The bonus of doing a lot of food photography is that you get to eat your work. Last night’s home cooked trio of Lao dishes was so damn good that I cut the shoot short and dig in.

Gaeng het, a Lao-style mushroom curry is one of my all-time favourites. It is actually more of a stew than a curry and uses the ubiquitous pla daek fermented fish for flavour, cha om, the immature and rather pungent shoots of the acacia tree, handfuls of wild mushrooms, plenty of fresh chillies and herbs. It’s silky texture is obtained by adding soaked and pounded sticky rice to help thicken it. Cooked well, it’s a sensational dish.

An ideal accompaniment is goy pla, similar to a larb, made using Mekong river fish, a liberal amount of mint, roasted and ground sticky rice, shallots, lemongrass, chillies and lime juice. Extra vegetables are always welcome at the Lao table. Ready in a couple of minutes, fresh and crisp pak choi stir-fried with oyster sauce, garlic and chillies is a great addition to a healthy and delicious meal.

It’s ant egg season. The markets in Laos, north and northeastern Thailand have an abundance of them at the moment. A good source of protein, they are used in soups, curries and salads. The shots here were taken at stalls in the rural town of Pak Lay in Laos where ladies had their harvest of eggs laid out of pages ripped from on school books instead of banana leaves.

There were two types for sale, the more common plump red ant eggs known as kai mot daeng (top picture), and the smaller darker coloured kai mot hai (above). Both type of ant build their nests in trees. I really like the larger red ant eggs added Lao style soups. More on this dish in the near future.

A woman cooking up breakfast dishes of pork, soup and sticky rice on three charcoal stoves in a morning market, Luang Prabang, Laos.