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Archive for Thai cuisine

Tuk Tuk Thai

Nov20

Restaurant: Tuk Tuk Thai

Location: 1638 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. (310) 860-1872

Date: March 8, 2022 and various 2022 dates

Cuisine: Thai Street Food

Rating: Best Thai on the Westside

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I was excited to find that the abandoned Dahab space was replaced with a well rated Thai Street Food joint. They’ve been around for a little while and recently needed to move locations.
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The interior is minimal, but cute.
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The menu is more street food focused than the traditional big Thai menus.

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Sour Sausage. Sai Krok Isan. House-made fermented pork sausage with lemongrass, garlic, sticky rice, coriander root, and white pepper. Flavorful little sausage nubs.

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Thai Wontons. Giew Tod. Hand-folded wontons filled with chicken and sweet chili sauce. Crunchy goodness.
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Curry Dumpling. Shrimp and scallop in spicy green curry sauce. These were super delicious with a nice light creamy (coconut milk creamy) green curry sauce.

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Steak Salad. Yum Nuea. Marinated grilled steak tossed in chili lime with cucumber, grape tomatoes, shallots, mint, green onion, and cilantro. Zesty and fresh.
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Khoi Soi Beef Shank. A mix of crispy egg noodles and blanched egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, shallots, lime, ground chilies, fried in oil in a homemade curry coconut broth. The curry was very red here not the rich orange one I’m used to. I need to try this a second time to get a handle on it.

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Khao Soi Chicken. This is the chicken version. Curry was about the same. I think I prefer the more classic flavor.

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Prik King Pork Belly. Prik Khing Moo Grob. Green beans and pork belly cooked with a fiery red curry paste and kaffir lime leaves. Super crunchy, sweet, spicy, delicious. I love this dish.

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Green Curry with Beef. Tropical spicy curry with a touch of sweetness, full of Thai peppers, kaffir lime, coconut milk, maboo shoots, Thai eggplant, and sweet basil. Beef was a bit chewy.
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Tom Yum Noodles. Rich and creamy spicy tom yum soup with egg noodles, shrimp, homemade chicken dumplings, tomatoes, and mushrooms in aromatic chili jam broth with hard-boiled egg. Yummy!

Tuk Tuk is a great addition to the neighborhood and it’s nice to have a really good more “modern” Thai place nearby. I go regularly but need to keep returning and try new things. Hard as I love some of the ones I have had!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  2. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
  3. Amphai – Northern Thai Food Club
  4. Thai Tour – Sri Siam
  5. Thai Tour – Night+Market Song
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Sawtelle, Street Food, Thai cuisine, Tuk Tuk Thai

Pa Ord Noodle

Apr11

Restaurant: Pa Ord Noodle

Location: 5269 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, Ca, 90027. 323-536-9929

Date: September 3, 2021

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Another solid (authentic) Thai

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Pa Ord Noodle is another highly regarded Thai Town place.
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We visited in the middle of the pandemic “opening up” phase and ate outside in the parking lot — hence all the takeout wares.
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The menu.
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Various chili sauces!
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Papaya Salad – great.
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Coconut Soup with Seafood — also delicious. Similar to the “coco lotus” soup at Jitlada.
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Fried Shrimp Cake – Delicious. Very friend but great.
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Roast Duck Noodle Soup w/ Egg Noodles.
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Drunken Noodles Combination meats – very nice.
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Pad Prik King Chicken – spicy and quite good.
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I pulled this out of the freezer because it was “on theme”:

Buko Pandan Gelato — Infused the milk with fresh Pandan Leaves and then crafted it into a dairy coconut base as my take on the Filipino favorite. Unusual and soothing. — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #buko #pandan #coconut

All the dishes here were quite good, and while this was just a lunch, and not a “comprehensive review” (aka big dinner), it’s clear Pa Ord has a very good kitchen. You certainly couldn’t go wrong stopping in here for a Thai food fix!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Noodle Harmony
  2. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
  3. Soot Bull Jeep
  4. Quick Eats – Tasty Noodle
  5. Otafuku – Carb Coma
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: AFF, Asian Food Friday, BYOG, curry, Gelato, Pa Ord Noodle, Thai cuisine, Thai food, Thai Town

Amphai – Northern Thai Food Club

Mar06

Restaurant: Northern Thai Food Club

Location: 5301 Sunset Blvd #11, Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 474-7212

Date: January 17, 2020

Cuisine: Northern Thai

Rating: Small Space, Big Taste

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Asian Food Friday is always a good opportunity to try out some of the oddball and amazing corners of Los Angeles eating.
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Which brings us to Amphai, or Northern Thai Food Club, which has been on my “to try” list for some time. Supposedly this is some of the best and most authentic Northern Thai in the country. It’s on a grungy Sunset corner in Thai Town.
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And the interior is tiny. The staff appear to be family and are extremely friendly. Service is casual and all on disposable plates with the flimsiest of plasticware. On entering the thick pungent smell of fish sauce blankets the air and informs you that this is the “real deal.”
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Much of the food is on display in a big deli/steam table — including the amazing Norther Thai Sausage (that looks like something a large dog might leave in the yard).
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They also sell some random Thai snacks.
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The menu is surprisingly long.
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Som Tum Thai. Papaya Salad. Salted Crab Flavor. Green Papaya with Thai chilies, tomatoes, dried shrimp, green beans, fish sauce, lime jices and salted crab. Bright flavor with a hint of fishiness.
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Spicy green laxative — I mean chili sauce — awesome complex flavor and hearty burn.
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Sai Qua. Northern Spices Pork Sausage. Ground pork marinated with herbs and spices. Tons of flavor, very soft texture.
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Cabbage and sticky rice.
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Moo Sam Chan Tod. Fried Pork Belly. Deep fried pork belly. Tasty, particularly with the green sauce.
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Larb Moo Kija. Minced pork northern spices salad. Pan-fried minced pork, liver pork, skin pork with fresh mint leaves, in Northern spices. Tons and tons of flavor. Interesting fishy and livery notes.
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Gaeng Hang Lae. Northern pork curry. Stewed pork in Thai-Burmese curry powder and tamarind paste with ginger root. Very tender meat and lots and lots of flavor.
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Gaeng Khanoon. Jackfruit soup. Spicy soup of young jackfruit chunks, Chaom leaves (Acacia) and pork ribs seasoned with tomato and garlic.
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Yum Nor Nam Poo. Bamboo shoots with crab paste. Bamboo shoots with Thai chili, limes, fish sauce and crab paste juices. Lots of fiber and a very different funky flavor. Probably my least favorite dish, but still tasty and interesting. Plus it has “poo” in the name.
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Kao Soi Gai. Curry egg noodle with chicken. Seasoned chicken drumstick curried with flat egg noodles, topped with crispy noodle and served with sour mustard green, shallot, lime, and thick red chili sauce.
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Condiments for the Kao Soi.
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Kao Soi Nua. Curry egg noodle with beef. Seasoned chicken curried with flat egg noodles, topped with crispy noodle and served with sour mustard green, shallot, lime, and thick red chili sauce.
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More condiments for the Kao Soi.
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With the toppings.

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Special of vermicelli and jackfruit and I don’t know what. Mushy texture but tasty.
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Sample of something with jackfruit. Sour, but tasty too.
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A kind of strong pork curry. Very strong “bay leaf”? flavor sauce. Tasty.
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Sour pork rib soup. I think Jor Pak Pung. Ceylon spinach in tamarind soup with cut pork ribs.
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The kitchen is tiny.
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The shelves on the way to the rest room are loaded with Thai products.
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See!
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And the bathroom includes its own glamorous strapped water heater — clearly not going anywhere!

Overall, this place is legit. Not your suburban strip-mall Thai by any means. Eating here on the tiny plastic stools makes you think of a little hangout in Chiang Mai. Nearly every dish is $7. Very unusual flavors, and quite spicy, but if you can handle all that well worth the trip.

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After, we felt we needed some authentic Thai desserts to quench the burn.
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Inside this crowded shop.
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Pandan pudding being made fresh.
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Pandan custard pudding. Super thick, creamy, mild in flavor but hit the spot.
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Ultra light crispy crepes with coconut cream (crispy) and either yellow mango (sweet) or curry (orange)
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Taro cakes.
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Mystery in a banana leaf.
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Cookies.
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Delicious hot fried rice and coconut balls.
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All sorts of yummy stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
  2. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  3. Thai Tour – Sri Siam
  4. Thai Tour – Night+Market Song
  5. I Luv2Eat
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: AFF, Amphai, Asian Food Friday, curry, Fish sauce, lunch, spicy, Thai cuisine, Thai Food Club, Thai Town

White Elephant is Pretty White

Jan15

Restaurant: White Elephant

Location: 759 Huntingdon Pike, Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006. (215) 663-1495

Date: November 26, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Fine, but “Americanized” Thai

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This year for ThanksGavin 2019 we arrived a day early in Philadelphia and so went out locally with my parents and Aunt & Uncle to:
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White Elephant, a nearby strip mall Thai.
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They have nicely decorated the fairly boring space. No Thai (language) on the menu!

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Some kind of lobster roll.

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Crispy Roll. Filled with pork, bean thread, and julienne vegetables, then fried until crispy golden brown, and served with sweet and sour sauce.

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Coconut Soup. Seafood combination in coconut milk , with galanga, lime juice, mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery and red bell peppers.

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Mushroom Soup. Thai style fresh mushroom soup with herb and Marsala wine.
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Chicken tenders and fries for the boy.
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Thai Eggplant. Thai sweet eggplant sautéed until brown and stir fried with chicken, onion, carrot, broccoli, red bell pepper, basil and aromatic herbs.

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Seafood Lover. Sautéed seafood medley of salmon, calamari, shrimp, scallop, and green shell mussels, with, Thai basil, onion, broccoli, carrot and red bell pepper in delicious and spicy sauce.
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Sweet Surrender. Fillet of salmon crusted with pecan and baked to perfection, served with mellow apricot brandy sauce.

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Chicken Panang Curry. Chicken cooked in a traditional delicious Panang curry sauce with coconut milk, broccoli, red bell pepper and green beans….Chicken/Beef.

