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Lunch Quest – Kinnara

Jun19

Location: 15355 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91406. (818) 988-7788

Date: November 18, 2022

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Slightly modernist Thai

The Foodie Club lunch crew and I went out for Lunch Quest to Go’s Mart, but he was oddly closed, so we ended up here:

At this “slightly trendy” Thai place.

Interior is pleasant.

Good sized menu (as usual for Thai).

TOPAZ SHRIMP. Cooked shrimp with yellow curry and crabmeat. Interesting modern one bite format. Ultimately a yellow (turmeric) curry shrimp dish. The shrimp was very tender though and the curry nice and bright with a tiny bit of heat.

FILET MIGNON SKEWER. Grilled filet Mignon with white curry sauce. Hmm, maybe a green curry sauce? Pretty tender filet skewer doused in a very tasty spicy/sweet green curry — shot it afterward.

Pork Rib Lemongrass Soup. Pork rib soup with mushroom, mint, cilantro with spicy and sour soup. Lovely sour broth with medium tender pork chunks and button mushrooms.

Condiments.

CHAING MAI PORK BELLY. Crispy marinated pork belly with spicy chili sauce. Super addictive crunchy pork belly with a really nice green chili sauce. Delicious.

Spicy Chai-Yo. Chicken and shrimp sauteed in spicy topaz curry and finely cut green bean. The spiciest of our dishes, but not super spicy. Sort of a chichen larb in yellow curry with more tender shrimp.

Panang Soft Shell Crab. Crispy soft shell crab with panang curry sauce. Awesome crunchy soft shell with a great mild red curry. The crispy basil really took it up too. Delicious dish and not that different than the Chinois lobster.

911 Catfish. Crispy filet catfish with green peppercorn and chili garlic sauce. A bit fried but very tender with a nice (only mildly spicy) chili garlic sauce. Too much bell pepper but it was nice to see the green peppercorns.

Pretty tasty Thai with a bit of a modernist spin. Flavors are very classically Thai, however, which is a good thing. The chef apparently has gone to Vegas. Haha.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Lunch Quest, Thai cuisine, Thai food

What’s All the Fuss About?

May06

Restaurant: Anajak Thai

Location: 14704 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403. (818) 501-4201

Date: September 22, 2022

Cuisine: Elevated American Thai

Rating: Tasty, but kinda boring

Anajak has a LOT of buzz about it. It’s a Thai place on Ventura in the valley and it’s one of the hardest reservations in the city to get — go figure. They offer “three modes” of dining. Normal, which I’m covering here, a weird Thai fusion taco Tuesday (haven’t tried) and a Thai Omakase (optional) on weekends that I want to try (but haven’t yet).

They are unusual as Thai places go in that they have a LOT of wine for sale. And a lot of it isn’t really a good Thai pairing either. It’s not fancy wine and it’s sitting out all over the restaurant. I’m sure this has added to their buzz.

We sat outside on the street/patio at two large tables. The menu isn’t huge by Thai standards and we ordered almost every dish.

Papaya Salad, thai chilies, peanuts, dried shrimp. Fine but not very exciting papaya salad. Not quite zingy or spicy enough. No detectable funk.

Crispy Garden Rolls. These were nice and crispy. Sauce was basically sweet with only a slight tang. But overall pretty tasty.

Laab Tot, northern-style pork meatballs. Basically fried larb balls. The sauce was sweet. These were the best of the apps. Quite yummy. Hard to go wrong with a fried meat ball though.

Chicken Satay. Pretty boring straight up chicken skewers. Well cooked and juicy, but not a ton of flavor on them. The sauce was overly sweet but certainly very peanuty. The little marinated salad was not nearly vinegary enough.

Southern-Thai Fried Chicken. This was a really good dish. Very juicy and crispy. Maybe slightly undersalted but extremely good.

Transparent Sea Shrimp, pong gari curry. The fry on these shrimp was that kind of rich egg yolk fry that has a slightly grainy texture. The sauce was an interesting curry with a slight liver vibe. Pretty good.

Pork ribs, pineapple-glaze. These were okay. A bit sweet, but actually slightly better than the version we had at Jitlada 2 days before (which was Jitlada’s worst dish).

BBQ Pork Collar, coriander molasses, soy, sesame. Not super strong flavored, but with a bit of grill or char. Pretty good.

