Phosi Fresh Market

From 7am to 5pm, every day.

The Phosi fresh market is the largest in Luang Prabang. The entrance is situated on Kisalat Road just down from the end of the Night Market towards the river, and it opens early every day until about 1700.

There’s a huge range of seasonal fruit, vegetables, nuts, mushrooms, fish, chicken, pork, etc, plus a lot of fauna and flora that you’ve never seen before posing as food.

A variety of smells assault your nose as you stroll down the alley. Herbs, durians, BBQ’d chicken, spices, somtam, it’s an endless olfactory feast.

Like bird song, the air is full of chattering and laughing, as the happy Lao women serve their local clients, who shop fresh everyday.

Please note there are several different phonetic spellings for the Phosi Fresh Market including Phosy, Phousy, Phousi, etc

 

 

Recently we assisted with the line production for the shooting of a cooking documentary, which included how to cook rice rats.

 

 

As rats are considered a delicacy by the Lao people, a quick trip to the Phosi fresh market and the problem was solved. Despite our western squeamishness, they don’t taste bad either!

 

 

 

 

 

For the Curious:

The 2 large silver fish with black spots on their flanks are Chitala omata, commonly known as clown featherback, clown knifefish, or spotted knifefish. It is a nocturnal fish that lives in the Mekong River with a narrow knife-like body, that can grow up to a meter in length.

The biodiversity of fish species in the Mekong River is incredible, with nearly 1,000 species recorded, of which nearly 90% are known to be migratory. The majority of these fish species depend on flooded areas for food and breeding. The sheer number of dams planned for the Mekong will threaten the existence of many of these fish once their habitats are  destroyed or access is blocked. Unlike salmon they can’t climb fish ladders around dams.