Connoisseurs of Thai food say that Northeastern food is the best in the country. Typical Isan disher can now be found on the menus of the smartest Thai restaurants in Bangkok, and many small side-street food shops are crowded with well-dressed diners as well as taxi-drivers. As in Laos and Northern Thailand, sticky rice is the staple, eaten either as a base for other dishes or as a sweet when steamed in a hollow piece of bamboo with coconut milk and black beans Typical Laotian herbs such as dill (called pak chee lao by Thais)are often used as seasonings.