Haw Mok, steamed fish curry custard. I loved the soft texture on this dish. It had some mystery vegetables inside and a mild but lovely curry flavor. Basically curry flan? I actually really enjoyed. Might even have been my favorite dish. Most other people found the texture weird but I love odd textures.

The fish curry/custard texture should be more apparent in this photo.

Green Curry, shrimp & eggplant. I’m not sure I found any eggplant. The shrimp were nice and plump. The green curry itself was tasty but extremely mild. There was almost no heat and very little fish sauce taste. Clean and smooth with not too much in it.

Panang Curry, chicken. There wasn’t much in this either, just some chicken and the red bell pepper garnishes. I did love the curry sauce itself. It had a great creamy coconut red curry flavor. Very smooth. Not spicy at all and not super complex, but almost what I was going for in my red coconut curry gelato.

Massaman Brisket Curry. Nice to have some real meat but the curry itself was basically satay peanut sauce. It was pleasant but so peanuty and sweet. A real Massaman curry is more a red curry / peanut blend and should have some heat. This was all sweet.

Prik King Green Beans. These were good, albiet not spicy at all.

Drunken Noodles with Shrimp. Not bad. The shrimp was nice and the noodle texture good. I would have liked a more pronounced Thai basil flavor — didn’t really get one.

Pad Siew with Chicken. Very similar to the drunken noodles. Not sure I could really tell the difference.

Spicy Fried Rice with Fried Egg. It wasn’t spicy but it was fried.

Mango Sticky Rice. Quite nice. Not as good as Jitlada’s as it didn’t have either the coconut flavored sweetened condensed milk or the coconut ice cream but the mango was nice and ripe and the sticky rice a great complement.

Overall, as someone who goes to a LOT of Thai, I don’t really get Anajak. I’d like to try the Omakase because that looks interesting and different, but the regular menu is like well done kinda boring Thai food. The ingredient quality is high and it’s very clean and neat — and very “smooth” (they blend it) but it’s just not all that balanced. The dishes are too sweet, there is virtually no heat (I like spicy), no funky fish sauce or shrimp paste taste, and basically none of the interesting Thai vegetables.

As far as I can tell it’s just a higher quality better version of your default “Thai American” place. Does that, the hipper setting, and the wine lying around make it more accessible to Valley goers and Thai food newbies? Yeah. But does it make it taste as good? No. Frankly most of the Thai Tour places are better and more interesting. And I’ve been to numerous Valley staple Thai places that I like better, even one like Lum Ka Naad. Yeah, they are a bit rougher around the edges, but again, more flavor.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Anajak Thai, curry, hedonists, SFV, Thai cuisine, Thai Tour, Wine

Jitalda 2022 Update

May03

An awesome return visit to Jitlada to hang out with our friend Jazz and to “check in” on how tasty their food is in 2022.

Raw marinated shrimp salad. Great spicy/tangy “dressing” with nice crunchy cabbage underneath.

By: agavin
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Posted in: Food

Tagged as: hedonists, Jitlada, Southern Food, Thai cuisine, Thai Town

Robo Eats – Khaosan

Apr01

Restaurant: Khaosan Thai Street Food

Location: 19801 Ventura Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 91364. (818) 932-9845

Date: August 8, 2022 and many times after

Cuisine: Thai Street Food

Rating: Very good small dish Thai place

This was actually the first — and most frequent — restaurant I visited while waiting for my son at robotics in the valley.

It’s located right on Ventura in Tarzana / Woodland Hills. They have a mostly digital menu (which I’m not a fan of).

Fried fish balls with sweet sauce. Delicious.

Papaya Salad. Very good

Thom Yom. Nice version of the tangy soup. I almost always get this.

Khao Soi chicken. Excellent version. I really love the strong coconut curry flavor and the mixture of textures.

Stir fry curry with fish. Relatively light, but creamy. Nice.

Marinated Beef Salad. A bit salty but nice chili lime thing.

Beef Prik King.

Chicken Laarb. Solid.

Khaosan has a smallish menu and certainly isn’t up there with Jitlada, Pailin and the like, but what they do do, they do very well and it’s certainly great for a quick one person meal or takeout (if you like takeout, which I don’t). This is really way better than most of the Americanized Thais in the city. Lots of flavor and I’ve been here at least half a dozen times.

