Centuries ago, bamboo groves were common throughout Southeast Asia. It’s no wonder that many cultures learned to eat the delicious bamboo. The plentiful young shoots are toxic if eaten raw, but after boiling, become tender and have a fresh flavor.

A traditional dish in Laotian homes is a flavorful herb-filled soup called Gang Normai that showcases slices of cooked fresh bamboo shoots. Gang (soup) Normai (bamboo) is a complex dish that incorporates many vegetables.

Vanh Sivongxay, owner and cook at Honolulu’s Sabb Thai restaurant, left the Laotian capital of Vientiane with her parents and settled in Hawaii in 1986. In Laos, she learned to prepare traditional dishes from her mother by cooking over a fire, when other family members were busy working in the fields.

“Every family has their own version of this bamboo soup,” said Sivongxay’s daughter Michelle, who also works in the family’s restaurant. “My mother’s recipe is especially delicious, with fresh oyster mushrooms.”

Using a heavy mortar and pestle, Sivongxay smashes chiles, lemon grass, galangal and makrut lime leaves into a paste. Home cooks can use a blender. She says chiles are mandatory. “‘Bor phet bor sabb’ translates from Laotian, ‘If it’s not spicy, it’s not tasty.’”

This aromatic paste flavors the soup along with fermented shrimp and fish sauce. Crushed raw sticky rice is also mashed with a bit of water to form a slurry that thickens the soup. Kabocha adds sweetness and color, and lemon basil brightens the soup as it simmers in the broth and also as a fresh, raw garnish.

A prime base for this dish is yanang leaf juice, found canned (sometimes labeled “extract”) in Asian markets and in Chinatown. The leaves of the yanang vine are smashed and its green nutrients captured. The extract gives the broth its green color, along with zucchini and loofah squash.

Laotian food isn’t as well known locally as Vietnamese or Thai, but its influence is widespread, which is easy to understand when looking at a map: Laos is surrounded by Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, China and Vietnam.

For example, sticky rice, so common in Thai restaurants, is a Laotian dish.

Even when a Laotion cook is in the kitchen, the restaurant is often branded as Thai, said Sivongxay. “It’s because people aren’t familiar with Lao food. If we called it a Laotian restaurant, no one would come.”

At Sabb Thai (“sabb” means “delicious” or “tasty” in Lao), the menu is mostly Thai, but Sivongxay often offers specials of traditional Lao food.

The final consistency of her soup is thick, closer to a stew and full of interesting textures from vegetables that include tender zucchini, spongy loofah squash and, of course, the bamboo shoots.

It is always served with Laotian steamed sticky rice.

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Sabb Thai is at 1666 Kalaoukalani Way (at the Makaloa Street corner, across Makaloa from Palama Supermarket); open 11 to 9 p.m. daily, 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays, takeout only. Call 445-3882.

LAOTIAN BAMBOO SOUP (GANG NORMAI)

Plan a trip to an Asian market or to Chinatown for ingredients you can’t get at your supermarket.

2 pounds fresh bamboo shoots, peeled and sliced thinly into bite-sized pieces

3 Thai chiles

3-inch-long stem lemon grass

1-inch piece galangal

4 makrut lime leaves (see note)

2 14-ounce cans yanang leaf juice

1/2 kabocha, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 pound fresh oyster mushrooms

3 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch half moons

3 silk squash (loofah), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch half moons

2 tablespoons fermented shrimp paste

1-1/2 tablespoons fish sauce

1/4 cup raw Lao or Thai sticky rice (or substitute mochi rice)

1/4 cup water

2 cups lemon basil leaves, divided

Put bamboo shoots in pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook 15 minutes.

Drain; refill pot with fresh water. Bring to a boil again; cook 15 minutes more. Drain and rinse bamboo shoots; place in a large stock pot.

Using a mortar and pestle or blender, crush chiles, lemon grass, galangal and lime leaves until very fine. Add to pot. Add yanang juice, kabocha and mushrooms; cook on high 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium; add zucchini, silk squash, shrimp paste and fish sauce. Add additional water to cover ingredients. Cook another 10 minutes.

Crush rice in blender with water or use mortar and pestle. Add mixture to pot with 1-1/2 cups lemon basil leaves; cook 10 more minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

Taste; add more shrimp paste or fish sauce if needed. Serve hot or at room temperature along with steamed sticky rice. Garnish with remaining lemon basil. Serves 12 as a main dish.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving: (not including added fish sauce): 110 calories, no fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 250 mg sodium, 21 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 9 g sugar, 7 g protein

Note: In Asia, the limes commonly called kaffir in the U.S. are known as makrut. The word “kaffir” is a derogatory term meaning “infidel” or “nonbeliever” in South Africa. It has become a racial slur referring to black Africans, so the name makrut is growing more common globally.

Lynette Lo Tom, author of “Back in the Day,” is fascinated by old-fashioned foods. Contact her at 275-3004 or via instagram at brightlightcookery. Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S.