 so many depictions of Muay Thai in this restaurant because that's how they try to make you feel when you eat it, blows to the dome, to the dome. In our opinion, Lao Isan food is the most underrated Asian cuisine period. And although Isan is a region in Northeast Thailand, it borders Laos and therefore considered essentially the same cuisine. So today we are comparing three different price points of Lao food, low, middle, and high. We're going from a neighborhood spot to a restaurant chain and then ending at a spot with a New York Times rated chef. Let's go. First up on our low, middle, high, and loud food crawl here in Manhattan on one of our favorite streets of all time, Grand Street is Lan Larb coming in at the low price point sector. Now, this spot is classified as a Thai restaurant, but more specifically, it's a Northeastern Isan Thai spot. From what I heard, the food in Northeastern Thailand and the food in Laos Andrew is 80% similar. Coming in at the $1 sign, our first spot, Lan Larb. I wanna eat as many Isan Northeastern Lao dishes as I can. And we are sitting in front of an Isan Lao feast right now at the low end here at Lan Larb. All right, guys, I gotta come clean. It's not exactly as cheap as it would be in Queens. Yes, we get it. When we say low price, we just mean for Manhattan. Isan Lao sausage. Man, I just think what makes it special is definitely eating it with the fresh ginger and garlic. There's that amount of spice that after kick that just comes in is like, oh, that wasn't enough spice for you. Bang! Some people like to cook everything in and some people like to give it to you on the side to eat along with it fresh. But I feel like the herbs that are usually in it are more green herbs, but here I'm talking about garlic and ginger. I think this stuff has to be raw. A lot of other ones will have more herbs, but this one is not short of flavor, I'm telling you. The Isan sausage was only $8, totally worth it. We are moving on to two Lao favorites, Andrew. These are national dishes. Yes, larb is a national dish. This one right here is duck larb. This is som tam, better known as a papaya salad. And of course, Andrew, we got the Lao sticky rice. Let's get it out, man. Oh, it's real hot. Hot in my hand. Duck larb. Larb is essentially a minced meat salad. Southeast Asian salads are not like sweet greens, bro. They're super citrusy, often very spicy, but at the same time, very refreshing. Andrew, did you know that Lao people invented the papaya salad of the som tam? Okay, so the chef back there was warning John behind the camera while he was filming about the spiciness of this. Fermented crab flavor is strong. Yo, I'm going in too. Oh, you just need to chase. If it ever gets too hot, just throw in a clump of sticky rice. Oh my goodness, yo, my mouth is on fire. This som tam, I need a... Isan shrimp salad. I'm really feeling the sauce. That to me is a little bit sweeter, more accessible, you know, fish sauce. I feel like I could take this juice here and put it on anything. Ubal noodle soup from Isan. Man, this is a very rich pork broth. Andrew, this tastes like a little bit like something dad would make. I have got to say, Andrew, I believe we found a sleeper dish that we've never had before. Was one of the most satisfying pork-based noodle soups I've had in a long time. It wasn't too salty, it wasn't too fatty, it was very porky, has that nice thick, like kind of bone flavor. Isan udon is a five out of five. Loud chicken soup. Ooh. It's a little pungent and spicy, similar to like a Korean, almost kimchi jjigae. From my research, Andrew, which I do extensive, I spend a lot of time on core. Taekwondo, Andrew, was a group of people that lived in Yunnan, but all the way up to really like Sichuan. When the Han came down from the north, they sort of ended up moving way down lower. If you really look at it a few thousand years ago, a lot of different groups that have since dispersed actually originate on what is currently in 2020 Chinese territory. There was a couple of deep cut dishes, Andrew, that I do not expect to see at the spots that cater to a wider audience. I know Mr. Mongol Mussels over here does have a soft spot in this heart for Southeast Asia. So good. Gotta get everything out of man. Gotta get everything. Marb. I've never had larb before. That's refreshing. Onto our next spot, Sam-Tom Durr in the East Village, which is our mid-tier northeastern Lao spot. Let's go. The difference because I know there are many similarities between Isan and Lao food, right? But is there a slight differences? Yes. Lao food is like a little bit same, the similar like a north, the taste of the spicy, the salt is gonna be dropped than Isan food. Okay. So a little bit less of the punch in that Thai food actually. Andrew, we're at Sam-Tom Burr in Red Hook and we're at the mid-tier. Obviously you expect to see different things at different tiers, low, mid, high. I mean, I could tell by the detail, obviously there's a lot of ingredients. I think the presentation, they spent a little bit more time on, but, and I didn't realize, but actually that's a chain from Thailand that is known for serving Isan food in Bangkok and they have locations all over the world down. Andrew, first, I think I'm gonna start off with the Mu Ping, okay? So he told me to put the grilled pork on first. I'm gonna do it the wrong way. Then I'm gonna stab my fork and then I'm gonna have the whole bowl and I'm just gonna dip it. I don't know if this is the right way either, but. Man, that was so good. I like how the pork was really thin, David. That did remind me. I think I might have to have another piece. Yo, this vermicelli was soft as hell too. So, you know, Thai food, it gives you all different flavors. At the end, you kind of have this creamy, sweet