Service is very efficient and friendly. The space itself is small with only a couple of tables. Most of their business is takeout.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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Tagged as: Khaosan, Robo Eats, SFV, Thai cuisine, Thai Street Food

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

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.

The interior is minimal, but cute.

The menu is more street food focused than the traditional big Thai menus.

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

Thai Wontons. Giew Tod. Hand-folded wontons filled with chicken and sweet chili sauce. Crunchy goodness.

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.

Steak Salad. Yum Nuea. Marinated grilled steak tossed in chili lime with cucumber, grape tomatoes, shallots, mint, green onion, and cilantro. Zesty and fresh.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

By: agavin
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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

Pa Ord Noodle is another highly regarded Thai Town place.

We visited in the middle of the pandemic “opening up” phase and ate outside in the parking lot — hence all the takeout wares.

The menu.

Various chili sauces!

Papaya Salad – great.

Coconut Soup with Seafood — also delicious. Similar to the “coco lotus” soup at Jitlada.

Fried Shrimp Cake – Delicious. Very friend but great.

Roast Duck Noodle Soup w/ Egg Noodles.

Drunken Noodles Combination meats – very nice.

Pad Prik King Chicken – spicy and quite good.

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.

By: agavin
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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

Asian Food Friday is always a good opportunity to try out some of the oddball and amazing corners of Los Angeles eating.

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.

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.”

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).

They also sell some random Thai snacks.

The menu is surprisingly long.

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.

Spicy green laxative — I mean chili sauce — awesome complex flavor and hearty burn.

Sai Qua. Northern Spices Pork Sausage. Ground pork marinated with herbs and spices. Tons of flavor, very soft texture.

Cabbage and sticky rice.

Moo Sam Chan Tod. Fried Pork Belly. Deep fried pork belly. Tasty, particularly with the green sauce.

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.

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.

Gaeng Khanoon. Jackfruit soup. Spicy soup of young jackfruit chunks, Chaom leaves (Acacia) and pork ribs seasoned with tomato and garlic.

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.

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.

Condiments for the Kao Soi.

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.

More condiments for the Kao Soi.

With the toppings.

Special of vermicelli and jackfruit and I don’t know what. Mushy texture but tasty.

Sample of something with jackfruit. Sour, but tasty too.

A kind of strong pork curry. Very strong “bay leaf”? flavor sauce. Tasty.

Sour pork rib soup. I think Jor Pak Pung. Ceylon spinach in tamarind soup with cut pork ribs.

The kitchen is tiny.

The shelves on the way to the rest room are loaded with Thai products.

See!

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.

After, we felt we needed some authentic Thai desserts to quench the burn.

Inside this crowded shop.

Pandan pudding being made fresh.

Pandan custard pudding. Super thick, creamy, mild in flavor but hit the spot.

Ultra light crispy crepes with coconut cream (crispy) and either yellow mango (sweet) or curry (orange)

Taro cakes.

Mystery in a banana leaf.

Cookies.

Delicious hot fried rice and coconut balls.

All sorts of yummy stuff.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

By: agavin
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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

This year for ThanksGavin 2019 we arrived a day early in Philadelphia and so went out locally with my parents and Aunt & Uncle to:

White Elephant, a nearby strip mall Thai.

They have nicely decorated the fairly boring space. No Thai (language) on the menu!

Some kind of lobster roll.

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

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

Mushroom Soup. Thai style fresh mushroom soup with herb and Marsala wine.

Chicken tenders and fries for the boy.

Thai Eggplant. Thai sweet eggplant sautéed until brown and stir fried with chicken, onion, carrot, broccoli, red bell pepper, basil and aromatic herbs.

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.

Sweet Surrender. Fillet of salmon crusted with pecan and baked to perfection, served with mellow apricot brandy sauce.

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

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.

For more Philly dining reviews click here.

More ThanksGavin events here.

By: agavin
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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 and September 20, 2022

Cuisine: Thai

Rating: Gut burning great

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Pomelo salad. Shrimp, pomelo, onions, peanuts, garlic. This salty, spicy, sweet, savory salad was fabulous. Really Thai mix of tones.

Raw marinated shrimp salad (often called Naked Shrimp) (9/20/22). Great spicy/tangy “dressing” with nice crunchy cabbage underneath.

Chicken Satay. A bit boring.

Garlic lamb chops. Incredible crunchy garlic on these chops. It was to die for. I kept eating the piles of it left over.