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Chu Chee Duck. Crispy roasted semi-boneless duck, served in a special red curry sauce flavored with pineapple.

Overall, this was tasty because Thai is always tasty — but it was pretty “whitebread” as you would expect from a Philly suburb strip mall. No Thai on the menu, spice and flavors toned down a bit.

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For more Philly dining reviews click here.

More ThanksGavin events here.

Related posts:

  1. Elephant Jumps
  2. Quick Eats – Summer Buffalo
  3. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  4. Quick Eats – Tara’s Himalayan
  5. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, Philadelphia, Thai cuisine, ThanksGavin, ThanksGavin 2018

Thai Tour – Jitlada

Jun23

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: May 23, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

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Our final stop on the April/May 2019 Thai Tour is Hedonist regular joint, Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong.

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce. The menu can be found here.

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After a few minutes of table juggling we managed to squeeze ourselves in — this isn’t the kind of place that normally deals with 10 person tables that well.
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This is my cryptic ordering plan. I carefully laid out a phased dish progression and then owner Jazz put it all in the computer and it all came super fast and in random order — plus we had just enough people that one dish was hard to split. Ideal number at Jitlada is probably 6.
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Pepper pork belly. Really tasty chewy pork belly bits with super yummy spicy sauce.
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Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.
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Pomelo salad. Shrimp, pomelo, onions, peanuts, garlic. This salty, spicy, sweet, savory salad was fabulous. Really Thai mix of tones.
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Garlic lamb chops. Incredible crunchy garlic on these chops. It was to die for. I kept eating the piles of it left over.
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Chicken Larb. Ground chicken with spices, fish sauce, etc. Pretty hot too and salty/vinegary. Not my absolute favorite Jitlada dish.
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Soft-shell crab noodles. Fried soft-shell crab (in season) with pan fried sweet noodles. Unusual combo, but massively delicious.
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Red Duck Curry. Not spicy but incredibly delicious.
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Spicy duck salad or maybe this was Celebrity Chicken. Never had this before but it was great!
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Basil frogs legs. Delicious and full of basil and garlic flavor. Bones weren’t offensive either.

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Flambe Prawns. Grilled giant prawns topped with our house curry sauce. These are amazing. The sweet curry sauce is just full of curry flavor goodness.

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Papaya prawns. Like the curry prawns but drowned in papaya.
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Garlic and/or Coconut king crab. Hard to get the meat out, and a touch expensive, but really delicious sauce.
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Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor. Tons of tamarind giving it a really balanced sour tone.
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Jungle curry with lamb. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it besides the lamb. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous. The heat was insane. Slow burn, such that you started in on it and thought it would be fine, but then building to a head-sweating mind-altering gut-burning sear. Took me hours to recover!
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Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. The flavors were fabulous. We were VERY full at this point and the burger is spicy too.
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Nocciola Espresso Caramello Gelato — A classic nocciola base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste and then layered with a house-made Espresso Caramel Ganache then topped with fresh roasted hazelnuts — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #hazelnut #ganache #dulcy #ChocolateTruffle #nocciola #caramel #caramello

Sicilian Tiramisu Gelato –attempting to reinvent Tiramisu with Sicilian flavors: Pure DOGC “Bronte” pistachio paste gelato base with lady fingers soaked in house-made orange syrup and layered with house-made “cannoli filling” (sweetened fresh ricotta with cinnamon and mini dark chocolate chips) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this one will be a test of concept: too much? –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistachio #sicily #ricotta #chocolate #orange #ladyfingers #tiramisu
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Mango with sticky rice. So full but this is so delicious!
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Yarom with Jazz.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. Tonight’s meal was one of the best we had, despite the absence of the original chef in the kitchen 🙁  We had 8-9 people which is just about 2 more than the dish size is best with. Once we had way too many people and and some late comers that botched the whole progression. The food was really on point tonight, and just two days after Night + Market Song showcased the delicious complexity of Jitlada’s flavors. Jitlada is a food restaurant though, and not a service restaurant. I mean, they are SUPER friendly and we love them, but the dishes just pop out in random order and speed.

Tonight we ordered very well. Every dish was very good, most great. We had a pretty nice variety. Sure, there are favorites we missed, the menu is vast, but it was a great meal. Jazz hung out with us for a chunk of it and helped us order. The kitchen was really on point too with some dishes that have a little variability all coming down on the awesome side tonight.

Not super spicy either, only the jungle curry busting the 5 or 6 line (it was a 9, even on the weighted Jitlada scale of blistering heat — although I painfully have had it hotter before).

All in all, if you like Thai food and live (or visit) in LA you must try Jitlada.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

Great wines tonight too:7U1A1897
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Related posts:

  1. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
  2. Thai Tour – Sri Siam
  3. Thai Tour – Night+Market Song
  4. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  5. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, Jazz Singsanong, Jitlada, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Wine

Thai Tour – Night+Market Song

Jun19

Restaurant: Night + Market Song

Location: 3322 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026. (323) 665-5899

Date: May 21, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Good and spicy

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Our Thai Town Tour continues with this 5th location (my 4th). While I’ve been to Might + Market + Sahm I have long wanted to try this one.

Kris Yenbamroong is the 33 year-old chef and owner of NIGHT + MARKET restaurants. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Chef Kris has no formal culinary training — but grew up in his family-owned restaurant, Talesai. He attended New York University and graduated with a degree in film. If NIGHT + MARKET restaurants were to have a mission statement, it would read as follows: “We aim to make the most delicious and authentic Thai food to facilitate drinking and fun-having amongst friends.” There is a term for this in Thai: “aharn glam lao.”
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Located in Silverlake on Sunset, not exactly in Thai Town but in the heart of Hipster-ville.
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Which is a good thing considering how incredibly hipster the interior is — and the place was mobbed with a huge line gathered before our 8pm start and all through our tenure. They are definitely busy.
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We had a special large party reservation and a set menu (we chose the largest set menu).
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Hey-ha party wings. Party wings sweet and a little salty. These were some perfect chicken wings. As they describe it, sweet and a little salty, hot and a lot savory.
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Moo Sadoong. Grilled pork, basil, lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce, lime, chili, onions, cilantro. Everything here has cilantro — which I love — but I pity the fools (no offense, just making a Mr. T joke) who think it tastes like soap. This was a great dish also. Lots of porky flavor.
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Sai Uah. Homemade spicy pork sausage served with nam prik noom (aka “thai salsa”) and cucumber. Solid Thai sausage, but not as strong as the first two dishes.
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Sticky Coconut Rice.
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I’m trying to avoid carbs but I do love this coconut milk sweetened rice. Great texture too.
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Nam Khao Tod. Crispy Rice Salad with soured pork, raw ginger, onion, peanuts, cilantro (of course), and chili. Really nice texture. Crispy/crunchy. Tons of salty spicy flavor.
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Beef (I think) with cilantro. This was an extra brought for those who were avoiding carbs.
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Som Tum. Green papaya salad with green beans, tomatoes, palm sugar, peanuts, lime juice, and chili. FIne, but on the “duller” side as Thai dishes go.
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Larg Gai. Minced chicken, lime, fish sauce, rice powder, chili, cilantro (again), and onion. Salty, hot, and savory. The chicken version can be a touch dry.
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Hot Pot Tom Khar Soup. Skin-on chicken, coconut milk broth, galangal, lemongrass, cilantro (no duh), onion, chili, lime leaves, mushrooms, hot and sour! Awesome soup. Super, super delicious. I had like 5 bowls. Very spicy too. Fabulous mix of flavors.
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Garlic Green Beans. Sautéed with garlic, soy sauce, and white pepper. Very Chinese!
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Uni Fried Rice. I liked that there was also the salmon row, nice and briny. Cilantro of course.
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Kao Pad Pu. Crab fried rice, served with lime wedge and fish sauce with diced chili (and a bit of cilantro garnish). Nice fried rice, but weird that we had 3 rice courses AND noodles.
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Pad Thai. Market version with sweet radish, tofu, egg, crushed peanuts, and chili powder. Great pad Thai.
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Brought by and made by me:

Nocciola Espresso Caramello Gelato — A classic nocciola base made with Pure PGI Piedmont hazelnut paste and then layered with a house-made Espresso Caramel Ganache then topped with fresh roasted hazelnuts — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #hazelnut #ganache #dulcy #ChocolateTruffle #nocciola #caramel #caramello

Sicilian Tiramisu Gelato –attempting to reinvent Tiramisu with Sicilian flavors: Pure DOGC “Bronte” pistachio paste gelato base with lady fingers soaked in house-made orange syrup and layered with house-made “cannoli filling” (sweetened fresh ricotta with cinnamon and mini dark chocolate chips) — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — this one will be a test of concept: too much? –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pistachio #sicily #ricotta #chocolate #orange #ladyfingers #tiramisu

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1998 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo. 97 points. Saturated dark ruby. Nose like a fruit essence: blackberry and blueberry liqueur, licorice, pepper, Provencal herbs, and hints of more exotic fruits. A wine of extreme unctuousity, virtually too large for the mouth. Suggestion of marc, but with sappy fruits and great solid underlying structure. The tannins saturate the palate on the peppery finish. Very much in the style of Bonneau rarely made Cuvee Speciale. This wine took nearly two years to finish fermenting. Paul Feraud told me he feared that the alcohol would burn, that there would be too much residual sugar, and that the wine would show signs of premature oxidation. But in fact this headspinner (and I mean that in the purest, Linda Blair sense) boasts great surmaturite without quite descending into madness.

Most of the wine is lumped in below, but I have to call out the Cuvee da Capo — which while being swamped out by the heat of the night, was still a stunning stunning CNdP and extremely generous for a Thai meal.

 

Overall, Night + Market Song was great. They treated us really well, particularly given how crowded it was. They allowed our wine. Food did come out a bit fast. Ingredients are very fresh and flavors are strong but a touch simplified. Less sweetness and fish-sauce notes than some of the places with a more Thai audience (it’s pretty hipster in here). Everything is quite spicy (I like that). But fairly relentless.

