Larb

Larb is minced pork tossed warm with lime, fish sauce, chilli and toasted rice powder. It is the defining dish of the Isaan region, shared across the Thai-Lao border since the ethnic Lao communities of Isaan and the country of Laos trace the dish to the same culinary root.

What it really is

Minced pork cooks quickly in a dry pan, sometimes with just a splash of stock rather than oil, until it's cooked through but still tender rather than browned hard. Off the heat, it's tossed immediately with lime juice, fish sauce, ground dried chilli, shallot, mint and a spoonful of rice grains toasted dark and ground into a coarse powder — that toasted rice is what gives larb its faint nutty crunch and is genuinely hard to substitute.

Toasted rice powder is the ingredient that makes larb larb. Without it, the dish reads as a plain sour-spicy minced pork salad; the nutty, slightly gritty texture the toasted powder adds is a defining, non-negotiable part of the dish.

How it is served

• Warm, in a shallow bowl, right after the pork is tossed with its seasoning.
• With sticky rice and raw vegetables like cabbage or long beans on the side.
• As a main course in Isaan, though smaller portions serve as a starter elsewhere.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the fish sauce.
• Say if chicken or another meat is used instead of pork, since both are common regional variations.
• Rate the heat honestly, since larb's chilli level in Isaan tends to run hotter than versions served elsewhere in Thailand.