Refreshed after our hibernation, we strike out into town, in the opposite direction of our normal haunts. We are heading to Union Pizza and Shawarma for some authentic Lamb Shawarma since our Chiang Mai connection has disappeared. The restaurant is a little storefront at the beginning of what is called “Cowboy’s Alley,” a street food sort of street with tons and tons of food and alcohol stalls. We wander through the alley, just to waste time, because we are set on having Shawarma tonight, and end up back at the restaurant, as the only customers. We grab a booth, make ourselves at home and start an evening long conversation with the owner – who is a wonderfully fun companion to our meal.
The restaurant itself is a small, narrow little diner-like place with booths and a large table at the back. Sparkling clean, and air-conditioned (which the proprietor turns on for us when we say we’re hot), it’s not an ambience sort of place to hang out all evening, but it is a great place to get extraordinarily good food at reasonable prices. And you can’t beat the company!
We of course order Shawarma – I get the the pita sandwich, Ed the platter, which are both fantastic, and totally authentic.
In between ordering and eating, we have an hours long conversation with the owner (whose name we never seem to get). He tells us all about Vientiane, living in Laos, his connections, the Cowboy alley, the challenges he is having with the landlord who owns the building, the Backpacker hotels down the street, how he and his brothers (his brothers and family live in Canada) are looking to start another business here. You name it, we talk about it. It makes the evening fly by and we are sorry to finally have to leave! But leave we must – as we make our way back toward Lani’s House, stopping for a night cap at Good Earth, where we listen to more good music, and I can’t resist taking pictures of the menu for the names of the entrees here. So fun and creative!
Back in our room, we succumb to the comfy king size bed and sleep soundly….
No comments:
Post a Comment