LA Thai Restaurant Tasting Tour

[FoodZealot]

Although I probably won't be around town during your crawl, I wouldn't mind pre-tasting a couple of your choices.  I have a question though: is LA Thai food more "authentic" than PNW Thai food?  People often complain about Thai food in Seattle and Portland being too sweet and not authentic enough.  I don't know if this is a west coast thing in general or what.  But if LA Thai food isn't significantly different from PNW Thai food, I'd be less inclined to give it a try.

ExtraMSG - I wish I knew enough about the restaurants in both areas to make comparisons, but Thai food is mostly new to me. I can say that even among the few places I've been to in the last 6 months, I'm noticing significant variability, i.e., some places tend to be quite sweet, some are more aggressive with fish sauce and so on. I don't know whether to attribute that to Thai regional differences, American customers' preferences, styles of the individual cooks, etc. In going into the markets in Thai Town (in Hollywood), it seems that almost everything mentioned in cookbooks is available, so as far as ingredients, I believe they are not wanting. FWIW, there's a significant Thai population in the area, and the clientele at most of the places I've been to seems to be about 60% Thai/SE Asian, 40% other. If you do try any in LA, please let us know your thoughts.

Beachfan, I'm sorry to hear that your wife did not enjoy her meal at Jitlada. I'm guessing some of the "authentic" kitchen practices are still in use, so for the squeamish, maybe I'll try to find out what current health ratings are once we have a schedule. A 1pm lunch on Jan 11 sounds good to me.

~Tad

[ErinB]

Beachfan, what did you order at Jitlada? Just so I know what not to order the next time I go there.

[Beachfan]

Beachfan, what did you order at Jitlada? Just so I know what not to order the next time I go there.

Sorry, I didn't go, my wife did, and she doesn't remember the details of stuff she didn't like.

She didn't even remember the name of the restaurant.

Ahhh, but the view of the Grand Canal from our room......

[hollywood]

Ahhh, but the view of the Grand Canal from our room......

Are you confusing Jitlada with the Gritti Palace?

[Beachfan]

Is this still on?

[FoodZealot]

January 11th, 2004. Happy New Year, everyone.

[Maison Rustique]

Bumping back up. Happy New Year!!!

Is there a plan of action yet? Where, what time, etc.?

Unless something comes up work-wise for Don, we are still in. And would be willing to pick up anyone north of us (Laguna Hills) that wants to go. Gaaaa! Now that I've said that I'm sure that something will come along to screw up our going.

[jschyun]

Yeah, FoodZealot, let us know if you need any help of any sort. Looking forward to this.

[FoodZealot]

I'm going with the idea that we'll be meeting up a few times over the next few months, so we don't have to hit all the spots in one day. With 12 or more people, it's hard to go to a bunch of places and just taste, so I'm thinking it will work better if we just do a real lunch and early dinner. But I'm very open to suggestions/adjustments.

So far, it sounds like Beachfan +1, jschyun +1, Maison Rustique +1, ErinB, tejon +1, mixmaster b +1, and FoodZealot.

A suggested schedule for Sunday, January 11th, 2004

• 1:00pm Meet & eat at Ruen Pair (5257 Hollywood)
  2:30pm Visit the sweet shop in the same mini-mall
  3:00pm Walk over to the Thai market next door
  4:00pm Walk over to Kruang Tedd (5151 Hollywood)
  

~Tad

[Beachfan]

Roger that! I'm in (for 2).

Where's tissue?

[grandcru]

Sorry I've rejoined the fray so late. I'm in for one, too.

[tissue]

Can't make it, working...

Boohoo....

[Maison Rustique]

Well, shoot! My alleged spouse has been in LA for the last 2 days. He just informed me that a client in San Diego is having a crisis and he has to go there tomorrow. So, we're gonna miss this first one.

FZ, I look forward to seeing the pix and hope that we can make it for the next leg of the tour.

Sorry!!!

[ErinB]

I'm out too, my schedule has just gotten really crazy.

[Beachfan]

Do they allow corkage? I have a nice Alsatian wine to bring.

[FoodZealot]

Thanks to everyone who came out for our first outing, and I hope more will be able to make it next time.

L to R, kneeling: grandcru, mixmaster b. standing: FoodZealot, jschyun, Trevor, beachfan, Sandra, and two strangers that just jumped into the picture. Just kidding - they're friends of mixmaster b & Trevor.

beachfan was kind enough to bring along a gewurtztraminer and a tokay for us to share. They worked quite nicely with our meal. mixmaster b also made up some great ballots for us to rate and make comments. Thank you both!

We got quite a few dishes, so I'll just post the ones that are different from earlier in the thread. Please correct or amplify where needed...

