The Significance of Certain Foods

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top 1000Traditional Recipes of Laos
Traditional Recipes of Laos

By Phia Sing

Published 1981

  • About
This is a very complex subject, and can only be touched on here, to show that the various foodstuffs have their own special kinds of status and that this fact has to be kept in mind when considering Lao recipes.

I am emboldened, and indeed, enabled, to touch on the matter as a result of the publication of an interesting comparison between the peppers (the fruits of the genus CAPSICUM), black pepper (the condiment), and ginger.*

It emerges from this study that all these three spices (to use the term in its broadest sense) have one thing in common, namely that they belong to the first of three classes of plants which the Lao distinguish for medicinal purposes. This is the class of ‘hot’ or ‘chauds’ plants, for which the Lao term is hon. The second class is that of the ‘cold’ (yen) plants, which produce a cooling and refreshing effect instead of a heating and fiery one. The third class consists of those plants which are neutral in this respect.