Lao Cuisine at Lao Piak in Seoul
Over the next few months we are going to show some of the amazing restaurants in the Mangwon area. Mangwon is known for having many small but amazing food places. We want to share some of our favourites. Lao Piak is a place we eat at regularly and it’s one of the only Lao food places in Korea.
The owners and chefs are two Korean women who fell in love with Laos on a trip. They learned how to make Lao food from Lao people in the Laos countryside and then came back to Korea to open their restaurant.
A lot of people assume they have never eaten Lao food before. But a lot of Thai food, especially the types of Thai food that has been exported to the west, is actually Lao food. There has been a real problem of Thaification of Lao food and Lao people have faced discrimination in Thailand for a long time. Also since Thai food is known in western countries more than other countries from region, many Lao people will call their restaurant Thai, even though it’s really Lao food.
These days there is a movement for Lao people, whether they are living in Laos, Thailand or other countries to be proud of their culture and food. If you do see a restaurant openly serving Lao food, please go and support it so that Lao people don’t have to pretend the food is Thai to attract customers.
I think it’s great that the owners of Lao Piak have such respect for Laos and want to show what Lao food is. They could have easily said the food is Thai, as there are many Thai restaurants in Seoul and Thai food is popular, but instead they want to educate people about Lao food.
You can see more details on their Instagram here.
If you have trouble finding places from the Korean address, the closest big landmark is the newish IPark apartments which have a park in front of them. Lao Piak is in one of the nearby backstreets, across the road from the apartments and the park.
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