The menu balance with the large party set menu is really weird though. A bunch of salads, 4 types of rice, and a noodle dish. No curries! No Khao Soi (which I love). It’s pretty carb heavy. I don’t know if these are just crowd pleasers or they are keeping the cost of the menu down. I love curries, so I was quite disappointed in this — but it’s really my only complaint about the evening.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
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Related posts:

  1. Thai Tour – Sri Siam
  2. Thai Tour – Pailin Thai
  3. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  4. Night + Market + Sahm
  5. Szechuan Impression Tustin
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, Gelato, hedonists, hipster, Night + Market, Night + Market Song, Silverlake, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Thai Town, Wine

Thai Tour – Pailin Thai

Jun12

Restaurant: Pailin Thai

Location: 5621 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028. (323) 467-7715

Date: May 13, 2019 & June 29, 2021

Cuisine: Northern Thai cuisine

Rating: Great Northern Thai — highly recommended

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So the Hedonist Thai Tour continues with this fourth stop (3rd for me) at well known:
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Pailin Thai — in Thai Town of course, a slightly better part of it too.
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The interior is still very mom and pop — and small — but there is actually a bit of decor.
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The husband runs the front and the wife the back — and they were mobbed, leading to slow initial food production rates. But they more than made up for it in quality.
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The menu.
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Pork Satay. Grilled marinated pork marinated in thai herb and coconut milk. Served with peanut sauce and cucumber salad.

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Fried Chicken. Winston LOVES this fried chicken — and it was very good — and very fried.
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Northern Style Sausage. Full of flavor.
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A different Style Sausage. Even moister, almost like the crocodile sausage I had last year.
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Spicy shrimp ball. In sweet and sour sauce. I loved these little fellows.
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Pork Larb (6/29/21) — delicious with great balance and lots of limey acidity.
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Larb tod. I had assumed this was like normal larb, but no it’s deep fried larb! Pretty awesome actually.
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Cucumber Salad (6/29/21) — sweet and tangy.
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Roast Duck Salad. With lemon grass, mint leaves, onion, and curry paste.
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Pork Jerky (6/29/21) — incredible flavor and soft texture.
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Beef Jerky (6/29/21) — chewier than the pork.
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Chicken Feet Salad  (6/29/21) – a bit warm, nice texture and flavor.

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Raw marinated shrimp. Really juicy slow marinated shrimp with a spicy green chili sauce.
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Raw marinated Thai blue crab. Same prep as the shrimp above, but with crab. A bit similar to Korean raw crab, and just as delicious. You have to crunch through the shells and suck out the meat.
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Beef tendon soup. A delicious savory and sour beef soup.

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Papaya salad.
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Khao Soi. The traditional Northern style egg noodle chicken curry “soup.” I love this dish and order it whenever I see it. Love it. Love it.
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Manilla Clam Curry Paste. Pretty much clams in Thai basil. Delicious sauce. Lots of flavor.

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Spicy frog leg curry. Yummy yummy, kermit in my tummy.
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Tom yum goon. Shrimp with mushroom in hot, spicy, and sour soup. We couldn’t resist.

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Seafood Soup (6/29/21) — Tom Yum with all sorts of seafood.
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Pad see ew. Pan fried rice noodles with egg, black soy sauce.
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Napa cabbage pork. Just like in Europe, pork and cabbage seems common in the east — like in China too. It’s delicious either way. Nice crispy texture on the pork.
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Green curry with beef. Delicious too. Not as killer hot as Jitlada.
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Roast Duck Curry (6/29/21).

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Prog pow squid with Thai curry, onion and chili.
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Glass Noodles with Beef (6/29/21).
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Crispy Pork Belly with Stir Fried Veggies (6/29/21).
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Preserved Egg Stir Fry (6/29/21).
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Egg Plant with Pork Stir Fry (6/29/21).

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They have bags of house-made crispy chicken and pork skins you can take out or use to top your food.

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Crispy chicken skins. Salty and delicious little snacks.
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Some gelato by me:

It doesn’t even look like a gelato, but trust me it is — Almond Amaretto Truffle Gelato — Amaretto Zabaglione (egg yolk, amaretto, and sugar custard) Sicilian Almond gelato base with stacked layers of house-made Valrhona Almond Amaretti Ganache — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato –#SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #Valrhona #almond #amaretto #amaretti #cookie #ganache #ChocolateTruffle

Pineapple Ginger Sorbetto — Fresh Pineapple infused with Fresh Ginger — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — nice little ginger ale like kick — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #pineapple #ginger #GingerBeer #sorbetto

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Burnt Basque Cheesecake Gelato — Milk steeped with Tahitian Vanilla Beans and Valencia Orange Peels and then blended with Cream-cheese and Egg Yolks, layered with house made “burnt” Caramel and topped with house-made Caramel Brittle, finished with the torch! — created by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #nomnom #dessertlovers #dessertporn #icecreamlovers #gelatoitaliano #foodporn #gelatolover #food #foodgasm #foodblogger #dessertgasm #desserttime #foodphotography #gelatoartigianale #gelatomania #dessertlover #icecream #icecreamlovers #basque #cheesecake #caramel #brittle #orange

Overall, Pailin Thai was one of the best places on our Thai Tour. Writing about it after all 6 (5 for me) I thought it was maybe tied with Jitlada, and the best of all the new Northern Thai places we tried in this set. It was super tasty with a wide variety of dish styles, consistent winning execution, friendly (if somewhat slow) service, mom & pop atmosphere with a touch of style, and loads of interesting unique dishes like the raw crab and shrimp.

Our second visit (6/29/21) confirmed that Pailin is a great place. Nearly every dish was fantastic. Tons of variety and flavor. This is a but cut above above average and one of the best Thai places I’ve been.

Highly recommended.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
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Related posts:

  1. Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ
  2. Thai Tour – Sri Siam
  3. Szechuan Impression Tustin
  4. SGV Nights – Seafood Palace
  5. Elephant Jumps
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, curry, Gelato, hedonists, Pailin Thai, spicy, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour

Thai Tour – Spicy BBQ

Jun03

Restaurant: Spicy BBQ

Location: 5101 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90029. (323) 663-4211

Date: April 29, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Great Thai

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This is the third stop on our great spring Thai Tour, although only the second I’ve been able to attend (the first being Sri Siam). Yarom set this in motion a couple months ago by deciding to hit up most of the top 10 recommended authentic Thai places in LA we HADN’T been to.
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Spicy BBQ comes highly recommended. It’s a tiny place.
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In a mini-mall on Santa Monica Blvd at the Thai Town / Little Armenia border. Just a touch scary.
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They have a taste for amusing signs.
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And a definitely mom and pop shop interior!
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Plus mangos ever at the ready.
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The menu.
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My notes. Gotta have an ordering plan!
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Fried chicken wontons. Deep fried wontons stuffed with ground chicken. Surprisingly delicious insides.
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Fried Tofu. Deep fried tofu with sweet and sour dipping sauce. Not bad either for something so simple.
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Papaya salad with grilled shrimp. We had to order a side car of extra shrimp to get around the table. The salad was a bit spicy actually and quite delicious.
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Ground pork with chili paste. A “dip” of ground pork and spices. You use the veggies to lever it up.
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Spicy and Sour Curry with chicken. Interesting and different curry.
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Spicy Mint Leaves Beef. Delicious, with a lot of flavor.
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Northern Thai Sausage. Soft and salty.
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Pad Kee Mao Shrimp. Pan fried big flat noodles with bell pepper and basil in spicy sauce with succulent shrimp.
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Tom Yum Chicken. Spicy and sour soup made with lemon grass, mushroom, onion, and celery. Delicious!
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Northern Thai Egg Noodle. Khao soi. With the pickles.
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Close up of the curry. I just love this dish. I’m a curry junkie.
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Spicy Coconut Seafood. Really nice flavor.
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BBQ Beef Spareribs. Tender with good flavor.
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Pork Larb. Stir fried ground pork salad with lemon grass and Northern Thai spices.
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Spicy BBQ Pork. The porky version of above. Still pretty tender.
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Thai Peanut Coconut Lime Chili Gelato — Try 2 — Salty peanuts, Thai coconut, lime zest, and serrano chillies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — the last batch was too spicy so this one has no chilie in the base itself — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #chili #spicy #thai #peanut #coconut #lime #SavorySweet #Serrano
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Lol.

Spicy BBQ was very tasty. Small place, low key, small menu, but almost all the dishes were excellent. Not as exotic as some places, but they did a nice job.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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Related posts:

  1. Thai Tour – Sri Siam
  2. Elephant Jumps
  3. Spicy City!
  4. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  5. Renu Nakorn
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, curry, Gelato, hedonists, spicy, Spicy BBQ, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour

Thai Tour – Sri Siam

Mar11

Restaurant: Sri Siam Cafe

Location: 12843 Vanowen St, North Hollywood, CA 91605. (818) 982-6262

Date: February 11, 2019

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: First rate Thai

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Yarom has been scheduling a whole long series of Thai Mondays this spring — and you all know how much I love Thai food. I unfortunately couldn’t make the first one at Sapp, but I slogged out to North Hollywood for Sri Siam (which I had tried to go to before but failed).
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Very casual storefront.
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This is not exactly the loveliest neighborhood — check out the laundry-mat.
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And the unassuming entrance.
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Inside is bright and cheery though.
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Crispy Rice Salad. This might be carby, but it was scrumptious. Nice texture and great flavor. There is crispy rice in there too.
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Chicken Satay. Broiled marinated chicken skewer served with toast, cucumber relish & peanut sauce. This particular version came with a great little mini BBQ you could use to sear your own satay on. The cucumber salad was fabulous too, sweet and tangy.
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Spicy Grilled Salad. Pork with shredded green apple, lemon grass, onion & mint leaves in spicy lime dressing. Great flavor and nice crunchy/chewy texture.
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Miang Pla Too. Fried Macherel herb salad served with romaine and cilantro. Extremely polarizing dish. I loved it for the salty/fishy chew of the fish and the complex herb flavor. The Mayberry types at the table hated it.
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Dried Fish Cake. Seasoned curry paste, fried ground fish and green bean patties. A bit contentious at the table for the spongy/chewy texture. I thought they were fine, but not super exciting.
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Tom Yum Koong. Coconut milk chicken soup with lemongrass, galangal root & lime juice. I love this rich savory and slightly spicy soup. It has all sorts of savory/sour flavors going on. Sebastian complained that I got the one with the coconut milk because he’s watching his girlish figure — but everyone else at the table loved it.
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Prawns with glass noodles. A lovely special dish with tasty tender giant prawns.
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Pad See Mao. Shrimp, pan fried noodle w/ chili, garlic, and basil.
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Khao Soy. Curry soup with chicken and egg noodle. Plus those interesting pickle condiments.
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I love this dish and with a bit of the chili oil it can be pretty hot!
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Sri Siam Spicy Ribs. Fried spicy pickled pork spareribs. A bit chewy, but tons of flavor.
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Duck larb. No dish was as polarizing as this sauté of duck meat with red onion, cilantro, and chilies. The meat was very chewy and had a strong fish sauce flavor. I happened to love it because it was so intense and flavorful. Again, the wusses differed.
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Spicy Basil Beef. Stir-fried basil leaves, garlic & chili with beef. Also a bit chewy. This place is small and they don’t use the highest quality meat in the universe.
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Green Curry with Chicken. Green curry in coconut milk, bamboo shoots, Thai eggplant and basil. Other people had forced me to tone down the spice of most dishes but this one I got hot — which meant it was “acceptable” 🙂
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By special birthday request — Gorgonzola Fig Walnut Gelato — Gorgonzola Dulce base with Fig Jam and Candied Walnuts! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #gorgonzola #fig #walnut #SavorySweet