Beef “Jerkey.” Excellent version of this dish with a lot of flavor.

Sweet Pork Ribs (9/20/22). One of the weaker dishes. A little sweet — hence the name.

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

Soft-shell crab noodles. Fried soft-shell crab (in season) with pan fried sweet noodles. Unusual combo, but massively delicious.

Dungeness Crab with Garlic Sauce (9/20/22). Really awesome. I’ve been trying to find this dish (on the vast menu) again for some years. The garlicky “sauce” is amazing. A bit sweet with the sweetness of the crab.

BBQ Squid (9/20/22). Interesting. Not my absolute favorite.

Red Duck Curry. Not spicy but incredibly delicious.

Spicy duck salad or maybe this was Celebrity Chicken. Never had this before but it was great!

Basil frogs legs. Delicious and full of basil and garlic flavor. Bones weren’t offensive either.

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.

Papaya prawns. Like the curry prawns but drowned in papaya.

Garlic and/or Coconut king crab. Hard to get the meat out, and a touch expensive, but really delicious sauce.

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.

Beef Tongue with Sator Beans (9/20/22). Very spicy with that jungle curry type flavor. But lots of good flavor. Beef Tougue itself is kinda chewy.

Yellow Curry with Oxtail (9/20/22). Delicious. Not that much meat and it’s mostly bone, but you could put shoe leather in this curry and it would be good.

Duck Red Curry (9/20/22). Fabulous flavor, very rich and creamy. Not as much meat as one might like. Quite spicy too.

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!

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.

Sweet Red Pork Rice (9/20/22). Slightly weird sweet dish. Not bad, but also one of the “weakest” of the night.

Mango Sticky Rice with coconut Ice Cream (9/20/22). The rice itself is awesome.

Cherry Cough Syrup Sorbetto (9/20/22) – Amareno Cherry, Morello Cherry, and Creme de Cassis Sorbet! — so intense, and so awesome for a red fruit lover — 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 #sorbetto #amareno #morello #cherry #CremediCassis #cassis

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

Mango with sticky rice. So full but this is so delicious!

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 (2019) 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.

On our post pandemic (9/20/22) return we also order extremely well and they put out fabulous dishes (except for a couple of sweet meats that certain non spicy lovers made us order :-)). When you order right, Jitlada is incredible.

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:

By: agavin
Comments (3)

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

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.”

Located in Silverlake on Sunset, not exactly in Thai Town but in the heart of Hipster-ville.

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.

We had a special large party reservation and a set menu (we chose the largest set menu).

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.

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.

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.

Sticky Coconut Rice.

I’m trying to avoid carbs but I do love this coconut milk sweetened rice. Great texture too.

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.

Beef (I think) with cilantro. This was an extra brought for those who were avoiding carbs.

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.

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.

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.

Garlic Green Beans. Sautéed with garlic, soy sauce, and white pepper. Very Chinese!

Uni Fried Rice. I liked that there was also the salmon row, nice and briny. Cilantro of course.

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.

Pad Thai. Market version with sweet radish, tofu, egg, crushed peanuts, and chili powder. Great pad Thai.

Brought by and made by me:

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!

By: agavin
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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

So the Hedonist Thai Tour continues with this fourth stop (3rd for me) at well known:

Pailin Thai — in Thai Town of course, a slightly better part of it too.

The interior is still very mom and pop — and small — but there is actually a bit of decor.

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.

The menu.

Pork Satay. Grilled marinated pork marinated in thai herb and coconut milk. Served with peanut sauce and cucumber salad.

Fried Chicken. Winston LOVES this fried chicken — and it was very good — and very fried.

Northern Style Sausage. Full of flavor.

A different Style Sausage. Even moister, almost like the crocodile sausage I had last year.

Spicy shrimp ball. In sweet and sour sauce. I loved these little fellows.

Pork Larb (6/29/21) — delicious with great balance and lots of limey acidity.

Larb tod. I had assumed this was like normal larb, but no it’s deep fried larb! Pretty awesome actually.

Cucumber Salad (6/29/21) — sweet and tangy.

Roast Duck Salad. With lemon grass, mint leaves, onion, and curry paste.

Pork Jerky (6/29/21) — incredible flavor and soft texture.

Beef Jerky (6/29/21) — chewier than the pork.

Chicken Feet Salad (6/29/21) – a bit warm, nice texture and flavor.

