One noticeable difference however, is the food. The Lao have a tradition of eating things raw, including game meat and buffalo and fish, and uncooked vegetables, many of them wild herbs, grasses, leaves, and roots. This could be attributed to the forested mountainous character of their environment. The type of rice Laotians eat is also distinctive - sticky, or glutinous rice - which is eaten by kneading a small handful into a ball and dipping it into a dish of condiments. Sticky rice is served in reed baskets with a tight fitting cover that slips on and off. When Lao go off to work in the fields or elsewhere you will often see hanging at their side a small version of these round woven baskets to carry their sticky rice, and perhaps a small amount of fish or meat which will serve as a mid-day meal. The most ubiquitous dish eaten with sticky rice is pa dek, a highly pungent fermented fish sauce. It is common to see on the back verandah of a Lao peasant's house an earthenware jar of fermenting pa daek.