Minced Duck Salad and Duck Soup

Making Larb Ped (Minced Duck Salad) and Tom Ped Sai Khai Mod Som (Duck Soup with ant eggs) at a relative’s house for lunch in Vientiane Province of Laos. My uncle asked if I would be able to eat duck and they prepared two ducks for the soup and salad. There was an ant egg nest on one of the mango trees in the garden and my uncle decided to harvest the eggs for the soup.

I told the aunt that was making Larb Ped that I have never eaten Tom Ped Sai Khai Mod Daeng (Duck Soup with ant eggs) before. She told me how she never had the time to make it either and it was the first time for her eating it as well after all these years. Due to hectic work schedule on their vegetable farm, they just ate whatever is available after a long day of work.

Since this was the first time for these relatives to meet me, then it was a big feast for all of us. They didn’t want my help in the kitchen and the only contribution I made was buying two crates of BeerLao and a big bag of ice as visiting gift for the meal. It was a great lunch to share with the relatives and their friends that were dropping by spontaneously. We picked the herbs and vegetables in the family garden that were grown organically to go with our meal with plenty of freshly cooked sticky rice.