Raw marinated shrimp. Really juicy slow marinated shrimp with a spicy green chili sauce.

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.

Beef tendon soup. A delicious savory and sour beef soup.

Papaya salad.

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.

Manilla Clam Curry Paste. Pretty much clams in Thai basil. Delicious sauce. Lots of flavor.

Spicy frog leg curry. Yummy yummy, kermit in my tummy.

Tom yum goon. Shrimp with mushroom in hot, spicy, and sour soup. We couldn’t resist.

Seafood Soup (6/29/21) — Tom Yum with all sorts of seafood.

Pad see ew. Pan fried rice noodles with egg, black soy sauce.

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.

Green curry with beef. Delicious too. Not as killer hot as Jitlada.

Roast Duck Curry (6/29/21).

Prog pow squid with Thai curry, onion and chili.

Glass Noodles with Beef (6/29/21).

Crispy Pork Belly with Stir Fried Veggies (6/29/21).

Preserved Egg Stir Fry (6/29/21).

Egg Plant with Pork Stir Fry (6/29/21).

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

Crispy chicken skins. Salty and delicious little snacks.

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

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!

By: agavin
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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

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.

Spicy BBQ comes highly recommended. It’s a tiny place.

In a mini-mall on Santa Monica Blvd at the Thai Town / Little Armenia border. Just a touch scary.

They have a taste for amusing signs.

And a definitely mom and pop shop interior!

Plus mangos ever at the ready.

The menu.

My notes. Gotta have an ordering plan!

Fried chicken wontons. Deep fried wontons stuffed with ground chicken. Surprisingly delicious insides.

Fried Tofu. Deep fried tofu with sweet and sour dipping sauce. Not bad either for something so simple.

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.

Ground pork with chili paste. A “dip” of ground pork and spices. You use the veggies to lever it up.

Spicy and Sour Curry with chicken. Interesting and different curry.

Spicy Mint Leaves Beef. Delicious, with a lot of flavor.

Northern Thai Sausage. Soft and salty.

Pad Kee Mao Shrimp. Pan fried big flat noodles with bell pepper and basil in spicy sauce with succulent shrimp.

Tom Yum Chicken. Spicy and sour soup made with lemon grass, mushroom, onion, and celery. Delicious!

Northern Thai Egg Noodle. Khao soi. With the pickles.

Close up of the curry. I just love this dish. I’m a curry junkie.

Spicy Coconut Seafood. Really nice flavor.

BBQ Beef Spareribs. Tender with good flavor.

Pork Larb. Stir fried ground pork salad with lemon grass and Northern Thai spices.

Spicy BBQ Pork. The porky version of above. Still pretty tender.

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

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.

By: agavin
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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

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).

Very casual storefront.

This is not exactly the loveliest neighborhood — check out the laundry-mat.

And the unassuming entrance.

Inside is bright and cheery though.

Crispy Rice Salad. This might be carby, but it was scrumptious. Nice texture and great flavor. There is crispy rice in there too.

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.

Spicy Grilled Salad. Pork with shredded green apple, lemon grass, onion & mint leaves in spicy lime dressing. Great flavor and nice crunchy/chewy texture.

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.

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.

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.

Prawns with glass noodles. A lovely special dish with tasty tender giant prawns.

Pad See Mao. Shrimp, pan fried noodle w/ chili, garlic, and basil.

Khao Soy. Curry soup with chicken and egg noodle. Plus those interesting pickle condiments.

I love this dish and with a bit of the chili oil it can be pretty hot!

Sri Siam Spicy Ribs. Fried spicy pickled pork spareribs. A bit chewy, but tons of flavor.

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.

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.

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” 🙂

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.

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or more crazy Hedonist dinners here!

From my cellar.

I thought both these wines were wretched over extracted messes.

Number two.

This was murky, but actually pretty tasty — one of the best of the night.

By: agavin
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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

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.

By: agavin
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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

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.

Papaya salad. A bit spicy. Light and delicious.

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.

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.

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.

By: agavin
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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

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.

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.

By: agavin
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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

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.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

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

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.

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

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.

Beef Satay. Nice.

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.

Tom Kha Soup. Coconut milk and tamarind. Delicious. Way better than the no coconut version.

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.

Wrapped BBQ fish and sticky rice.

Unusual flavor to the fish as well. Lots of char taste.

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.

By: agavin
Comments (1)

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

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.

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.