Meal #11 - Laos

Laos is often described as noisy and bustling. Minh Minh’s crowded floorspace and lively, busy atmosphere combine to recreate this ambience, but the efficient, friendly staff ensure the Lao cuisine experience is a positive one.

Minh Minh
94 Victoria Street, Abbotsford

Despite serving Vietnamese, Lao and Thai dishes, Minh Minh can be defined by its lack of customers of this descent. It knows its market: Westerners after a good South East Asian meal. The décor is clean and understated, primarily peach with subtle Asian additions. The restaurant has more of a polish to it than many other Victoria Street vendors, making it less intimidating for those unable to read Vietnamese. Service was enthused but a little disorganised and wayward, probably due to the high clientele. Minh Minh has two dining areas: a downstairs eating area, as well as a more private upstairs section.

While Minh Minh includes Lao food on its menu, it leans more toward Thai/ Viet food. However, if you’re booking for a group on a weeknight, you can request a Lao meal to be created for you. This lends a whole level of excitement to the meal, as dishes are made according to the ingredients available, rather than to any order. They can also cater to some dietary restrictions, and pulled back on the chillis and anchovies as we had expected to have a new mother joining us. Occupying the window seat at this week’s mystery dining experience were Nick, Helen Caroline, Marty, Naomi and our two Lao cuisine experts, Sai and Saengh.

Entrée

Mok Kai-Pa- Steamed chicken or fish packages with asparagus and chilli, soaked in coconut milk.

Sai Kor- Lemongrass, pork and chilli sausage.

Larb- this southern version of the traditional larb salad was made lady finger banana plant, beef strips, , coriander and mint..

Spring Rolls- served with iceberg lettuce to wrap, sweet chilli sauce and basil

Main

Stuffed eggplant- filled with vermicelli, mushrooms, mince and egg, garnished with mushrooms.

Som Tom (Tam Carrot)-Carrot Salad

Chicken with basil and mixed vegetable

Pork Spareribs

Pa Thot Mark Lane- Sweet and Sour Fried Fish

Mains served with Sticky Rice

Entrée

According to our Lao experts, the sticky rice was served with the wrong dishes, and would have been better served with the entrees than the wetter main dishes. However, there were few complaints about our entrees, which seemed to just keep materialising and filling our table.


Served alternately, the fish parcels were more popular than the chicken version of the Mok kai pa, some diners finding the slimy texture of the chicken unpleasant, despite the pleasant mix of spices in the banana leaf parcels.


The larb was not as our Lao diners knew it (usually made with chicken mince, roasted rice and some tripe elements), but still enjoyable. The sauce was well balanced between salty fish sauce, the tartness of lemon or lime, chilli and sugar.


The lemongrass sausage was the clear favourite in the entrées. The levels of chilli and lemon grass levels just about right, and the slightly crispy skin gave a nice contrast to the filling.

Mains

While one diner thought the stuffed eggplant filling was too reminiscent of spring roll fillings, others found this to be a favourite dish. Garnished with tasty Asian mushrooms, the flavours of the eggplant and filling were complementary, even though that outer layer of eggplant was not so good for eating.


The authenticity of the carrot salad, normally super hot and salty, suffered from the lack of shrimp paste, fish sauce, garlic and chilli. Also can be made with green pawpaw, and while not so spicy as to make your eyes water, it was still a tasty side dish.


The chicken with basil looked a little forlorn, and seemed reminiscent of Thai cooking. The spareribs were a great accompaniment to the rice, although apparently the coating was not traditional style. The fish was a standout dish, crispy skinned, fresh and perfectly cooked through. One Lao diner commented that normally Lao fish would have been roasted all the way through, not cooked to perfection as we happily experienced.


Overall

The highlights of the evening were clear- the fried fish, and the sausage were polished off down to the very last piece, and we enjoyed the novelty of the larb with the shredded lady finger banana tips.


At $33 a head, this meal was more expensive than many we’ve tried, but the effort the cooking staff took in preparing this special meal meant we were more than happy to part with a tip on top of the charged price. There was no chance of anyone going hungry, and the experience of ‘mystery dining’, combined with the opportunity to eat with our hands was so much fun that we’d gladly try it again. While the chilli and salty fish paste was not quite as extreme as in traditional Lao cooking, this was a great introduction to dining Laos style.