The 2nd Annual Lao Food Festival was hosted by LAOSD on June 22-23 in San Diego. The festival showcased a wide range of Lao food from over 50 vendors, art and culture exhibits, live music, cooking demonstrations and activities, mental health and wellness activities, and a sports tournament.
The Lao Americans Organization of San Diego (LAOSD) hosted the 2nd Annual Lao Food Festival on June 22-23, 2024, at Mira Mesa Community Park in San Diego, California. The event aimed “to showcase the diverse and rich cuisine of Laos” and featured around 50 different food vendors, with an emphasis on showcasing underserved Lao businesses, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits. Over the festival’s two days, visitors “indulged in a feast for the senses,” featuring Lao food staples such as laab, a Lao meat salad that is the national dish of Laos, thum mak hoong, papaya salad, and nam khao, crispy rice salad originating from Laos’ capital, Vientiane, in addition to a wide range of other dishes, some of which are not typically available in local restaurants.
The Lao Food Foundation, one of the collaborators for the festival, published a food guide to accompany the festival guide, aiming to highlight the Lao food movement in the United States. The guide reports that Lao food has historically received little attention in the United States. The Lao Food Festival, launched by LAOSD in 2023, aims to address this gap by promoting Lao food in Southern California. This festival joins in the effort to “expand the American culinary landscape to encompass the vibrant flavors of modern Lao cuisine.” Bobbie Oudinarath, LAOSD Communications Director, noted that “since our festival, we have seen events and festivals popping up in other cities that focus in on Lao cuisines. We have seen more home-based businesses exploring growth options, more Lao food presence on social media, and more Lao food entrepreneurs participating as vendors at mainstream food festival and taking the big step to open up Lao restaurants.”
However, the festival involved far more than just food. Oudinarath shared that this year’s festival “featured expanded programming to include: more authentic Lao food vendors, spicy papaya salad cooking and eating competitions and demonstrations, talented artists/musician debuts, performing arts showcases, a night concert highlighting the diverse communities, art and culture exhibits, a mental health and wellness activity center, sports tournaments, the first Lao carnival with rides and games, other retail vendors and a rich cultural experience for all.”
These activities reflected LAOSD’s mission to “inspire and empower Laotian Americans through education, social and civic engagement. The organization works to promote cultural, educational and social values of Lao Americans and is dedicated to preserving and elevating the heritage and the immigrant legacy of the Laotian American community.” LAOSD is a grassroots, community-based, all-volunteer organization. Pida Kongphouthone and Bobbie Oudinarath founded the Lao Advocacy Organization of San Diego in 2018 to advocate for AB1393, an Assembly Bill to include Lao Cultural and History Studies including Lao American refugee history in California K-12 curricula. In 2022, they created LAOSD’s second arm, the 501(c)3 non-profit called Lao Americans Organization of San Diego. “Together, the two arms provide full support and advancement for the Lao Americans community,” said Oudinarath. “LAOSD is a leading trailblazer and advocacy leader for our community.”
LAOSD collaborated with numerous San-Diego organizations to host the festival, including the San Diego API Coalition, Pacific Arts Movement, and the Union of Pan Asians Communities (UPAC). San Diego County was home to around 9,840 Laotian people in 2020. Many other large Laotian communities are also in California: 73,995 of the 257,297 Laotian people in the United States lived in California as of 2020. There were around 12,505 Laotian people living in Sacramento County, 7,325 in Fresno County, and 5,698 in Los Angeles County in 2020.
The festival in San Diego brought together many members of the Lao community as well as attendees of non-Lao heritage. “Food is the universal language and gateway topic to build connectivity and share our vibrant and rich culture with others,” Oudinarath shared. “Our marketing efforts reached the mainstream audience, and we attracted over 17,000 festival goers to the event (where more than 50 percent of the attendees were of non-Lao heritage).”
As the representation and awareness of Lao cuisine grows around the United States, future Lao Food Festivals promise to be vibrant events celebrating Lao food, Lao American organizations, and the Lao American community. Next year’s festival will be hosted in San Diego on June 21-22, 2025.
The author would like to thank Bobbie Oudinarath, LAOSD Communications Director, and Pida Kongphouthone, LAOSD Chair, for their time and valuable contributions to this article.
Alana Ballagh is a Summer 2024 Young Professional at the East-West Center in Washington. She is an incoming M.S. student in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia.