Chicken Soup for the Lao Soul

Questions are the gatekeepers of every village, town, city, and country. They are the sieve for  sifting the native and the nomad, the pilgrim and the prodigal, the liar and the loyal, the sheep and the wolf in sheep's clothing. Like all questions, their answer is the key--the pass code--that determines your entry status as tourist or citizen. To learn a place's questions is to learn a people's idols and enemies, values and fears. Questions--and their corresponding answers--provide a compass of the culture with which to navigate minefields and mountaintops alike. In Laos, the question is, "Gin khao laew baw?" Have you eaten? The Lao are forever eating. Food is the staple of Lao society. Although malnutrition is endemic, or perhaps because of its pervasiveness, food is a fixation. Regardless of response, the question unearths the primal human need for nourishment and intimacy. It represents carnal craving for connection, the instinctual appetite for relationship. Because food is fuel for life as fellowship fuels our soul. The path to hearts and minds begins with the stomach. Superseding differences in language, culture, history, ethnicity, etc. the ritual of preparing and partaking in meals together is an extension of one hand to another. A communion of bread and cup. A sacrificial offering on the shared table of hearth and heart furling with the fragrance of conversation. Food and the public spaces it is bought, sold, and consumed--restaurants, cafés, roadside stands, the marketplace, are theaters of culture. The question, "Gin khao laew baw?" is, therefore, more than an inquiry about your last meal; it is an invitation to a meeting of minds, mouths, and milieu. A place of mutual understanding and agreement (if only to disagree). A treaty of taste and temperament. When presented with the question, you may decline, but your refusal will be added to an invisible account between you. Your next request--for a meal or meetup--will inevitably be met with a counter negative. A cultural checkmate in the game of relationship. Ultimately, the act of saying yes would be your loss. The only response is simply to fill your plate and eat!