Chowhounds and friends gathered on April 20 at the New Year Festival, the first food fundraiser of 2013 at Wat Lao Saysettha. The menu was too extensive to try everything (picture of the menu
http://www.chow.com/photos/923881
from Melanie's April 19 post on Bay Area Food Festivals), but we did our best!
Many of the selections we've described before (see links below).
Because it was a New Year celebration the decor was festive, the music was good and loud, and people were dancing.
I immediately ordered Nam Kao (rice salad), always my favorite and yay, fresh herb season is back! It makes such a difference when added to the Lao dishes. New to me was rau ram (Vietnamese Coriander).
One of us ordered the papaya salad HOT! and it was HOT! To hot for us, even with the cooling provided by sticky rice and Thai iced tea. Next time we'll order it with 4 chiles instead of 8.
Raw beef laab was a bit too bitter for our tastes. If I remember correctly cooked laab didn't have as much bitter taste.
New to me were chicken wings stuffed with meat and then fried, very delicious. We also ordered angel wings which we got grilled, but they were serving most of them fried (grilled is better).
We also ordered grilled Lao sausage. I was told it was good, I was too full for even a bite.
They have expanded the dessert menu. You can get fried taro and sweet potatoes as well as fried bananas. My favorite is still ka nom kok (fried coconutty balls of dough, the texture is amazing).
They have a new more efficient system of ordering, so if you just want to run in and get some food to go it will be easy to do.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something. For the others that were there please chime in.
Now that the festival season has started again there will probably be more gatherings every month or two. If you are interested in joining us next time at Wat Lao Saysettha make sure you sign up for the North Bay chowdown distribution list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nbchowdown.
past reports:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/871551
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/867904
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/861835
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/852187
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/844169
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/876255
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/881499
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