{"id":7944,"date":"2018-08-16T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=7944"},"modified":"2018-08-16T11:02:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T16:02:49","slug":"a-world-of-flavor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/08\/16\/a-world-of-flavor\/","title":{"rendered":"A World Of Flavor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chef Vilavong Prasith Of Asia At L\u2019Auberge<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Karla Wall<\/em><\/p>\n

L\u2019Auberge\u2019s Asia restaurant offers a wide variety of dishes from some of the most flavorful cuisines in existence \u2014 Japanese sushi, Vietnamese pho, Korean barbecue and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But when asked to come up with one dish to highlight for Lagniappe\u2019s chef spotlight, Asia room chef Vilavong \u201cVee\u201d Prasith chose to highlight the cuisine from his home country of Laos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prasith and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1986, and landed in New Iberia because, he says, there was already a family there by the name of Prasith. The U.S. government, he says, tended to put families of the same name together in the same region.<\/p>\n

\u201cChef Vee\u201d learned to cook, as almost all professional chefs do, by assisting his mother in the kitchen. His love of cooking led to a career that actually began with a position as a dishwasher at Bonsai in Lafayette in 2002. He pursued his culinary education and quickly worked his way up to head chef at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

He went on to oversee the opening of a second location of Bonsai in Lafayette, and also the opening of Bojangles, a sushi and oyster bar in New Iberia. He joined Asia in 2010, because he \u201cwanted to check out the corporate world.\u201d<\/p>\n

With such a wide variety of options in his repertoire, what led Prasith to choose the recipe for larb pork, a simple and common Laotian dish, to share with Lagniappe readers?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to highlight my country\u2019s\u2019food,\u201d he says simply. \u201cIt\u2019s time for this dish to have its day.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The dish originated in Laos, Prasith says. \u201cThe Taiwanese use it a lot in their cuisine, but it comes from Laos.\u201d It\u2019s a peasant food, made with whatever is on hand. \u201cYou can\u2019t buy meat in Laos every day,\u201d Prasith explains, \u201cso you use what you have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larb can be made with any protein, Prasith says, from raw or cooked beef, fish, shrimp or scallops to saut\u00e9ed pork. It\u2019s made with fish sauce, a Laotian staple, and plenty of fresh herbs, another staple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are herbs everywhere in Laos,\u201d Prasith says.<\/p>\n

The dish is eaten mostly with sticky rice, which is \u201cmuch different from the rice eaten here,\u201d says Prasith. Sticky rice, he explains, is a short-grain rice that\u2019s high in starch. It\u2019s soaked for 30 minutes, then steamed in wooden baskets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever type of rice you use with the dish, warns Prasith, it must be unsalted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you use salted rice, with the fish sauce in the larb, you\u2019ll have one salty dish,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The dish can also be eaten as a lettuce wrap. It is, after all, a finger food, Prasith says, as are all foods in that region.<\/p>\n

Prasith begins by sauteeing thin strips of pork in vegetable oil. You can, he says, steam or bake the protein ahead of time and add it later in the process. Or, again, simply add uncooked protein in later.<\/p>\n

Once the meat is saut\u00e9ed, Prasith turns off the skillet and adds the onion, green onion, chili, fish sauce, sugar, cilantro, the juice of a lime, and mint leaves, which he says are added to \u201cwake up the dish.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s pretty much it. The herbs, onion and meat are stirred in the hot skillet until hot and well-blended in the fish sauce.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Asian food is noted for its simplicity, and for packing a ton of flavor into a simple concoction. This dish is no exception.<\/p>\n

I sampled the dish over rice, and I was first bombarded with the pungent aroma of the fish sauce, which I have to admit I hadn\u2019t ever had and was nervous to try. Balanced by the rice, however, it was perfect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was only the first taste and smell to hit the senses, and was quickly followed by the bright herbs and, lastly, by the bite of the chili. A kaleidoscope of flavors blended into one dish.<\/p>\n

Then I tried it as a lettuce wrap and was amazed at the difference in the dish. It was much, much brighter, with the citrus really shining through, as well as the fish sauce, which was sharper and more pronounced than it had been when served with the rice.<\/p>\n

This is Southeast Asian cuisine in a nutshell: a simple dish that packs a world of flavor.<\/p>\n

Larb Pork<\/b><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil<\/p>\n

1 lb. pork (can substitute with shrimp, chicken, or beef)<\/p>\n

\u00bc tsp. sugar<\/p>\n

1 Tbsp.\u00a0fish sauce<\/p>\n

1 lime, juiced<\/p>\n

1\u00a0red chili, sliced (add more chili if you like it spicy)<\/p>\n

1\u00a0red onion, peeled and thinly sliced<\/p>\n

3\u00a0scallions, chopped<\/p>\n

\u00bc cup\u00a0cilantro\u00a0leaves<\/p>\n

\u00bd cup fresh mint leaves<\/p>\n

Directions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a large saucepan or wok, saut\u00e9 pork over medium-high heat until well done. Turn off the stove then add fish sauce, lime juice, red chili, red onion, scallion, cilantro and mint leaves to the saut\u00e9ed pork. Serve over steamed, unsalted white rice or with lettuce as a wrap. Can be served cold or warm.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chef Vilavong Prasith Of Asia At L\u2019Auberge By Karla Wall L\u2019Auberge\u2019s Asia restaurant offers a wide variety of dishes from some of the most flavorful cuisines in existence \u2014 Japanese sushi, Vietnamese pho, Korean barbecue and more.\u00a0 But when asked to come up with one dish to highlight for Lagniappe\u2019s chef spotlight, Asia room chef [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1790,4,51,233,1789],"yoast_head":"\nA World Of Flavor - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/08\/16\/a-world-of-flavor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A World Of Flavor - 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