Doi Ka Noi

“We serve authentic Lao cuisine as taught to our chef and owner, Ponpailin Kaewduangdy, by her grandmother. Recipes use ingredients bought fresh daily from the morning market, all seasonal, many foraged, and also from our restaurant’s own organic garden. Depending on the season, our daily changing menu of just seven or eight items can include ingredients such as dok krajeow, wild ginger flowers, pak koot, and others used in dishes rarely found elsewhere.”

Salad of fiddlehead fern with pork, shallots, and roasted rice powder; Mekong fish soup with ant eggs and melientha leaves; and slow-braised duck leg with galangal, lemongrass, red spring onions, kaffir lime and chilli.

Chef Ponpailin “Noi” Kaewduangdy, learnt to cook as a child at her late grandmother’s side. The recipes she uses each day are tangible memories and a celebration of her love for her grandma. Noi is passionate about sharing the diversity of Lao food and determined to protect the increasingly endangered culinary heritage gifted to her. The only Lao member of the global slow food movement, Noi showcased Lao food at the eleventh edition of Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, where she nominated khai pen Lao river weed for Ark of Taste, a catalogue of at-risk heritage foods.