Royal Stew · Numbing Herb

Or Lam

Photo: Jpatokal / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The stew's tingling, numbing kick doesn't come from chili at all — it comes from mai sakhaan, a wild forest vine in the pepper family that numbs the tongue almost like a Sichuan peppercorn.

Buffalo, beef, or game is simmered into a thick, peppery broth with eggplant, wood ear mushrooms, yard-long beans, lemongrass, and mai sakhaan, then thickened with pounded sticky rice. It's a slow-cooked pot dish ladled out at Luang Prabang restaurants and market food stalls alike.

Why it's made this way: Or lam began as a royal Luang Prabang dish — the palace's own recipe reportedly called for deer meat — and it later spread into an everyday stew made with whatever meat a household had on hand.