Another new flavor, but continuing my Sicilian theme — Pistachio Almond Lemon Gelato — base made with a 50/50 blend of Pistachios from Bronte Sicily and Noto Almonds, plus Sicilian candied lemon! — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — oh my! — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #IceCream #NomNom #dessert #Pistachio #Almond #lemon #sicily

Overall, the food at Sri Siam was great. The place is cute and friendly and this is a somewhat different style of Thai than Jitlada. The menu is big but not quite as vast and they seem to make things for Thai taste (with fish sauce). It isn’t super hot though by my standards.

The servers were very nice and she put up with my “flighted” ordering (where I put in 3ish dishes at a time so as not to have them all arrive at once). She a couple times warned me off of several “too Thai” dishes that again I would have liked — as would Yarom and some of the more “seasoned” eaters — but the riff raff would have found “weird.” Still, I got a couple like the duck and the mackerel.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
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From my cellar.
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I thought both these wines were wretched over extracted messes.
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Number two.
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This was murky, but actually pretty tasty — one of the best of the night.
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Related posts:

  1. Hedonists in Vegas – Lotus of Siam
  2. Elephant Jumps
  3. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  4. Renu Nakorn
  5. Night + Market + Sahm
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: BYOG, curry, Gelato, hedonists, satay, spicy, Sri Siam, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Wine

I Luv2Eat

Aug11

Restaurant: Luv2Eat

Location: 6660 Sunset Boulevard P, Los Angeles, CA 90028.  (323) 498-5835

Date: June 26, 2018

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Awesome LA Thai

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Luv2Eat has been on my “to eat” list for years — largely because people said they had to die for crab curry — but given that it’s at the other end of the city it took me a long time to fit it in.

But now I have. It’s located on Sunset in a mini-mall not far from Jitlada.

Clearly the Chef’s are Fern and Pla. Apparently, like me they Luv2Eat!

The inside is recently done, but fairly “minimal.” Definitely has a lunch feel.

The menu is big, but not nearly as big as the tome at Jitlada. I think this is more Northern focused too.

Tasty spring rolls.

Papaya salad with shrimp. Always a great sweet/tangy flavor.


The much lauded Phuket Crab Curry. You eat it in a bowl with the accouterments in the rear.

So as you can see in this curry close-up, it’s a rich yellow coconut milk based curry. The crab shell was impossible to break into, but that didn’t matter as the meat had pretty much all cooked out.

You put this stuff (noodles and some herbs and veggies) in your bowl and then add the curry on top. Makes a nice curry noodle soup. Delicious light coconut flavors. A good bit of heat (at medium) but not overwhelming.


Pineapple Duck Curry. Another favorite curry of mine, the red curry based slightly sweet duck curry. A solid version but maybe not as good as at Jitlada.

Jade noodle with pork belly, roast pork, and more. Quite pleasant in flavor. A bit reminiscent of the Vietnamese noodles commonly found in central Vietnam.

Crying Tiger Beef. The classic Thai marinated beef. Very tasty.

Unfortunately, they were out of khao soi which is one of my favorite Thai dishes and a northern speciality. But this was some very good Thai at great prices. Bright and on the lighter side as it goes. And they can get very spicy on request (as I like it). I probably prefer Jitlada’s more “intense”, richer style, but Luv2Eat is a really solid lunch option and I want to go back and try more.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Lum Ka Naad
  2. Quick Eats – Summer Buffalo
  3. Night + Market + Sahm
  4. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  5. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, lunch, Luv2Eat, Thai, Thai cuisine, Thai Town

Night + Market + Sahm

May28

Restaurant: NIGHT + MARKET Sahm

Location: 2533 Lincoln Blvd, Venice, CA 90291. (310) 301-0333

Date: April 21 & November 8, 2018

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Good food, long lines, hipster clientelle

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I’ve been meaning to try Night + Market for years — since they opened — but I never made it out to the Hollywood location.

So it’s great they opened one here in Venice, just a block from my friend Avi’s awesome Indian restaurant, Akbar.

The interior is like the fantasy of a kitchy beach Thai restaurant in Thailand. And in fact it is a beach Thai restaurant, just not in Thailand. But they certainly didn’t pull out the big bucks for all the plastic beads and Christmas lights. We waited about 45-50 minutes and we were fairly lucky, it looked like some people would be waiting easily over an hour.

The seating is very casual as well.

The menu is also formatted like a real Thai place, although the specific dishes are definitely California interesting.

There is only one beer on the menu, and they seem to be pushing wine — unusual for Thai.

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Papaya salad. A bit spicy. Light and delicious.
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World famous fried chicken sandwich. Chiengrai-style fried chicken thigh, papaya slaw, home-made ranch dressing, jalapeno, cilantro, tomato. Like a high(er) end Thai McDonald’s fried chicken sandwich! Haha.

Larb gai. Minced chicken, lime, fish sauce, rice powder, chili, cilantro, onion, spicy!

Classic spicy, salty, tangy, larb.

Coconut sticky rice. I love this

P.D.P. Peking Duck Pizza. Roast duck, garlic ginger hoisin, marinated shitake mushrooms, and mozzarella on grilled roti bread topped with green onion, sambal, and wonton chips.

Pork toro. Grilled fatty pig neck, salty like bacon, served with spicy ‘jaew’ northeastern chili dip. Chewy pork meat with that fat and tendon thing. Very tasty though.

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Pastrami pad kee mao. Spicy drunken noodles with decadent Langer’s pastrami. Spicy! This was a fabulous combo of the pan fried rice noodles and the pastrami. Those green round things are pepper corns and VERY spicy. Great dish.

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Khao soi rib. Mae sai curried noodles with pork spare ribs. I love Khao soi as it combines two of my favorite things: noodles and curry. This one was late (I think the server forgot it) but worth it. Nicely spicy, with lots of flavor. More a yellow curry than a red one.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Night + Market. Maybe not the wait out front, which was, for what it was, handled excellently, but certainly the food. It was pretty loud in there with lots of young Venice hipsters. Food was really tasty. Quite spicy. Certainly the best Thai I’ve had on the westside. I wish they were open at lunch. Might not be too bad on a weekday night though, hard to tell. But they don’t take reservations and it’s so loud, so would be hard to do a wine dinner there.

They are now open for lunch — which is great. I’ll have to go more often. Could even do at the end of one of my bike rides.

Also as a side note, testing out the iPhone X using Lightroom Mobile and raw to try to get better photos out of it — of course not nearly as good as my big Canon. Some of the daytime photos (from November) were on the iPhone XS (considerably better camera).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Market Ramen
  2. ThanksGavin 2011 – The Italian Market
  3. Renu Nakorn
  4. Late Night Medicine
  5. Collar the Market — OOToro
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: beer, curry, Night + Market + Sahm, spicy, Thai cuisine

Eating Cairns – Tamarind

Feb09

Restaurant: Tamarind

Location: 35-41 Wharf St, Cairns City QLD 4870, Australia. +61 7 4030 8897

Date: December 22, 2017

Cuisine: Thai Fine Dining

Rating: Very good

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Tamarind is a casino restaurant in Cairns that is high end Thai-fusion fine dining.

Only that particular combination and the fact that they also had regular pasta (for our son) convinced my family to go — lucky for me.





Long menu.

An amuse of tomato soup.

Fruity cocktail.

A kind of alcoholic “ice tea.”

Tamarind Taster Plate with, left to right:

Pan Seared Scallops. Butternut anglaise, dried wakame, bacon crumb and pickled fig.

Tempura Zucchini Flowers. Pernod gel, ricotta emulsion, macerated currents, and salsa verde.

Gin and tonic Salmon. Blueberry, cucumber gel, feta cream, squid ink glass.

Watermelon Salad. Pink-ginger, watermelon, snow pea, and ponzu dressing.

Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese.

Beetroot Risotto. Goats chese croquette, roof top greens.

Penang Duck Curry. Caramelized pumpkin, roasted peanuts, chili, coriander, with scented rice.

A close up of the curry. This was actually a fabulous curry. Sweet rather than spicy but intensely flavored, rich, and sumptuous.

Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce.

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Above the great barrier reef

I’m glad we managed to get to Tamarind. It was one of my favorite dinners, particularly because the duck curry was so good and I love even a bad Thai curry — and this was a delicious one.

For more Australia dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eating Cairns – Fusion Art
  2. Eating Sydney – Salt Meats Cheese
  3. Eating Sydney – Oyster Bar
  4. Eating Sydney – Quay & Co
  5. Eating Sydney – Leura Gourmet
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Australia, Cairns, eating-australia, Tamarind, Thai cuisine

Jazz Jitlada

Dec15

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: November 9, 2017

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

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Tonight’s outing is a Hedonist return to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong, and just last month her brother, partner, and chef tragically passed away. We came to pay our respects (and enjoy some excellent Thai cooking).