kick. This is the Isan salted egg papaya salad. A little bit more of a fusion dish. I like that a lot because that salted egg yolk got mashed up and it kind of adds to like this creaminess that this has. It came at you from more different directions and I would say that almost tastes more like an entree than an appetizer. Som tam dur's raw crab papaya salad. I'm just chewing through the crab shell. So what ends up categorizing som tam dur as a mid-tier spot is because everything is about the same price, but everything's like top of style and the sizing is much smaller so therefore you would have to order more dishes to get the same amount of food. There's definitely less crab meat, but there's a sweet smokiness that came through. Man, that has a lot of kick though. So if you're looking for like a real interesting flavor, I would definitely say get the raw crab papaya salad here. Isan bamboo salad. You talking about herby, I think it's difficult. The only reason it's difficult to describe guys is because there's a lot of herbs that I've never had before. You know, that is super herbaceous. That the main difference between Isan food and Lao food is that Isan food is even a little bit more pungent, has a little bit more spicy kick. This is sun-dried beef right here, Andrew. Let's look at this. Very similar to a Lao dish. Like we said, there's a lot of crossover in that region. Actually some people from Isan, Andrew, consider themselves to be lowland Lao. You see those little balls of pepper that are sitting on top. They literally burst in your mouth and there's like extra flavor after you eat them. Here we have the grilled sticky rice. You just gotta eat the grilled sticky rice. Uh-huh. Get the beef. Under the grilled sticky rice right here. That's really good. This kind of reminds me of the time we did the episode with Benson in Taitown. And me and him, we're eating the grilled banana rice. Mmm. You know, it's very authentic. Those like, we're sweating and we're outside eating Thai food. Feels like I'm back in Thailand, bro. Next up, Andrew, we've got the duck larb. I wanted to get all the larb so we can compare, but this is the one thing we missed out on at Land Larb. I'm really excited to try this with the sticky rice. You know what's great about this duck larb? They still give you pieces of crispy pork on the side too. It's kind of your classic northeastern Isan Lao, you know, chilies and herbs, to be honest. Andrew, you know what I love about Isan food? They had six different types of carbs and each type of carb was supposed to go with a specific meat. Andrew, we have arrived at our soup section at Sam Tham Durr. Isan pork soup, we had this at Land Larb. Wow, lots of lemongrass, lots of basil, lots of spice. More like a tom yum than the previous pork soup easily. Here's that chicken soup. Some more of a saltiness, less in savoriness. It's not as thick as the pork bone soup at Land Larb, but it's actually really enjoyable, man. I love the ingredients here and I'm loving the vegetables. I like this one better than the spicy chicken soup at Land Larb, but I still think that pork bone soup at Land Larb is one of the best things I've eaten in a long time. We gotta see if the catfish takes cake because it doesn't hit as hard in one direction as Land Larb, but let me tell you, the complexity of flavor is super high here. In every spoonful, I swear to God, there's at least seven to eight different things. This is a lemon. This is a sugar cane lemongrass drink, and I think I needed this at about a 10 out of 10 lemon. Isan pad thai. The noodles have about two to 300% the amount of flavor. They have in a normal Bangkok style, which is not supposed to be orange. This is orange, but it's not because of ketchup or peanut butter, it's orange because of the chilies. There is so much egg woven into those noodles. Every bite, you're getting a lot of flavor. Isan is actually land mass wise, the largest region in Thailand, and a lot of people consider it like the true Thailand because it's not as international, I guess, as Bangkok, but either way, guys, Isan flavors kick you so hard and maybe that's why they have so many depictions of Muay Thai in this restaurant because that's how they try to make you feel when you eat it. It blows to the dome, to the dome, straight on top. John's time. Mongol mussels. Man, he's stretching, look at him. Liver guy. This is single-handedly the thing I'm most excited for. Hold on. It's just nothing like it, man. You can't get this, you can't try this on a daily basis, but that's why you gotta grow with a liver if you can. Every level of anything has its own merit. Oftentimes, you get what you pay for. I gotta say they did a great job here at Sam Tham Durr. I can co-sign it. All right, if you guys are excited about this video and you're ready to see the different levels of Isan and Lao food, keep watching, hit the like button, click subscribe, and turn on your notifications. And we are looking at our spread here at Keo. This is probably the most expensive Lao restaurant in America. You know, if you type in Laotian in Yelp, there's only a few restaurants that open up where the only description is Laotian. It's not Laotai. The thing that I wanna start off with, Andrew, are the Lao Viet dishes. So basically, if you know about where Laos is, it borders Vietnam to the right, it borders Thailand to the south. So it's really like a hybrid. Henceforth, why there is a Lao Viet banh mi, and there is a Lao Pho. Lao Pho, Pete. Wow, heavy bone broth. A few things I noticed immediately to make it different. It's more medicinal and it's more sour and it's got more of those mountainous herbs. I love fried onions, man. I love fried shallots. I think it adds such a nice little texture and a nice little kick. This is