After six years learning about Japanese cuisine in its country of origin, a Lao woman Amsy Daravong has the skills and experience to serve you an authentic taste of Japan .
“When you eat Japanese food at Yume restaurant, you can be sure it is real Japanese cuisine,” Ms Amsy says.
“I order ingredients from Japan and some from Thailand . I just buy the vegetables in Vientiane .”
While each dish is authentically Japanese, she has made a few adjustments to suit the Lao palate.
Japanese preference is for sweet flavours and nothing too salty. Lao people, on the other hand, like their food spicy and salty.
Ms Amsy first became interested in Japanese food when she travelled to Japan in 2000 to teach Lao cooking and work in a Lao restaurant.
While she lived there, she organised Lao-Japanese cooking lesson exchanges at universities and restaurants, and taught herself by watching food programmes on television.
“Actually I disliked spicy food so Japanese food was just right for me,” she says with a smile.
For her, one of the big attractions of Japanese cuisine is its healthiness and the fact that they don't put MSG in every dish.
Raw fish, soba and sushi are popular with Japanese people, as they are believed to increase longevity.
Now she has brought these dishes to Laos .
“Japanese and Lao cuisine use different styles of cooking, but I started cooking basic Lao food when I was 12 years old, so Japanese food didn't present me with much of a challenge.”
Ms Amsy was the first Lao cook to be invited to appear on a food programme on Japanese TV and she became well-known on a website in 2001.
“I was surprised when I went shopping in Japan and shopkeepers would give me a 20 percent discount because they had seen me on the website and on TV,” she says excitedly.
She launched a restaurant in Vientiane serving Japanese dishes in 2006, with the aim of giving Lao people and foreigners the chance to try this healthy cuisine.
Ms Amsy serves up more than 30 different dishes. Customers often order nigiri sushi with salmon and tenzaru soba, a particular favourite.
You can eat soba noodles with a hot broth or a cold dipping sauce, depending on your preference.
Her restaurant is decorated with Japanese touches, but she wants to improve the décor to make it look really Japanese.
She believes this will help Lao people to feel as if they have been transported to Japan while they're eating.
Prices range from 20,000 kip to 51,000 kip (US$2.5 to US$5.5) for main course dishes.
Yume restaurant is located on Souphanouvong Road in Khounta-thong village, Sikhottabong district.
