Laos

Tony met with James Syhabout, a chef and restaurateur behind two-Michelin star restaurant Commis, in San Francisco. They had a bowl of khao piak sen, or Lao noodle soup, which is James' first dish he seeks out once he gets off the plane. The dish includes crispy sliced pork, blood cake, meat broth.

Tony visited during this Buddhist event that marks the end of Buddhist lent. There is a fire lantern festival, the symbolic casting away of one's sins. Tony watched a boat race on the Mekong River.

"During the Secret War, [this hotel] was the offices for USAID, America's foreign aid mission," says Tony. He had lunch here with the hotel owner, Mama Vahn, who made the meal, "an elaborate spread of dishes whose recipes are left over from imperial times." They had lon song, a fish from the Mekong River, cooked with shallots, garlic, chili, coconut milk, and pork; river crab, fish with pork grilled in banana leaves, ginger sauce, pork skin, and sticky rice.

Tony had a meal with Chef James Syhabuot and his friends/family. They had aw lahm, which is made with wood ear mushrooms, dill, pepper wood (a key ingredient infused into the dish, which imparts flavors of star anise and white pepper), two types of lahm made with buffalo (one raw, one cooked), and leuat paeng, a dish made from raw buffalo blood and herbs.

Tony met with workers from this organization tasked with finding unexploded objects left behind by American forces during the Secret War and safely blowing them up. Only 0.5% of the country has been cleared of unexploded devices. Kids and adults have been maimed and dismembered by these bombs strewn about the countryside.