{"id":5175,"date":"2021-10-26T10:29:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T10:29:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eatlao.com\/?p=5175"},"modified":"2021-10-26T10:29:53","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T10:29:53","slug":"where-to-get-delicious-lao-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eatlao.com\/where-to-get-delicious-lao-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to Get Delicious Lao Food"},"content":{"rendered":"
A few years ago, when he was holding one-off events like Pho on the Farm, Alex Hanesakda says his Lao-fusion food business, SapSap, was better known as \u201cthat random pop-up company.\u201d \u201cPeople didn\u2019t really know what Lao food was,\u201d he explains. Aside from perhaps a dish or two on a Thai restaurant menu, Lao cuisine didn\u2019t garner much attention.<\/p>\n
Hanesakda, a first-generation Lao-American who grew up in Burlington, is working to change that. In late spring, he opened a permanent home for the business in Mount Pleasant (2343 Mead St.), where he started offering carryout with plans to open for dine-in service. SapSap is a labor of love for the self-trained chef, who calls his cooking a hybrid of his upbringing (\u201ccooking with my parents and my aunties and uncles\u201d) and living in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
In 2010, Hanesakda first offered \u201cMamma\u2019s\u201d egg rolls (based on his mother\u2019s recipe) at Asian Fest. Six years later, while working in East Troy butcher shop Hometown Sausage Kitchen, he debuted a product line under the name SapSap \u2013 which means delicious delicious in Lao. His first product was a beef snack stick using Lao ingredients such as makrut lime leaves and bhut jolokia (ghost peppers).<\/p>\n