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce. The menu can be found here.

2010 Domaine Louis Michel Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre. BH 93. Here the components of the nose are similar to those of the Fourchaume yet here it is notably more floral. There is impressive complexity to the dense, rich and concentrated flavors that offer plenty of oyster shell and iodine hints on the balanced and stunningly persistent bone dry finish. This is really lovely juice and well worth your attention.

Papaya salad. Solid, but not as yummy as the fried one below.

2013 Domaine Michelot Meursault Sous La Velle. VM 90. Ripe yellow peach aroma shows an almost syrupy aspect. Suave and silky in texture, with fruit-driven flavors of peach and orange. The crop level here was “almost normal” in 2013, noted Mestre. This is very good. (Incidentally, the Bourgogne here, which is entirely from vines in Meursault, is dry, savory and classic, even if it’s more Chardonnay than Meursault.)

Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.

2006 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Felsentürmchen Spätlese. JG 94. To my knowledge the first time that Helmut Dönnhoff bottled this section of the Felsenberg on its own was in 2001, when this upper section of the vineyard supplied the auction Spätlese from the vintage. The 2006 will again be a magical bottle, as the wine offers up very primary nose of lavender, a huge base of stony soil tones, white cherries, oranges, petrol, iris blooms and an exotic spice note redolent of turmeric. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, pure, minerally and very racy, with more solid than liquid at the core, great cut and structure, and a blazingly long, palate-staining finish. A brilliant Spätlese! (Drink between 2012-2035)

Pepper pork belly. Really tasty chewy pork belly bits with super yummy spicy sauce.

2007 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese. VM 93+. Tantalizing aromas of papaya, sweet herbs and incense. Discreet but intense black cherry fruit rises from the mid-palate, accompanied by brilliant acidity. Animated and finely spiced, with a deep, long finish. I may be underrating this.

Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor. Tons of tamarind giving it a really balanced sour tone.

2006 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. JG 93. To my palate the auction Auslese from the Sonnenuhr was a significant step up from the Spätlese, and this was indeed a delightful wine in the making. The classy nose demonstrated a sophisticated glazing of botrytis, as it jumped from the glass in a blend of apple, pear, bee pollen, slate, incipient notes of petrol and spring flowers. On the palate the wine is medium-full, complex and beautifully glazed with botrytis, with a lovely, glossy attack, a fine core of fruit, and a very long, crisp and ethereal finish.

Flambe Prawns. Grilled giant prawns topped with our house curry sauce. These are amazing. The sweet curry sauce is just full of curry flavor goodness.

2011 Ovid Syrah.

2015 Robert Mondavi Winery Pinot Noir Pommard Clone. Yuck! Didn’t taste like pinot.

Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. The flavors were fabulous.

White rice in the tin of mysterious lightness.

Red Duck Curry. Not spicy but incredibly delicious.

2004 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. Selbach is such an elegant house, consistently producing kabinetten and spatlesen that are light, airy and elegant. This spatlese showed some of the reserve of the 2004 vintage, with less expressive fruit. The wine was nonetheless balanced, with a significant honey/honeydew/orange zest and general citrus overlay. While the wine has some development left, I did not find enough expression of more complex flavors at this stage to rate it higher.

Yellow pork curry. Saffron or turmeric taste. Again mild and delicious.

From my cellar: 2008 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Heimbourg Sélection de Grains Nobles. VM 98. Medium gold. Utterly captivating nose melds bitter orange peel, apricot, wildflower honey and minerals. Thick, tactile and extremely young, with powerful acidity giving it a slightly disjointed character initially. For all its huge density, there’s great cut to the flavors of apricot, honey and flowers, with the wine’s powerful sweetness leavened by a savory element. Finishes with palate-staining fruit, outstanding energy and uncanny persistence. This came together brilliantly with aeration, maintaining great refinement and a sensation of weightlessness. Will go on for decades.

Jungle curry with lamb. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous. The heat was insane. Slow burn, such that you started in on it and thought it would be fine, but then building to a head-sweating mind-altering gut-burning sear. Took me 6-8 hours to recover from a relatively small portion!

1988 Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer Altenberg de Bergheim Sélection de Grains Nobles. 92 points. Popped and poured, with cork crumbling and the wine poured in to a decanter. I think the air this ended up getting was most helpful. Beautiful sweet (but not overly so) stone fruits and spice on the nose. And an initial sweetness in the mouth that morphs in to a somewhat surprisingly much drier mid-palate. Complex with a good, but not as lingering finish as the very best Deiss SGNs can show.

Larb. Ground pork with spices, fish sauce, etc. Pretty hot too and salty/vinegary. Not my absolute favorite Jitlada dish.

Turmeric fried rice with chicken wings. Interesting!

Pad See Yew with chicken. Rich noodles, sweet and mild. I could barely taste anything after the jungle curry.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. Tonight’s meal was one of the best we had, despite the absence of the chef in the kitchen 🙁  We had only 7-8 people, which is about the max you can have here. Once we had way too many people and and some late comers that botched the whole progression.

Tonight we ordered very well. Every dish was very good, most great. We had a pretty nice progression. Sure, there are favorites we missed, the menu is vast, but it was a great meal. Jazz hung out with us for a chunk of it and helped us order. The kitchen was really on point too with some dishes that have a little variability all coming down on the awesome side tonight.

Not super spicy either, only the jungle curry busting the 5 or 6 line (it was an 11, even on the weighted Jitlada scale of blistering heat).

All in all, if you like Thai food and live (or visit) in LA you must try Jitlada.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

Related posts:

  1. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
  2. Jitlada Overkill
  3. Jitlada – 9 is Nice
  4. Hedonists at Jitlada
  5. Renu Nakorn
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, hedonists, Jitlada, spicy, Thai cuisine, Wine

Quick Eats – Summer Buffalo

Sep06

Restaurant: Summer Buffalo

Location: 7275 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046. (323) 938-8808

Date: July 11, 2017

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: My one dish was good

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I found this at random searching Yelp for lunch spots between appointments.

Funny name for a Thai place.

Cute and tiny.

But they have more hood than Ramen Roll did. sigh.

Thai iced tea. Mason jar trend!

Khao Soi. Chicken Curry Noodle. Northern Thai Yellow Curry, egg noodle, chicken. I prefer the red curry version of this dish, but this was still delicious — I do love coconut milk based curries. I still want to make a curry gelato.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  2. Quick Eats – Mondo Taco
  3. Quick Eats – Little Sister
  4. Quick Eats: Piccolo
  5. Quick Eats – AR Cucina
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, Summer Buffalo, Thai cuisine

Lum Ka Naad

Jun26

Restaurant: Lum Ka Naad

Location: 17644 Ventura Blvd, Encino, CA 91316. (818) 616-2338

Date: May 22, 2017 and January 20, 2019 and various

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Very good authentic Thai with a large menu

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My friend Larry and I were going to try some hole-in-the-wall highly rated Thai place deep in the valley but they were closed so we ended up here at this larger more established Ventura Blvd spot.

 The have Thai iced tea of course.
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Beef Satay. Nice.
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Duck Salad. Very salty, but tasty.

Pork salad. Kind of just a regular salad with spicy pork. Not exactly what I was looking for.

Tom Yum noodle soup. A noodle version of the classic sweet and sour Thai soup. Except the broth didn’t have the right flavor tone. I really like a good Tom Yum.

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Tom Kha Soup. Coconut milk and tamarind. Delicious. Way better than the no coconut version.
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Pickled bamboo with vermicelli noodles and vegetables. Very unusual flavor.

Crying tiger beef. This beef dish was great though. Very tender. Lots of flavor, particularly with the fish sauce.

Red curry with mixed seafood. The typical coconut curry. But it was very good. Nice and rich. Not particularly spicy but not overly sweet.
 A kind of special chicken curry. This was a little hot and had a nice complex flavor.
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Wrapped BBQ fish and sticky rice.
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Unusual flavor to the fish as well. Lots of char taste.
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Coconut sticky rice with mango. Delicious.

Overall, this was solid Thai. I’ve been around 10 times (often getting the same dishes though) and while it isn’t as good as the best Thai in LA like Jitlada or Pailin or Renu Nakorn this place has a big menu with both some Americanized stuff and a ton of authentic “unusual flavored” dishes. It’s way better than the generic lousy Americanized Thai places and is a solid B+ or A- (which is pretty good).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
  2. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  3. Jitlada – 9 is Nice
  4. Jitlada Overkill
  5. Renu Nakorn
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Lum Ka Naad, Thai cuisine

Jitlada – 9 is Nice

Sep09

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: September 6, 2016

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

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Tonight’s outing is a Hedonist return to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong with Chef Tui in the kitchen. The menu can be found here.

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce.

NV Herbert Beaufort Champagne Grand Cru Cuvée Marcellin Extra-Brut. 88 points. Lemony nose and citrusy palate. Small bubbles, but loses it’s fizziness quickly. Tasty.

Larb. Ground pork with spices, fish sauce, etc. Pretty hot too and very salty, but tasty.

Honey duck. This was pretty awesome, and we should have ordered more. The skin was crispy and sweet, the meat succulent.

Bone in!

2011 Dönnhoff Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Riesling Spätlese. VM 92. Delicately refined aromas of pineapple, quince and herbs. The refreshing palate offers a subtle interplay of ripe citrus fruits and salty minerality. A pure and expressive finish provides stature. I may be underrating this, but it’s certainly one of the great spatleses of the vintage.

Pumpkin frog legs. A pumpkin curry basically with frog’s legs. Poor kermit.

2011 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Riesling Spätlese. 92 points. This wine has come together in a beautiful manner. Its sweet but with bright acidity and good minerality.

Papaya salad. Solid, but not as yummy as the fried one.

From my cellar: 2002 Dr. Loosen Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese Goldkapsel Auction. 96 points. Balanced in all ways. Medium old. Medium sweetness. Medium yellow gold color. A really fine Spätlese.

Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor. Tons of tamarind giving it a really balanced sour tone.

