In pictures: Unusual Lao cuisine

From barbecued bats and rats on skewers, to red ant larvae and squirming beetles, the wilder side of Lao cuisine can make the Western stomach churn.

But for the people of Laos, this is the food they have always eaten.

Alina Paul, who helps her husband Jerome Bossuet manage an agricultural programme for Triangle Generation Humanitaire, describes Lao food culture in words and pictures.