From Hunger Foods to Heritage Foods: Challenges to Food Localization in Lao PDR

Abstract

This account of two foods from Lao People's Democratic Republic -- crisps or chips made from either Lao river algae or wild cassava -- contends that as they become harder to find in Lao, they become more valued in North America & Europe. The chips are not a staple food to anyone. They originated during periods of food insecurity or seasonal scarcity, when Lao women were obliged to collected wild foods from the forest such as the algae & cassava. Thus they might be called 'hunger foods'. But some found their way to the markets of Vientiane where they were discovered by food importers from the West, always looking for unique specialties to sell in niche markets of elite Western chefs & consumers. Thus what is a hunger food in its homeland has become an expensive Lao heritage food abroad. References. J. Stanton