Laab (ลาบ)

The Dish That Honours Guests

Laab is older than the restaurant menu — it's guest-feeding food. At Isaan weddings, ordinations and funerals, a pig or cow was slaughtered and the meat dressed into laab for everyone who came to help; serving it was how the host said thank you. It belongs to a wider Mekong-region family of minced-meat dishes that runs from Yunnan through the Shan states and Laos into Isaan — the Michelin Guide calls it the soul of the region's flavour, alongside som tum and grilled chicken.

Two Bib Gourmand restaurateurs taught Michelin how it works. Nattapong Sae-Hoo of Phed Phed Bistro (Bangkok) is blunt about the first rule: freshness — the meat is cooked the day it's killed, and the herbs must match the meat (duck laab takes makrut leaves; fish laab takes lemongrass to kill the river smell). Pacharee Nimmongkol of So Jeng, 30 years in Khon Kaen, adds the signature trick: toast the khao khua rice together with makrut leaves, grind them as one, and the powder carries the perfume. Her other rule: real ground chilli, not the store-bought stuff padded with bran that gives colour but no heat.

The raw version (laab dip) exists in Isaan tradition. It involves raw meat and blood, and it stays in Isaan — this page cooks the meat through, as every sensible Thai home recipe for laab suk does.

The Recipe (laab mu — pork, for 2)

The Method

1. Make the khao khua. Dry-toast the raw glutinous rice in a pan with a makrut leaf, tossing, until golden — then grind to a powder. This is the defining ingredient: nutty, toasty, and it thickens the dressing.
2. Poach the pork. Half a cup of water over medium heat, minced pork in, stir until fully cooked. No oil, no hard fry — laab meat stays soft.
3. Season. Fish sauce, lime, sugar, ground chilli into the warm meat.
4. Bind with the rice. Khao khua in, mix well, taste. Hot and salty lead; sour follows.
5. Herbs last. Shallots, spring onion, mint, sawtooth coriander — added after the dressing so they stay bright and pungent.
6. Serve with sticky rice and raw vegetables (cabbage, long beans, cucumber) on the side.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

• No khao khua. The single biggest omission. The toasted rice powder is the texture, the nut, and the binder — without it you have seasoned mince, not laab.
• Dry-fried mince. Western "larb" is usually fried hard in a pan. Laab meat is gently poached and stays soft.
• Sweet-leaning. Hot and salty lead, sour follows. If it tastes sweet, it drifted towards nam tok.
• No herbs. Mint and sawtooth coriander aren't garnish — they're the dish's freshness, matched to the meat.
• Lettuce-wrap plating. Laab is eaten with sticky rice and raw vegetables, not as a wrap filling.
• Raw versions. Laab dip is a real Isaan tradition — and a real food-safety line. Cooked-through is the responsible form outside Thailand.

UK Ingredient Notes

• Glutinous rice (Asian grocer) is the one thing you can't substitute: khao khua is toasted raw sticky rice, ground. There's no shop-bought equivalent that isn't stale.
• Sawtooth coriander (culantro) and makrut leaves: Asian grocers. Mint: any supermarket.
• Ground dried chilli: buy whole dried chillies and grind your own — So Jeng's point about bran-padded powder is as true in the UK as in Khon Kaen.
• Pork mince at 10–15% fat gives the right loose-but-tender texture; leaner mince turns dry.
• Traditional richness: add 100 g boiled pork liver and 200 g boiled pork skin, sliced, when dressing — the classic festival version.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.