Somtom - green papaya salad with dried shrimp

spicy beef - sorry, I forgot the name of this dish, and it's out of focus

Pad Thai

Panaeng Kai - chicken panaeng curry (peanut)

Yen Ta Fo - squid & fish cake noodle soup

Pad Kra Pow - wide noodles stir fried with chili and basil

and we also ordered

Tom Yum Goong - lemongrass soup with shrimp

Pork Larb

Vegetables with Green Curry

Sauteed Vegetables

Vegetarian Pad Thai

Sticky Rice

more coming...

[FoodZealot]

We stopped in at BhankanomThai, the snack and sweet shop in the same mini-mall. All sorts of exotica in there - freeze dried durian, sesame rosettes, coconut and fruit over crushed ice (similar to halo halo), mini taro and coconut cakes, and on and on.

We then walked over to the Thai grocery next door. We lost all but four at that point, so instead of eating just then, we saw a movie to give ourselves a rest. Our plan to go to Kruang Tedd had to be altered since the restaurant was taking a vacation starting yesterday. So the four diehards went to Jitlada instead. I'm quite sure we'll go there again with the whole group. We only ordered four items:

Sour sausage salad

Crispy catfish with green mango salad underneath

Chicken Fried Rice

and the Flambe Prawns, shown earlier in the thread. The seemed to be trying harder on dish presentation this time, so they may think that I'm a reviewer or something.

I think next we should go to the Wat Thai temple and perhaps another restaurant. How about either Jan 24 or 25 or Feb 7 or 8?

[Beachfan]

Props to Food Zealot for organizing the expedition!!!

Which was the sauteed greens that we got first? Exceptional.

The Somtom was superb.

I really liked the wide noodles with shrimp, chili, basil and tomatoes at the end.

And the larb was a winner.

It showed the value of a large group. There were good dishes and great dishes and the ones I thought would be the best weren't necessarily.

[Maison Rustique]

Well, I was drooling over those pix! Unfortunately I'm going to be gone for a bit. Mom's having some major surgery in KCMO and I'm going back there to take care of her for a few weeks.

I won't have a computer/internet connection there (unless my sis takes pity on me and brings a laptop from Topeka), so won't even be in touch for the next one.

Keep posting those pix and maybe I can make #3!

[jschyun]

I laughed my butt off over the chicken fried rice pic.

[FoodZealot]

Props to Food Zealot for organizing the expedition!!!

Which was the sauteed greens that we got first?  Exceptional.

The Somtom was superb.

I really liked the wide noodles with shrimp, chili, basil and tomatoes at the end.

And the larb was a winner.

It showed the value of a large group.  There were good dishes and great dishes and the ones I thought would be the best weren't necessarily.

Thanks, Beachfan. I'm happy to do it.

I forgot to list the morning glory greens - but now that I think of it, they were prepared a bit differently this time, compared to the picture earlier in the thread. This time, there were chilis, less garlic, and no vinegar sauce was served with it. Here's the plate from Saturday which had already been pounced upon.

BTW, the friendly couple who joined us was Becky and Issac.

That chicken fried rice was tasty! A nice balance between flavorful and not overly moist - or so I was told...

Maison Rustique, safe travels and best wishes. For anyone that missed it - tissue, ErinB, et al, I'm sure it won't take much to get us to go to these places again when you are able to go.

[kathe]

I walked out of Jitlada a few years ago before ordering. From the looks of the food coming out to other tables it looked like greasy chinese food for gringos. Was I wrong?

[mixmaster b]

I walked out of Jitlada a few years ago before ordering. From the looks of the food coming out to other tables it looked like greasy chinese food for gringos. Was I wrong?

Yes. While there is room for discussion about whether Jitlada is good, really good, or truly wonderful, it is in no way similar to greasy Chinese food for gringos. I've been going there for at least 5 years. Maybe you will join us when we do the e-gullet trip and try it out.

Ruen Pair was yummy! I will go back for sure. I thought there were some real winners, especially the tom yum goong, the morning glory, the larb, and the spicy beef. And it was REALLY inexpensive.

Thanks, Tad!

[FoodZealot]

I walked out of Jitlada a few years ago before ordering. From the looks of the food coming out to other tables it looked like greasy chinese food for gringos. Was I wrong?

kathe, welcome to eGullet and the California board.

I'm still learning about Thai food, but IMHO, Jitlada is one of the better Thai restaurants I've encountered thus far. If I am not mistaken, at least some of the menu is Isarn (Northern), so there may be more Chinese/Lao influence, but the flavors seem to be vibrantly Thai, at least to me. I hope you'll be able to join us or will give it a try on your own.

[ExtraMSG]

Good stuff. Makes me want to make a trip back to Southern California. I'd just alternate between Mexican and Thai, I think.

What was the final itinerary? I don't know that there was a straightforward summary of where you guys went. Comparative comments?