2012 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl. VM 93. Pale straw-gold color. Deep aromas of white peach, white truffle and pear nectar. Wonderfully juicy and light on its feet, conveying a distinctly perfumed quality to its very pure citrus zest and floral flavors. The finish offers very good juicy grip, with lingering notes of orange and sweet spices. Delicious.

Jungle curry with lamb chops. Exotic thai curry with god knows what in it. This stuff was HOT and pretty fabulous. This is a brown curry. I actually like their super hot green curry better, but this is good too.

Garlic frog’s legs. Deep fried turmeric marinated frog legs with garlic.

Flambe Prawns. Grilled giant prawns topped with our house curry sauce. These are amazing. The sweet curry sauce is just full of curry flavor goodness.

1997 René Renou Bonnezeaux Cuvée Zenith. 97 Parker. Tasted four times over the last six months, the show-stopping 1997 Bonnezeaux Cuvee Zenith has gone from being massive, disjointed and difficult to assess, to being harmonious, intense, and sublime. Aromatically revealing spicy yellow fruits of exquisite ripeness, this is a medium-to-full-bodied, powerful, and explosive wine. Copious quantities of spicy bergamots, flowers, almonds, perfume, caramelized minerals, and tropical fruits can be found in its layered, velvety texture. Renou was somehow able to marry 1997’s awesome density and depth of fruit with virtually perfect levels of acidity, creating a blockbuster-sized wine of great equilibrium and freshness. Bravo! Projected maturity: now-2050+.

agavin: Our bottle was a tiny bit corked. Sad, because you could tell it was a great sweet wine under there.

Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.

Adrian Fog Pinot Noir Alexander Valley. Wines that don’t put their vintage on the front don’t get reviews.

Red Snapper Salad. deep fried snapper filets topped with cucumber and tomatoes in a spicy lime sauce. Super fried and super tasty. One of the yummiest fries ever. We ate all the crispy stuff at the bottom of the plate.

2003 Turley Petite Syrah Rattlesnake Ridge. VM 89. Potent, biting, but very good. Definitely mellowed by the second day. What I would expect from a PS but maybe not one 13 years old!

agavin: our bottle was badly corked.

Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. The flavors were fabulous.

Mango sticky rice with coconut ice cream. Awesome dessert, even though I was so full, I shoved three helpings down the gullet. This was as good a sticky rice as I’ve had. The rice is warm and the mango cool.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. Tonight’s meal redeemed the disaster we had last time (where we had way too many people and and some late comers that botched the whole progression).

Tonight we ordered very well. Every dish was very good, most great. We had a pretty nice progression. Sure, there are favorites we missed, and some types I would have liked more of (like a good green curry or something like the “sweet” lamb curry) but it was a great meal. Jazz hung out with us for a chunk of it and helped us order. The kitchen was really on point too with some dishes that have a little variability all coming down on the awesome side tonight.

Not super spicy either, only the jungle curry busting the 5 or 6 line (on the weighted Jitlada scale of blistering heat). Part of me would have liked some of the killer heat (like that amazing green curry) but this morning, writing this up with only very mild gut pain I’m thinking we made a sane choice.

All in all, if you like Thai food and live (or visit) in LA you must try Jitlada.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

T

Related posts:

  1. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
  2. Jitlada Overkill
  3. Hedonists at Jitlada
  4. Renu Nakorn
  5. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: hedonists, Jitlada, Thai cuisine

Pok Pok Raveneau

Feb01

Restaurant: Pok Pok LA

Location: 978 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90012. (213) 613-1831

Date: January 29, 2016

Cuisine: Northern Thai

Rating: Spicy & Good “high end” Thai

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Pok Pok is essentially a Northern Thai restaurant, but unlike most of it’s LA brethren, it’s fairly high end, with a real bar, some hipster cred, and a reputation that spans beyond the city. I came here with the Babykillers to enjoy and to open a whole mess of Grand Cru Raveneau!

It might be Thai, but it’s located in Chinatown.

The interior isn’t really fancy.

Tons of whiskey at the bar.

Peanuts with Thai basil and chili.
 Pandan water. Pretty good, makes you think of spa.

The menu.

Our Grand Cru Raveneau lineup.

2007 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 94. Here the nose is every bit as elegant if not more so but it’s distinctly cooler and somehow more distant yet the strong Chablis character is immediately evident as the nose is a classic combination of green fruit, warm stone, iodine and distilled extract of sea water and this intense saline quality continues onto the equally cool, brilliantly defined and stunningly well balanced flavors that are crystalline in their purity on the driving finish. This does a slow but steady build in intensity from the mid-palate on back and the length is flat out amazing.

2004 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 94. This is a much different and classically styled with an ultra pure nose of ripe but austere green fruit brimming with oyster shell and seawater notes that introduce elegant, pure and sweet flavors all wrapped in a beautifully balanced and wonderfully detailed finish that also displays some austerity. This is built on a base of pungent minerality and will require ample time to come around. A Chablis lovers Chablis.

Sai Ua Samun Phrai. Chiang Mai sausage with herbs. Burmese curry powder and aromatics. Grilled and served with Naam Phrik Num (spicy green chili dip). Really first rate sausage. Some kick to the green stuff too.
 Laap Thawat Isaan. Deep-fried Iasaan style spicy pork laap with lime leaf, kao khua, chilies, lime juice and herbs. Fried ground spiced pork — what isn’t to love.
 Neua Khwai Sawan. Deep-fried marinated dried buffalo with coriander seed and deep fried lime leaves. I’ve had this dish — but it’s usually beef or pork — and we call it “Thai Beef Jerky”. Here do they mean American Bison? Or Thai water buffalo? No idea. Still, it was the best “Thai Beef Jerky” I’ve had. Much more tender than usual.
 Phat Hoi Laai. Stir-fried manila clams with chilies, galangal, garlic, krachai, and Thai basil. Nice clams. Then I slurped down what I thought was basil — it was some kind of green Thai chili and was INSANELY hot. It burned my throat for like an hour. And this is from a guy who slurps down Szechuan Chili Oil at least once a week.

1999 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Burghound 90. I found this fascinating as Valmur is my favorite of the Chablis grands crus and is normally the most austere and understated of them all, yet this was positively “friendly” with its round, almost easy fruit and flavors and while there is certainly breed and class here, it lacks the same driving persistence and pungency of the Blanchot. To be sure, there is plenty of wine here and there is a hint of finishing austerity but this is not at the same level as the Blanchot. All of that said, I still quite like the wine and while it is nearing its apogee, it could use another year or two of cellar time. Consistent notes.

1998 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Showing wonderfully. Saline. Full. Plenty of rich fruit. Very expressive on the nose and palate. Finish is just a touch short. But otherwise excellent. Salty!
 Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings. Natural chicken wings marinated in fish sauce and sugar. Deep fried, tossed in caramelized Phu Quoc fish sauce and garlic and served with Vietnamese table salad. Really nice wings. Juicy, with a great sweet/tangy garlic flavor.
 Khao Soi w/ chicken. Northern Thai mild curry noodle soup made with our secret curry paste recipe and house-pressed fresh coconut milk. Crispy yellow noodles. Love this stuff.

Kao Soi served with house pickled mustard greens, shallots, and roasted chili paste. You dump it in and mix.
 Kaeng Awm Neua. Spicy aromatic Northern Thai beef shin stew with dry chilies, tumeric galangal, lemongrass, lime leaf, and coriander root. Comes with sticky rice too. The meat was a bit tough but the sauce was awesome, particularly with rice.

Kaeng Hang Leh. Northern Thai sweet pork belly and pork shoulder curry with ginger, palm sugar, tumeric, tamarind. Burmese curry powder and pickled garlic. A rich dish with Burmese origins. Quite delicious with tender (fatty) meat.

1995 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. Burghound 89. Advanced but not aged aromas of honeysuckle and a pretty mineral nuance lead to sweet (in the best sense), round, delicious, nicely detailed flavors of excellent length. While there is reasonably good power, the ’95 Blanchots is more a wine of elegance and finesse. This should continue to improve for another few years and I would elect to start drinking this in earnest in two to three years.

agavin: our bottle was nice.

1995 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Valmur. Unfortunately corked.
 Muu Paa Kham Waan. Boar collar meat rubbed with garlic, coriander root and black pepper. Glazed with soy and sugar. Grilled over charcoal. Tasty stuff. Tangy, salty, with a bit of kick.

Served with iced mustard greens. Not sure what one was supposed to do with these. Eat them with the boar, I guess.

A special fish steamed with garlic.
 Laap Pet Isaan. Spicy Northeastern Thai chopped duck salad with duck liver and skin. Lemongrass, herbs, toasted rice powder, dried chilies, lime juice and fish sauce. A really nice “meaty” salad.

This came with the duck.

1983 François Raveneau Chablis Grand Cru Blanchot. 93 points. Oldest Rav I’ve had and WOTN. Wow. Rich. Buttered popcorn. Touch of alcohol and heat. As the night progressed developed a distinct coffee aroma on the nose. Love it.

Yam Makheua Yao. Smoky charcoal grilled long eggplant salad with spicy dressing of Thai chilies, lime, fish sauce, and palm sugar. Topped with boiled egg, dry shrimp, pork, prawns, shallots, and crispy garlic.
 Kanom Jiin Namm Yea. Coconut curry with ground fish and krachai, made with fresh pressed coconut milk, served over thin rice vermicelli with pickled mustard greens, bean sprouts, bai menglak (lemon basil), and boiled egg. Good stuff, but not quite as good as the Khao Soi.

Papaya Pok Pok. Central Thai-style spicy green papaya salad with tomatoes, long beans, Thai chili, lime juice, tamarind, fish sauce, garlic, palm sugar, dried shrimp, and peanuts. Made to order in.
 Yam Kai Dao. Crispy fried farm egg salad with lettuce, Chinese celery, carrots, onions, garlic, Thai chilies, and cilantro. With a lime, fish sauce, palm sugar dressing. Really nice, with a great vinegary tang.
 Da Chom’s Laap Meuang. Northern Thai spicy hand-minced pork “salad” with aromatics, spices, herbs, cracklings, and crispy fried shallots and garlic. Served with phat sot (fresh herbs and raw vegetables, like the duck above). Also good stuff, but this pork one was much saltier than the duck — a bit too salty for my taste.
 Sangkhaya Thurian. Sweet sticky rice with durian scented coconut/palm sugar custard. This was a highly “advanced” dessert with that funky durian smell and a creaminess mixed with petrol followed by mango and pineapple finish. I loved it, but as I said, for the “advanced” palette. Stinky even.
 Another view of the Ravs.
 Above, the sacred flower decanter.

