresh greens throughout. It is a thoroughly fresh and spicy affair which unfortunately is not replicated here in the states, at least on the east coast.

My larb nuer ($16, below) comes as close as possible to that enjoyment. Carefully cut beef and tripe, a gaggle of spices and herbs, and the "homemade sauce" are all right on point. The basket to the left of the dish holds the sticky rice that is served with it, and really the only way to get the whole experience.

A note about their spice-level system. A dry erase board warns customers that their levels are "four times" the normal levels (for Maywood, New Jersey?), making a "1" equal a "4" and a "5" equal a "20". They seem uninterested in making mild flavors when dishes are not supposed to be mild. I overheard them refuse to make someone's larb "without any spice" as she requested. This is a good thing for sure. My level was 3, and indeed it probably was around a 12... about as high as the heat levels in Queens Thai restaurants will go. But at least for larb, this is the way the food is supposed to be eaten.

I was very thankful therefore to have ordered the nam kow ($14, below), a simple street food that has no heat and offered my mouth a break when needed. Little balls of rice are fried until crispy, and mixed with fermented pork, creating what could be a Lao bar snack. I was especially sad at the BYOB nature of the restaurant while eating this dish, as a cold beer would have been perfect. For anyone wanting to bring alcohol, it would be wise to get it before coming as there is nothing nearby, especially for those without transportation.

E-saan fermented spare ribs ($16)

I could barely muster the strength to have even a few bites of my som tum poo ($16, below), the green papaya salad with a puree of crab anchovies. This was also heavy on the heat as expected, but seemed to be unusually drowning in the thin tomato sauce. I enjoyed this more later when my stomach opened up again the next day, but if there was a dish of the lot I would not order again, it would be this one.

After the starters, the menu is divided into convenient pages, one for Thai and one for Lao, making your decisions very easy. Vote straight down the party line, or a mixture of the two. Either way, Maywood, New Jersey is an exciting place to go for the fiery foods northeast Thailand and Laos.

MAYWOOD New Jersey

219 Maywood Avenue

[CLOSED] Mangez Avec Moi

LAOS

[UPDATE: CLOSED]

Recently a new Lao restaurant has opened up in Tribeca, featuring modern interpretations and very Tribeca pricing. For a city completely devoid of legitimate Lao options or community, this seems like a slap in the face, and not the type of place you might take your Lao grandmother. Don't get me wrong, I hope it starts a trend, but for now, I will not be paying upwards of $30 for entrees inspired by an impoverished nation with rich culinary tradition.

In the meantime, there is Jeannie, the joyful Lao chef manning the kitchen of Mangez Avec Moi, a completely generic pan-Southeast Asian restaurant also in Tribeca. She has been cooking Lao meals for those willing to call ahead for some time now. Last year, I attended a meal put together by Charles of United Nations of Food, and was blissfully rewarded. To that point, the closest Lao to New York City was at the East-West Grille in Hartford, Connecticut (highly recommended by the way).

This is the kind of meal where you just say "Chef, do what you please."

[UPDATE: Jeannie is no longer at the restaurant. They still have a small Lao food menu.]

And she did. Our group of six was treated to many courses and a range of happy hospitality at very reasonable prices. We all had beer and paid a little more than $30/head when it was all said and done. To get our mouths watering and our foreheads beading sweat, she brought out the yum yor ($12, below), a salad with Lao ham, carrots, onions, fresh chili, and sprouts.

Make sure everyone has plenty of sticky rice, served in nice bamboo baskets (above), and even more Beerlao Dark (below), which is one of the two best beers brewed in Southeast Asia along with Myanmar Beer.

The Lao style grilled beef jerky ($12, below) is nice and has a good tenderness, but honestly was probably the weakest item in a very strong field. On a smaller meal, I would pass over this one.

Many people are familiar with Isaan sausages from good Thai restaurants. Isaan province borders Laos and as you can imagine shares many things in common with the cuisine. The Lao sausage ($12, below) is more interesting than it might appear if you have not had a similar dish before, full of flavor and a softer texture than its German or Eastern European counterparts.

I am always excited about larb, and was waiting for the version she makes here, spelled larp ($15, below) on our bill. This dish was probably accompanied by the most frequent refills of our water glasses as it packed a very powerful punch, as it should. This is some pretty fantastic stuff, eaten as an appetizer or entree.

Another favorite of mine for the night was the bamboo stew ($15, below), which was bigger than it appears in the photo. It is full of bamboo, lemongrass, and plenty of pepper. The dark broth is a touch oily and very dense.

Our final savory plate was the yum chen home ($12, below), a glass noodle salad with chicken that was very good but possibly could have benefitted more by being served before the spicy dishes.

By this time we were all nearing the fullest extent of pain possible from stomach expansion, but felt like a little sweetness would not hurt, ordering the sticky rice with mango ($9, below). This dish when in the hands of a professional is always a crowd pleaser and did not disappoint here. A wonderful finish to a wonderful meal.

TRIBECA Manhattan

71 West Broadway