lsanderson | Laotian food? Like Vietnamese only better sausages...

To Eat in Laos

By AMANDA HESSER

"FROM my seat at an outdoor table at the Café Ban Vat Sene I had a privileged
view of the afternoon's civic unrest. The traffic on the main street of Luang
Prabang, Laos's third-largest city (population 16,000 at its core), had come to
a halt. Poised nose to nose in the avenue were a large dog and a bellicose
lizard. Children gathered to watch. I clutched a glass of Lao beer as the dog
growled and lunged and the lizard leapt at the dog's snout. When the dog finally
began to get the upper hand, the lizard wisely high-tailed it into a bush. The
traffic resumed its customary slow pace and I resumed drinking my beer, which,
like most food and drink in this town, tasted mighty fine.

"Laotian food hasn't yet made it onto the world stage, and that may be
because most people treat lush and tiny Laos like Luxembourg and Andorra -
countries too small, too obscure, to bother with. Until I visited, the most
elaborate description I had been given of the cuisine was that it was "like
Vietnamese but with better sausage."

Recipe: Minced Fish Salad (Koy Pa)

Recipe: Beef and Eggplant Stew (or Lam)

For a Do-It-Yourself Dinner Party, Choose a Filling, Wrap, Eat

Recipe: Buffalo and Lemon Grass Sausage Patties

For a Do-It-Yourself Dinner Party, Choose a Filling, Wrap, Eat

By NINA SIMONDS

"HAVING spent years studying with master chefs in Asia, I used to plan dinner
parties back in America that were formal multicourse banquets requiring days of
preparation and hours of cleanup.

"I was also younger and childless.

"But these days, my company dinners consist of do-it-yourself dishes, with my
guests pitching in.

"In the heat of summer, wrap parties are one of the best ways to keep the
entertaining mood light and casual while showcasing fresh ingredients at their
peak.

"Wraps can be elaborate or simple, sumptuous or light. "

Recipe: Vietnamese Shrimp Salad Rolls With Sweet-and-Sour Dressing

Recipe: Jerk
Spice Rub

Recipe: Hot-and-Sour Slaw With Five-Spice Jerk Chicken

Zucchini Solved

By MARK BITTMAN

"AROUND this time of year many gardeners try to figure out what to do with
zucchini, a vegetable that has become a year-round staple in supermarkets but
still comes on like gangbusters in millions of backyards every July. The
desperate make fried zucchini sticks or something akin to potato pancakes with
it. The really desperate use it for compost, or perhaps even bread."

Recipe: Pasta With Zucchini, Ricotta and Basil

For the Spice Rack That Has Everything

By FLORENCE FABRICANT

NIRMALA NARINE has her eye on your spice rack. "Spices are the soul of every
cuisine," said Ms. Narine, 35, an entrepreneur in Long Island City, Queens. "And
as sophisticated as we may have become, there is still plenty to learn."

Quick! Set Your Watch to Cherry Time

By FLORENCE FABRICANT

"Fans of sour cherries have to be fast on their feet. The local crop of bright
red cherries, which are softer-textured than table cherries, will have all been
harvested by the end of the month, so those who treasure them for making pies
and preserves, to macerate in brandy and for canard Montmorency should head to
the Greenmarkets now.

"About 10 stands have the cherries, including Wilklow Orchards, left, at
Borough Hall in Brooklyn on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Toigo Orchards
sells them at 57th Street and Ninth Avenue on Wednesdays and at Tompkins Square
on Sundays, and Locust Grove has them at Union Square on Wednesdays and
Saturdays. Prices are $4 to $6 a quart.

"Footwear for Summer
Wineglasses

"Flip-flop coasters, whimsical enough to delight a host or hostess, come
bagged in groups of four, each a different color so guests can keep track of
their drinks. There are two sets, one in blue and purple tones, the other in
bright orange, yellow and green. Each set is $15 from Table Settings, 276
Norwood Avenue, Deal, N.J.; (732) 531-0800 or (866) 934-7437 toll-free from
outside New Jersey." -- Gift idea for KC?

From Rioja, a Surprise in White

By ERIC ASIMOV

ONE of the wonderful things about wine is its seemingly infinite capacity to
surprise. Consider, for example, white Riojas.

"The first surprise is that anybody would consider white Riojas at all.
Rioja's red wines are renowned in Spain and the world over, but the whites? Few
people think about white Riojas nowadays, least of all many Rioja winemakers,
who have been making less and less white wine over the last 25 years.

"Unless you are one of those people who have been paying attention to white
Rioja (a category roughly equivalent to those who regularly skydive) you will be
surprised to know that these wines come in two entirely different styles. One is
crisp and modern, made to be consumed young. The other style, more traditional,
is aged in oak for long periods and can last for decades.

"The biggest surprise, though, came at a recent sampling of 20 white Riojas
by the Dining section's wine panel. It's rare that the panel is startled at a
tasting, but we all ended up doing collective double- and triple-takes. Were
these really white Riojas we had just tasted? In either style, they were
superb!"