Overall, food was great. I still like Jitlada better, mostly because I’m a crazy curry devotee, and Norther Thai is more “grilled meats” (sort of). But this was great stuff. Very similar to Renu Nakorn. Some complain about the “A list” prices. I.e. it’s 50% more expensive than the whole-in-the-wall places. I personally think it’s worth it because the ingredients are a lot better. With the exception of a few dishes like the wings, Pok Pok doesn’t give up on authenticity as far as I can tell. There is some real heat to the food too (although not quite Jitlada heat).

The wines were awesome as expected. One out of seven corked, par for the course, but the others were all good. Some of the older ones, particularly the 83 really showed well. Raveneau is hands down my favorite Chablis producer. Generally I’m a cote de beaune guy, but Rav has a roundness that most Chablis doesn’t, even if it still has that searing Chablis mineral acidity.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  2. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
  3. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  4. Renu Nakorn
  5. Jitlada Overkill
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Babykillers, durian, Pok Pok, Thai cuisine

Renu Nakorn

Oct14

Restaurant: Renu Nakorn

Location: 13019 Rosecrans Ave #105, Norwalk, CA 90650. (562) 921-2124

Date: October 11, 2015 & September 16, 2018

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Far, but really great Thai

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I’m always up for some Thai adventures and Renu Nakorn, although very far and deep down in the inland empire off the 5 is the seed restaurant that gave birth to Lotus of Siam.

The strip mall they used to be in rebooted up into this bigger 2006 mall. The Chutima’s ran it back in the 90s and in 1999 solid it to their friends Pharchumporn Shonkeaw and Umpa Sripetwannadee. Named after the Renu Nakhon district of northeastern Thailand, it serves up Northern Thai cuisine.

2011 Domaine des Baumard Savennières. 89 points. Quite creamy on the nose with subtle, slightly funky aromas of animal hide, papaya and fennel. Medium-bodied and slightly soft with savory, flinty flavors of grass, hard lemon candy and tangerine.

Fried sweet corn special. They made this up for us special. Absolutely delicious. Crunchy and sweet.

Rose

Renu Nakorn Sausage. Grilled sour rice sausage, served with fresh chili, ginger & peanut. Sausage was super tasty, although very salty.

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Northern Thai Sausage (9/16/18), a slightly different more aromatic variant.

2005 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spätlese. VM 91. Pale golden yellow.Subtle bouquet of pineapple, nut oil and lemon zest.The luscious yet crisp papaya fruit is brightened by a refreshing mineral character.Deceptively light and wonderfully drinkable.A charming riesling with a sweet/salty finish.

Nam-Prik-Noom (Green chili dip). Roasted green chili, garlic, onion and tomato pounded in mortar. One of the most popular dip of Northern Thailand, eaten with sticky rice, fried pork skin and fresh vegetable. Lots of flavor, not super hot by my standards.
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The red chili dip (9/16/18) version of the same dish.
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Some kind of special beef salad (9/16/18).

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Larb koong (9/16/18). A northern style larb.
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Stuffed chicken wings (9/16/18). Super awesome, we ordered 2 or three times!
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Classic papaya salad (9/16/18).
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Coconut chicken soup (9/16/18).
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In the bowl.


2001 Weingut Johannishof (H.H. Eser) Rüdesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling Spätlese. 89 points. Peach, grapefruit and brown spice in the nose. Enormously rich and peachy in the mouth, expansive and bright across the palate. Effusively fruity, honeyed and spicy in the finish.

Special apple salad with salmon. The salmon was perfectly cooked, very mild yet flavorful.

2000 Erben von Beulwitz Kaseler Nies’chen Riesling Auslese**. 93 points. Sweet but not cloying.

Nam Kao Tod. Minced Issan sausage mixed with green onion, fresh chili, ginger, peanuts, crispy rice and lime juice. Super delicious, but incredibly salty.

2003 Le Haut-Lieu Vouvray Moelleux. 93 points. Sweet, with perhaps a touch of funk.

Nua Yum Katiem. Charbroiled spicy beef topped with fresh garlic and spicy sauce. Super delicious, and our spicy one actually had some heat (from those peppers). Lots of good garlic and acidic flavor too. The texture of the meat reminded me of tongue (in a good way).

2002 Inniskillin Vidal Sparkling Icewine. 93 points. Very nice. Few bubbles left, but what was left added just the right spark. Deep color. Flavors very concentrated. Probably near it peak, but showed zero hint of oxidation, so it may last quite a bit longer.

Northern Larb. A completely difference from the Is-san larb in taste, this Northern style larb (ground pork) is cooked with Northern Thai spices and no lime juice. Garnish with fresh herb and vegetable. Lots of flavor, a bit of heat, and extremely salty again.

2010 Rhys Pinot Noir San Mateo County. VM 94. The 2010 Pinot Noir (San Mateo County) is simply fabulous. Rich dark cherries, crushed flowers, mint and spices burst from the glass. This is a hugely delicious wine from Rhys. The 80% whole clusters are nicely balanced by the sheer depth of the fruit. This is a flat out stunning wine from Rhys. In 2010 the San Mateo is the entry-level Pinot. The 2010 is bottled under San Mateo appellation, as it includes fruit from Bearwallow (in Anderson Valley) rather than the more typical collection of sites from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Once again, one of the appellation-level Rhys Pinots shines.

1A0A7506
They prep the next dish.

Khao soi. Northern red curry with chicken and flat noodles.

In the individual bowl. I loved this, but I LOVE red curries, and I love noodles, so go figure.

Condiments for the curry.

2012 Horsepower Vineyards Syrah The Tribe Vineyard. 96 points. Total rocks rockstar. If you want to show someone Rock terrior, this is about as good as it gets. Super clean, but showcasing that ethereal burn olive and blood flavor. Good acid on the palate for being obviously higher PH. Long finish.

Drunken noodles, combination. Good stuff, we went through the noodles fast.

2007 Carlisle Syrah Bennett Valley. 91 points. Drinking quite well. Most of the group enjoyed it even more than I. Plums, black raspberries and some black pepper on the nose. Tannic. Good fruit but certainly not uber ripe. Starting to show some complexity, but certainly no hurry at all. It really is a beautiful wine.

 

1A0A7499
Pork stew Northern Style (9/16/18).
1A0A7503
Spicy Young Jackfruit Curry (9/16/18). Interesting flavors.

1A0A7510
Seafood Chili Mint Leaves (9/16/18).
1A0A7512
More fried rice (9/16/18).
1A0A7514
Red chicken curry (9/16/18). Classic and delicious.


Special green curry (2015 & 9/16/18) with pork, extra spicy. Loved this stuff, with a nice coconut flavor.
1A0A7517
BBQ beef in spicy sauce (9/16/18).
1A0A7522

Pad See Ew (9/16/18).

1A0A7529
Catfish (9/16/18).
1A0A7534
Crying Tiger Beef (9/16/18).


Bannana fritters with coconut ice cream. I only ate the ice cream, which tasted like ice milk or frozen coconut milk. It was okay.
1A0A7543
Made by me for 9/16/18.

Cherry Cough Syrup Sorbetto – Amareno Cherry and Creme de Cassis Sorbet! — so intense — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #SummerTime #cherry #amareno #Sorbet #cassis

Passionape Sorbetto – Passion Fruit and Aperol Sorbet — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato — #SweetMilkGelato #gelato #dessert #icecream #FrozenDessert #SummerTime #Sorbet #PassionFruit #Aperol


Food was excellent, if a touch salty. Service was excellent. Only minus was the drive.

I still like Jitlada a bit better. Renu Nakorn has a different, more northern style, however. It also isn’t nearly as spicy. We asked them to give us nuclear hot dishes and they were only “hot”. My scalp never got sweating like it does at Jitlada.

For more LA dining reviews click here,

or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!
Extra wines from 9/16/18:
1A0A7463
1A0A7464
1A0A7465
1A0A7466
1A0A7467
1A0A7468
1A0A7469
1A0A7470

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  2. Ruen Pair Rules
  3. Hedonists in Vegas – Lotus of Siam
  4. Jitlada Overkill
  5. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, hedonists, Renu Nakorn, Thai cuisine, Wine

Jitlada Overkill

Sep02

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: August 26, 2015

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

_

Tonight’s outing is a Hedonist return to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong with Chef Tui in the kitchen. The menu can be found here.

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce.

One of Yarom’s ancient wines. Undrinkable.

Crispy papaya Salad. Delicious — fry is always tasty. The “dressing” was sweet and tangy.

Another even more ancient, and even more undrinkable wine. Could barely stomach a second tiny sip.

Papaya salad. Solid, but not as yummy as the fried one.

2008 Weingut Reinhold Haart Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling Spätlese. VM 90. Delicate aromas of green apple, lemon oils and clover. The kiwi flavor is light and lively but at the same time velvety on the palate. Rose petal and saline minerality mingle on a crisp, well-balanced finish. Very appealing.

Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.

2005 Dönnhoff Schloßböckelheimer Felsenberg Riesling Spätlese. VM 91. Pale golden yellow.Subtle bouquet of pineapple, nut oil and lemon zest.The luscious yet crisp papaya fruit is brightened by a refreshing mineral character.Deceptively light and wonderfully drinkable.A charming riesling with a sweet/salty finish.

Crying Tiger Pork. A Chinese influenced dish of spicy pork with a blend of coriander, pepper, salt, and garlic. Really flavorful, tender and just plain fabulous.

2007 Dönnhoff Kreuznacher Krötenpfuhl Riesling Spätlese. JG 92. pears and peach.. not very sweet nice acidity. will wait to drink again.

Chicken satay. A bit boring, but certainly a nice satay.

