Laos is blessed with much hardwood. We saw dried firewood being used in homes and by shopkeepers cooking their lunches on the sidewalk. We also saw charcoal being used in restaurants and by street vendors. This shows a traditional stove used in homes and for Lao barbeque; it can be used with either dried hardwood or charcoal. These are used throughout SE Asia. You may have seen it in my post from Luang Prabang.
Charcoal reaches cooking temperatures faster than dried wood but wood is easier to extinguish and save for reuse at a later time. Here is a charcoal dealer's store room. Large blocks of charcoal are bagged and delivered by truck or motorbike to restaurants.
Where electicity is available, we saw electric woks and rice makers.Vietnam is blessed with abundant coal and has a higher per-capita production of coal than Great Britian. In Vietnam, we saw many of these coke briquettes.
Coke is made by "roasting" (chemical engineer's term for heating in the absence of oxygen). Roasting drives off volatiles without burning the material, and leaves essentially carbon, similar to charcoal. Coke is then briquetted, and these briquettes fit into a standardized stove. When the fuel has been used or "spent", a block of ash is left in the stove. Shop owners or food vendors set these ask blocks at the curb. This block is easily crushed to powder when it has cooled.
In Thailand we see more propane or LPG tanks being used by vendors, but also charcoal for smaller vendors carrying small grills.
Malaysia is blessed with abundant oil and natural gas, and has fuel systems used in the first world. Street vendors still use charcoal for grilling, and they use LPG tanks for frying stoves. Here is a traditional barbecue in an indoor shopping mall between the Petronas Towers; note the stainless steel ventilation system above the table and gas supply line below.
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