a Lao banh mi, crispy pork belly. Vientiane, obviously, also colonized by the French, so that's where they got the baguette. That pork belly is incredible. You guys, look at that. We have crispy pork belly. We have, again, the Julian carrots, daikon, cilantro. I like the baguette here. It's very, very light. The crispy pork, which is probably the most, you know, Lao component, was incredible. Lao egg roll. There's definitely more citrus and more sour notes. Man, it almost tastes like mountainous via food or something, it's like pretty interesting. And why does it look like this is a Seth Rogen movie right here? Pineapple, the Lao Express. Leading into a Lao dish that we've never had before and these are crisp fried coconut rice balls with Lao sausage. This is one of the main dishes that they're actually known for here at Kio. So sweet, but sweet with heat. I've never had anything like that. Wow, it's super crispy on the outside. It has a spicy kick on the inside. I mean, it's essentially like rice and sausage, but in a way different form. We got two very, very traditional Lao dishes. Here we have the beef jerky and then we have the eggplant and bang, bang sauce. Sticky rice, papaya salad and grilled meats. The sticky rice, the khao niao. And the Lao jerky was a five out of five. If you guys know the history of a lot of the Taikadai people, Lao being one of the major groups of Taikadai, they came from what is now modern day China and they sort of moved to a different geography, but to this day, you can find some ethnic minority groups in China that maintain speaking the Lao or Thai language. I'll tell you this, the main component that is held true at all three spots of Isan Lao spots is my face at some point feels like it's melting off. Yeah, it's an amount of Thai food in my life. I've been to some pretty expensive Thai restaurants. I think Lao does sticky rice the best when it's just the rice itself and the dip and the eggplant and the chilies. I mean- Well, you never thought that just rice with some sauces could be an entree. That's like a dish on its own, man, and it's vegetarian. All right, now we have arrived to our dinner menu here at Keel. Earlier we had the lunch menu. It's a different menu here. That's how nice restaurants do it. Badak rib. Awoma. Badak, badak, badak, badak, badak, badak ribs. I thought I was full. Has this funky umami flavor from the badak, but it's kind of sweet, very salty at the same time. I've never had this flavor on a pork rib before. I'll tell you this, guys. This is my hot take on badak. There's something about it that when you smell it on your hands, it's like bad, but when you eat it, you just have to keep eating it. You know what has the same elements at your time out is durian. Durian's very, very stinky, but when you eat it, you don't really get the stink as much. Chicken lop. Tamakoon. So here, in one hand, I had the soup that it came with, lemongrass and cherry tomatoes, and then here I got the lout. That almost reminds me more of like mom food. Oh! Yo, I gotta say, their lout classics here, like the tamakoon between the jerky and the sticky rice, all five out of five. And I thought that larb was actually gonna hit me from way more angles, kind of crept up on me from the underground. As far as like best larb, David, which one are you taking? Oh man, I think for me, I'm gonna go with samtang durian. All right, for me, my favorite larb was the one at Land Larb. Overall, I really recommend everybody come to Kio and definitely try the more traditional dishes, in my opinion, yeah. Which spot do you think was the overall best value? Experience, quality, flavor, tradition. All right, if you're not loud, you gotta go to lower mid. But honestly, I think that if you're loud, you actually have to come here to Kio. Maybe my favorite dish that I had at all three spots was maybe the sticky rice and the jerky here at Kio. I'm gonna roll with samtang durian. Okay. Samtang durian was pretty damn good, man. I think everything... No, because they had a little bit more of the trendy stuff that was hopping in Thailand in 2020. No, no, and trust me, I get both Kio and Land Larb. Dude, if you're into loud food, specifically loud food, you have to come to Kio. So you might see, all right, how about this? Go to Kio and go to samtang durian. But if you wanna see the foam rolls or see me, hop and be at Land Larb. If that makes any sense. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching the video. And I know that you saw us try Nissan and loud food in the same video. And kind of we used it interchangeably, yeah. I don't wanna say they're exactly the same, but obviously those two regions are... There's a lot of history. The brothers. It shows that they're brothers and they're very close together. So obviously there's a lot of crossover, but I will say loud food. I've had it a few times and it's definitely a little bit different. So if you guys get the chance, I say check out all those spots, especially if you're in New York, support local businesses. Everybody at each respective restaurant is working their butts off. All right, guys, in the comments down below, you let us know what your favorite Laos or Eson dish is that you might have had. And also let us know what other cuisine you'd like us to do this have a video with. All right, everybody, thank you so much for watching. If you liked that video, give us a thumbs up, click subscribe and turn on your notifications. Until next time, we out. Peace. Oh man, am I excited? Yo, that's way more flavor than I thought there was gonna be inside of that. It tastes more like meaty than like Vietnamese pho. Sticky rice because You just saw us do it? With the dark chili, I don't know if I'm trying to die though. I feel like I'm back in Southeast Asia.