2003 Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Erdener Treppchen Riesling Auslese. 91 points. I really love these wines and they have a certain, unpretentious, gulpability that few other wines have. The sugar also allows then to got with a huge variety of food. This bottle has a fair amount of sweetness with honeyed peach and lychee aromas leading into a medium bodied, low acid wine. Beautifully balanced, soft and down right gulpable, this is killer stuff.

Coco lotus soup. This was a mild red coconut curry soup with chicken. It was amazing! Really fabulous curry flavor.

2005 Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Zeltinger Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese.

Pig ear. Strips of leather. I’ll leave these for the Labradors.

1993 Georg Breuer Rüdesheimer Berg Schloßberg Riesling. 93 points. Petrol, citrus and apple fruit, minerals and a striking acidity. Complex and engaging, very nice, has a future still.

Lamb fried rice. Much better than the pineapple fried rice.

From my cellar: 2000 Trimbach Pinot Gris Sélection de Grains Nobles. VM 93. Bright medium gold. Superripe aromas of apricot jam, exotic spices, honey and tobacco; just misses the clarity of the best SGN bottlings from this producer. Very dense but not hugely unctuous thanks to firm, perfectly integrated acidity. Sappy, vibrant and very long on the aftertaste.

Tamarind shrimp. The same shrimp as we had last time with the red curry, but with a slightly tangy, definitely sweet sauce. Not nearly as good. I didn’t love the sauce.

2010 Château Franc le Maine St. Émilion Grand Cru Cabernet Franc/Merlot. 91 points. Very rich, and not sweet or jammy at all. Still young but very drinkable if allowed to breathe for 2+ hours. Needs food. Quite delicious.

Thai hot wings. Tender and quiet spicy.

2007 Cantina Numa Rosso Piceno Tolenus.

Lamb Curry. Tender lamb in a hot curry with green beans. Really yummy. Really yummy. Should have ordered the “curry” version where it’s in a bowl with more sauce. There is also a sweeter version that is really good.

1978 Joseph Phelps Syrah. Drinking very well considering.

Glass noodles with crispy pork belly. Nice enough. I liked the texture of the noodles with the peanuts.


2006 Linne Calodo Outsider. VM 93. Bright ruby. Deep aromas of black raspberry, cherry liqueur, dried flowers and minerals. Powerful dark berry flavors are surprisingly light on their feet, with a jolt of smoky minerals adding urgency. Finishes vibrant and sweet, with excellent clarity and cut. An intriguing spice note gained power with air, adding to this wine’s vivacity.

Dungeness Crab in Curry Sauce. Crab meat, shrimp & peas sauteed in a red curry paste. This wasn’t AS hot. It was a little hard to get at the succulent grab meat, but the curry was explosively good too. Compare to the Singaporean classic. The problem is that the crab isn’t cracked and was hard to get into.

2004 Turley Petite Syrah Hayne Vineyard. VM 94+. Bright ruby to the rim. Aromas of black plum, minerals, iron and fresh blood; this wine calls for a rare steak. At once thick and sappy, boasting extraordinary density to its sweet dark fruit and iron flavors. The very long, slowly building finishes features outstanding sweetness and salinity and extremely suave tannins. This very powerful wine is developing at a snail’s pace.

Duck curry. Very similar curry to the soup, but with a few bits of duck and pineapple. Also a very nice curry, but fairly mild.



2008 Saxum Heart Stone Vineyard. RR 97. Color of dark red. Scents of black and blue berries, bold. Tastes were consistent with scents, with big, bold taste, but not jammy. This blend has a very interesting taste. Enjoyed this.

Jazz burger. A big beef patty covered in onions, peppers, and dressing. I was so full I was about to burst, but the flavors were fabulous.


Some super organic chocolate, all raw, no real sugar. The chocolate flavor was nice and fruity, but these were WAY too unsweetened for my palette. Tasted like health food. I’m a hedonist.

I love Jitlada, and it’s hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. All the flavors are great, the meats succulent, and boy is it hot. That being said, this was one of my weakest meals here — although it wasn’t the kitchen’s fault — we just didn’t order well at all. There were some great dishes, like the coco lotus soup, but we had too many people and ordered at first too few, then too many of each dish. There were far too many reorders. We must’ve ordered 3 rounds of the soup (with 2 bowls in one round). And then a couple of late comers arrived (DON’T COME LATE TO HEDONIST DINNERS!) and there was a flurry of reorders of the same dishes.

The net net was that we were full too early in the progression, and we never got to the spicy curries, dynamites, challenges, whole fish, and other “main dishes.” We were so full from our reorders of the same dishes that we couldn’t even handle the mango sticky rice. One of my lessons here to to really watch the rice consumption.

Still, the kitchen is great, we just had too many people, too much chaos, and didn’t didn’t balance our sequence right. I think 12 is the max here (we had 15-16).

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

Related posts:

  1. Jitlada – Fire in the Hole
  2. Hedonists at Jitlada
  3. Quick Eats: Chan Dara
  4. Ruen Pair Rules
  5. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: curry, hedonists, Jitlada, Thai cuisine

Jitlada – Fire in the Hole

Mar18

Restaurant: Jitlada [1, 2, 3, 4]

Location: 5233 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027. (323) 663-3104

Date: March 12, 2015

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

_

Tonight’s outing is a hastily organized trip to Jitlada, an outrageously authentic Southern Thai place deep in Thai-town. The joint gets 27 in Zagat! It’s run by Jazz Singsanong with Chef Tui in the kitchen. The menu can be found here.

You know it’s real because they don’t skimp on either the chilies OR the fish sauce.


2009 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett. 90 points. Yellow honeysuckle, wet stone, lemon zest nose, with medium light body delivering pleasing soft lemon sorbet, nectarine, tangerine and wet stones.


Crispy Morning Glory Salad. This salad of shrimp and fried morning glory is just plain glorious. Sorry, couldn’t resist. Basically tempura flowers and it’s really the tangy, slightly sweet sauce/dressing that really makes it. Very similar to many of the salads I had in Vietnam.


Crying Tiger Pork. A Chinese influenced dish of spicy pork with a blend of coriander, pepper, salt, and garlic. Really flavorful, tender and just plain fabulous.


Honey Duck. You can’t believe how tender this duck is. Crispy skin and just melt in your mouth meat. The hoisin was good too.


2007 Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Spätlese. Vinous 93. Subtle aromas of lichee, lemon oil and smoked pine nuts. Rich tropical fruits with a hint of smoke and an intriguing piquancy on the palate. A subtle acidity gives the sweet, spicy finish a rather feminine aspect. Very nicely balanced.


Giant prawns in red curry. This dish is an 11. The prawns are succulent and filled with roe and kani miso (crab guts). Then the sauce is a luxurious panang-style red curry with coconut milk and maybe some peanuts. It all meld together, particularly with the crab guts into a scrumptious savory blend.


Large whole fish with ginger. Ateamed whole seabass with ginger and mushrooms. A delicate simple, but delicious fish.


Dungeness crab with curry. It’s a little hard to get into the meat, but the sauce was an amazing (and not so spicy) blend with a ton of turmeric. Brace yourself, this is where the weak hearted get left behind, as this is the last “easy” dish.


From my cellar: 1990 Zind-Humbrecht Tokay Pinot Gris Clos Jebsal Vendange Tardive. 94 points. Rich, powerful nose of apricots and lots of baking spices, paraffin and wax. Really plush, but not a bit cloying or heavy. Again, not heavy on the palate – lots of apricot – very rich. Just great. The ZH TPGs are delicious wines, but tend to be heavy. This wine has all the good, with none of the bad – light on its feet, but wonderfully rich and perfumed. A real treat. Nose – 6/6, Palate – 6/6, Finish – 5/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi – 2/2 = 19/20.

agavin: It’s a rare savory meal where a wine of this sticky magnitude works, but this is the case here. The massive and effortless apricot sweetness of this wine is great both on its own and with the tastebud obliterating assault to come.


Spicy Crispy Pork Noodles spicy stir fried glass noodles with crispy pork and vegetables. We ended up with two spicy crispy pork dishes. This one had some heat, but it wasn’t yet full inferno. Nice noodles too.


Kua Kling Crispy Pork. Dry curry stir fried with asparagus and crispy pork. This curry was about a 9 or 10 on the heat scale. Oh boy. It had great flavor too, but was getting seriously hot. Sneaky too, as it didn’t seem too bad for a minute or two, and then really notched up.


Coco Curry Beef. Tender beef in a spicy southern curry and thai eggplant. This was hot too, with a delicious complex flavor and plenty of turmeric. Maybe an 8 hot.


Rack of lamb in southern curry. A spicy native curry from Jazz’s family recipe with bell peppers, turmeric, jicama, and you can’t find this anywhere else. Turn it up to 11. The flavor on this dish was insane, with a super complex layered flavor that went on and one — and the heat. I basically finished 2/3 of this bowl myself (all but 1 other couldn’t handle it) and my head was drenched in sweat. But it was worth it.


Mango sticky rice with coconut ice cream. Awesome dessert. Jazz went out to her car or apartment and got us the “special mangos” that were perfectly ripe. Just incredible. Best mango sticky rice I’ve ever had. I shoved three helpings down the gullet.

Jitlada was hands down the best Thai I’ve had in LA. The menu is enormous and full of goodies. All the flavors are great, the meats succulent, and boy is it hot. You could order sweet, or you could order hot, or both. I’ve had hotter food (I’m thinking of a certain Szechuan restaurant in China), but you certainly don’t WANT it hotter than this. And I’m a guy that puts Haberneos in my guacamole.

One of our number summed up the evening as “eating like Pharaohs,” which is about right. Just way way too much food, and no small dose of other good stuff. The kitchen was incredibly on point tonight too.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or for more crazy Hedonist meals.

Dr. Dave and Jazz

 

Related posts:

  1. Hedonists at Jitlada
  2. Hedonists Noodle over Hoy-Ka
  3. Ruen Pair Rules
  4. Dragon in the Hole
  5. The Call – Down the Rabbit Hole
By: agavin
Comments (4)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: hedonists, Jazz Singsanong, Jitlada, spicy, Thai cuisine
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