This Global Kitchen | Day 14: Laos
Hi friends! My name is Heather, and my family and I have been living in the mountains of northern Laos since 2015. We have only been in this particular house for a little under a year, so I am still learning to love and appreciate all its quirks and oddities. It’s a work in progress, but I’m excited to invite you in for a peek! If you were here with me, I’d make you a cup of coffee and offer you one of these pumpkin muffins, but since you’re not, go make yourself a cup before you join me on this little tour of my Lao kitchen because, obviously, everything is better with coffee.
Our kitchen is actually rather spacious, and the two doors you see house our laundry room (I use that term quite loosely) and a squatty potty. I know you’re jealous. In the rural parts of Laos, indoor kitchens are rare. If you happen to get lucky enough to find one, basically it just means you’ve got a countertop and a sink. We have no cabinets or shelving, so we have to get creative with storage. And this big table you see? It came with the house. We already have a dining room table, so it has become our makeshift island. Most of our food prep happens in this space. The table is warped, so that makes rolling out tortillas and pizza dough extra fun.
We have a separate dining area so we don’t usually eat at this smaller table. Actually, it's mostly used for folding laundry. The space in here is quite big, so I’m grateful for that, but it’s taken some creativity to get it functional. Ideally, I’d love to have wooden shelves or cabinets built and a real kitchen island, but that may be on down the road a bit.
For now, I’ve tried to make the most of the metal cabinets you can buy here for kitchen storage. I got tired of all the clutter showing through the glass doors, so it was scrapbooking paper and sharpies to the rescue!
I have grand visions of what I’d like this kitchen to become, like a farmhouse sign over that window and putting in new countertops that extend to that back wall so I actually have space to put dirty dishes next to the sink. Then again, not having counter space by the sink motivates me to keep my dishes washed, so there’s that. I find that quirks like counter space and no hot water in the sink really bother me when we first move into a house, but after a while I kind of forget about them. It’s amazing how we can adapt our expectations and wants over time.
Even more unsightly than the color of our floor tile (I know you noticed it) is the super random pink tiles someone decided to stick on with the white. Mismatched tile is super common in Lao homes and it drives me crazy! Did they just run out and choose the next best thing? Did they not notice the different colors? Did they do it on purpose? Who can know. There are also several light blue tiles under the window. We’re all ready to host a baby shower with this color scheme.
My Must Haves for my expat kitchen:
Mine would be cast iron skillets! They are crazy heavy but so worth it! No link cause mine were passed down from family. Also a salad spinner- making sure my lettuce is clean is so much easier with this bad boy.
My Favorite Expat friendly Recipe:
Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
by Heather | TakingRoute.net
The kitchen is an important space for me because I really enjoy making yummy things that my family and friends can enjoy. I’m thankful we have a mostly-full-size gas stove for baking, and I recently used it to make a from-scratch ice cream cake for my daughter’s birthday. It was surprisingly just as delicious, if not more so, than the ones we used to buy at Baskin Robbins in the states.
The ingredients are pretty accessible and you can adjust the flavor of the ice cream to suit your fancy. You could also use just the cake recipe without the ice cream and swap out the whipped cream for any kind of frosting you like. So from us here in the mountains of Laos to you, here’s a recipe I hope will sweeten up your next birthday…or weekday, because there’s no bad day for cake!
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 vegetable oil (or canola, soybean or melted coconut oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (you can leave this out if you don’t have it)
- 1 cup buttermilk (Buttermilk can be made by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to your measuring cup and then filling it the rest of the way with milk. Let it sit for about 5 minutes before using.)
- 1 cup freshly brewed strong hot coffee (don’t worry, the cake doesn’t have a coffee flavor)
- Ice cream (flavor of your choice)
Frosting:
- 2 cups whipping Cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 tbsp. powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Grease or put parchment paper in the bottoms of two rectangular cake pans (I used two 8x12 pans but you can use 9x13, the layers will just be thinner.) Mix all dry ingredients together until well combined. Then in a separate bowl mix oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Slowly mix into the dry ingredients. Once combined well, stir in the coffee. The batter will be very thin, but that’s ok!
Using a measuring cup, take turns putting equal amounts of batter into each of the pans. This will ensure your two layers are even. Bake until done- about 25 minutes. Let cool. Once they are completely cool, take the ice cream out of the freezer and let it soften. I like to put it in a bowl and mix it up so it’s super smooth which makes it easier to spread.
When it’s smooth and soft, spread a decent layer of ice cream on top of one of the layers of cake. If you need to, you can smash the bottom layer of cake down a bit to make more room for the ice cream.
After you’ve spread an even layer of ice cream, take the other layer of cake out of the second pan and place it on top of the ice cream layer. Cover with foil and put in the freezer while you make the frosting.
If you don’t have whipping cream, you could use a different type of frosting for this. I prefer the flavor of the whipped cream, but use whatever you have available! In a cold bowl, add the whipping cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Using a whisk, whip it up until the cream is firm and creates a peak when you pull the whisk out. This can take quite a while, and having the bowl and whisk super cold helps. Or if you have a mixer with a whisk attachment, use it! Your arms will thank you.
Once the whipped cream is the right consistency, take the cake out of the freezer and top it with the whipped cream. I added sprinkles since it was for my daughter’s birthday, but you could do chocolate chips, chocolate shavings, chopped up candies, or leave it plain. Cover with foil and leave in the freezer at least 4 hours or overnight.
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