Vientian Cafe in Oakland

Pla Muk Ka Pow: Calamari with Sweet Basil at Vientian Cafe in Oakland.

We'd been to Vientian once before for dinner, and it was superb, and since today's errands took us to it's neighborhood off High Street & 580 in Oakland, we thought it was a perfect time to revisit this little restaurant specializing in Lao, Thai and Vietnamese cuisine.

Above and below: Nam Kao, or Rice Salad with fermented pork. You use big lettuce leaves like tortillas to fill up with the rice salad (below), adding lime, cilantro, chile and mint to taste. 

Above: Lao sausage bursting with ginger and lemongrass.

Another shot of the Pla Muk Ka Pow, Calamari and Vegetables sauteed with Sweet Basil. Perfectly cooked calamari.

To the Calamari, I added a little bit of this to its juices, Jeo Pa Dak, a seriously funky fish sauce made of chiles, tamarind, anchovy, and other ingredients. Way too intense to eat alone for my palette, but I found that mixing some of this with the calamari juices really added a lot of complexity to that dish. I only ate a little bit of this today, the rest is in a container in the fridge. I'm planning to add a bit of it to my beef and bean stew I'm taking for lunch tomorrow.

Oor Larm, or Lao Style Beef Stew. Never had something quite like this before. Very tender beef mixed with Eggplant and Wood Ear Mushrooms. Notice in the finished bowl below there were also what looked like chiles, and dill (maybe the French influence?).

Vientian Cafe 

3801 Allendale Ave, Oakland, CA 94619

510-535-2218