In July we ate at our (and everyone else’s) favourite bastion of southern Thai cooking in the US, Jitlada, and also at the less ambitious (and expensive) Yai. This time around we decided to eat at a couple of places in Thai Town we hadn’t been to before and settled on Red Corner Asia and Pailin Thai. Red Corner Asia is officially within Thai Town (whose western boundary is Western Ave.) and Pailin Thai is a few blocks further west but I think we can all agree that it can only be a good thing if Thai Town grows and colonizes more of Hollywood. Let’s take the meals in chronological order: Continue reading
Tag Archives: Thai Cuisine
Yai, Twice (Los Angeles, Summer 2013)
With my carefully honed skill for the obvious, I noted in my review of our recent meal at Jitlada that there are other places to eat as well in Thai Town and that most of them are far less expensive. They’re not necessarily far less excellent though. Evidence for this claim: Yai. We ate two lunches here a week apart from each other; one was excellent and the other was just quite good.
Yai is a bit of a hole in the wall in a strip mall on Hollywood Blvd. (between Wilton and Van Ness) anchored by a 7-Eleven and is cash-only. The aesthetic of the small room is functional (you’re really not paying for ambience here), but the flavours of the food are baroque. At our first meal we arrived at noon and were only the second table seated, but by the time we left at 1.10 the place was hopping. We didn’t order much by our standards, but everything was excellent.
Jitlada (Los Angeles, Summer 2013)
My greatest culinary regret from my years in Los Angeles is not exploring Thai Town more than I did. Los Angeles is home to a very large expatriate Thai population, reportedly the largest Thai population outside Thailand (you can probably repeat this statement for a number of ethnicities). And Thai Town (designated in 1999)–on the eastern end of Hollywood–is home to a large number of Thai restaurants. And then there are a number of acclaimed restaurants in places such as Norwalk and Garden Grove as well. We’ve eaten lunches at two of the Thai Town luminaries on this trip. Continue reading