A Wonderful Dinner at Lan Xang

They are located in Royal Palm Square behind the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater in Fort Myers.

The interior of the restaurant is simple, offering both table and booth seating. I noticed some larger tables that could accommodate eight diners and perhaps more.

My dining companion had traveled extensively in Laos, and was anxious to try some of the establishment’s cuisine.

The server took our order, and the service was slow. It took almost forty five minutes between when our order to be taken and served. I noticed that much of their business was take out, which distracted from the service in house.

Nonetheless, there were some very interesting things on the menu representative of Laotian cuisine that we wanted to try.

The first thing ordered was the tam maak hoong, or green papaya salad.

Although most often associated with Thai cuisine, this salad originated in Laos, and is eaten throughout Southeast Asia. It’s base is made from unripe green papaya. The texture and flavor, crunchy and tangy, respectively, is much different than the ripened fruit. This dish is really representative of regional cuisine featuring sour (lime), hot (chili), salty, savory (fish sauce) and sweet (sugar) flavors. LX’s version includes tomato, peanuts and chilies, the latter ingredient tailored to the heat level you prefer.  This was one of the better green papaya salads I have had, very much recommended.

Another gem that was ordered was siin savan, or Laotian beef jerky. This version of beef jerky can be prepared by marinating thinly sliced flank steak with garlic, ginger, chili, lemongrass, fish sauce and brown sugar. After acquiring this amazing amalgam of flavors the steak strips are put into a dehydrator and dried.

Sometimes, the dried jerky can be flash fried before serving. It was served with jeow som, literally sauce sour. Jeow som is a spicy chili dipping sauce that contains the “usual suspects” of Lao ingredients such as garlic, fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and chilies. It was an excellent and another most recommended dish. As it was hard to get a good coating of chili sauce on the jerky, it probably would have been better to order this with sticky rice.

For those that do not know, sticky rice is used in many East and Southeast Asian dishes. It can be called glutinous rice, which is a misnomer. It has a very high starch content which accounts for the sticky moniker. It is used in many ways, in this case as an eating utensil to grab what is on your plate, similar to injera in the Eritrean world. It also doubles as a vehicle for condiments.   This jerky dish can be ordered as a starter (pictured) or as a main with of course a larger portion size.

We continued on our Lao food journey with Laab, which some consider the national dish of Laos. This is a delicious, simple to prepare, and very interesting dish. Roasted, uncooked rice is ground into a powder and used as an ingredient. At LX, this dish is available with ground pork, beef of chicken, we had the latter. Again, the dish incorporates the usual Lao culinary suspects of fish sauce, lime juice, chili and sugar, but also cilantro, scallions,  and mint. Another most highly recommended dish. It, as the jerky, is available as a starter (pictured) or main serving.

The next order was the mussels in black bean sauce.

These are stir fried mussels, topped with jalapenos and onions. Stir fried mussels cross many culinary cultural borders in Asia. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to sample them, they were cold and unremarkable. My dining companion had a much different experience, trying them as soon as they were served to our table and thought they were wonderful. A repeat order to be sure on a return visit.

We digressed a bit and tried a couple other menu items not of the Lao. The first was the rice congee soup.

This is more associated with Chinese cuisine and is unusual as it’s consistency is more like porridge.

The recipe at LX used ginger, scallions, cilantro, dried fried onions and dried garlic. We added chicken to the mix as well. Our served tried to steer us to the noodle version off this dish and I wish I would have listened. I have graduated many moons ago from porridge and the dish didn’t sit well with me, although my dining companion loved it.

Our final foray into Lao cuisine at LX was in house made sausage (Sao oua).

This was another excellent Lao offering from LX, the pork sausage incorporating kaffir lime leaves, chilies, galangal, lemon grass and shallots. Sticky rice and jeow som (chili sauce) sealed the deal.

The food at XL, for the majority of menu items sampled, is remarkable and most highly recommended. To this writer’s knowledge, there is no other restaurant in Southwest Florida serving Lao cuisine. The prices at LX are very reasonable and the back end of the kitchen more than competent. At least for the Laotian part of the menu, LX has it very much together. I hope diners will come here to sample their excellent, and unique to our area, menu offerings.

Lao Xang

1400 Colonial Blvd.

Fort Myers, FL 33907

(239)689-3603