Thai You Over

UPDATE ALERT UPDATE: Due to massive complaints by the neighbors who find the chanting of prayers too loud, and don't like the influx of cars parking in the neighborhood on weekends , the Thai Temple is closing! I'm not sure when, so go soon before this hidden gem is gone forever!!

Being back from a glorious vacation has been rough on the ol' Jaimey. I've been bit by the travel bug and this weekend I was in desperate need of another adventure. Because lower funds and my currentplace of employment wouldn't allow me to jump on a plane to some tropical land, I was in search of bringing an exotic destination closer to home. Thus, myself and two other unsuspecting food soldiers took off for North Hollywood for a Thai food extravaganza.

After a little Yelp and Chowhound snooping, I hit the goldmine: Wat Thai Temple. This beautiful temple in North Hollywood is the only traditional Thai Temple in all of Los Angeles (and the first built in the US), complete with adorable Buddhist monks in striking orange wraps (somebody's been reading Vogue and knows that orange is very "in" this season). On Saturdays and Sundays from 8am-6pm the temple houses several traditional Thai food vendors who sell their wares for $1-$5. If you're not sold yet like I was upon learning these facts, than this blog is not the place for you.
We arrived at the Temple after a little tift with Mr. Googlemaps who usually is very honest, but found the need to lead me astray on this particular Sunday. It was lunchtime, and agent 1 and agent 2 and I were very hungry.
With $20 on hand we purchased all the tokens we could. The food vendors don't take cash, instead you purchase tokens from a small booth and pay the vendors with the tokens - it's quite the experience! We split the coins and went in different directions in search of the best of what they had to offer.
Agent 1 went straight for the Mango and Sticky Rice ($3). The mangoes were beautiful and golden yellow, very sweet and refreshing.
The sticky rice was sweet and flavored with coconut, delicious alone, but fantastic when eaten together with the mango.

Agent 2 headed down a more hearty route, purchasing a Beef & Noodles in broth ($4).
The beef was perfectly cooked, and very lean. The broth was perfectly flavored, and the noodles were light and tasty.

So far, we're doing pretty good... so why stop here?

I went straight to the Papaya Salad ($3), which I heard so much about.
The salad was incredibly refreshing and great compliment to everything else we ordered. The salad consisted of broccoli slaw, green beans, cabbage and peanuts and was dressed with a sweet and spicy vinegar dressing.

From the same stand that sold me the Papaya Salad, I ordered two Chicken Skewers ($2), one Shrimp Ball Skewer ($2) and one Pork Sausage ($1).
The chicken was outstanding, but the shrimp was too fishy (made primarily of artificial fish) and the pork had a strange, crumbly consistency and was too strongly seasoned for our liking.

Lastly, I couldn't pass up the FRIED BANANA stand, where I purchased an assortment of fried Plantain, Pumpkin and Sweet Potato, 10 pieces for $2.
All three were very tasty, although by no means low in calories. The pumpkin and sweet potato were my favorite, crispy on the outside and sweet and creamy on the inside.

Clearly, we did well for ourselves, but if you did the math, you know that I had $2 in tokens remaining, and what better way to spend the money than on dessert. I made my way over to the Kanom Krok stand where two women, one quite old and one very young, were busy creating pancakes in a cast iron pan with 18 small divots.

The pancake batter is made primarily of coconut milk, rice flour, rice and salt. After that sets for a minute, the women poured a second batter of coconut milk and sugar on top to create a creamy and sweet center. We had to wait a while to get our 18 Kanom Krok, as there were only 2 skillets going and it was quite a popular dish, but it was well worth the wait - a light but very sweet treat!

We left the Wat Thai Temple with full bellies and smiles on our faces. The food was fantastic, and very inexpensive. The location, (although quite a trek from the Mid Wilshire sect of Los Angeles), was very beautiful. The area was buzzing with people, many Thai, but a lot doing the same thing as I was, searching for a tasty food adventure. I set out on this very Sunday with one thing in mind, and as you will see from the last picture: Adventure Accomplished.

Wat Thai of Los Angeles
8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave.
North Hollywood, 91605
$

Butter Me Up

In a town where my therapist is on the South Beach Diet, and my Gardner does leg-lifts in between pruning my roses, I am ever so amused by the cupcake revolution that has exploded on the L.A. scene. When Sprinkles opened in Beverly Hills, thrones bowed down in appreciation (well, maybe they were just purging, but what does that really matter). I too joined the masses in rekindling my fond appreciation of the tiny cakes, but couldn’t help but chuckle a little at the irony of the whole thing. I mean, do people know how many calories are in those little things? Whatever magical spell the cupcake vendors have put over our town, I’d like to borrow for a weekend’s shopping trip with my boyfriend (“you are getting spendy, very spendy…you want to buy expensive shoes for your girlfriend…”).

Needless to say, I am hooked on cupcakes. In search of something a little different than the every so trendy Sprinkles, I stumbled upon a little gem on Pico. Buttercake Bakery is squeezed next door to a Subway Sandwich, and if you blink on the block between Prosser and Manning streets, you’d almost miss the blue awning and the tiny flower boxes that dress the outside of the bakery. A step inside the small shop and you really appreciate this bakery for what it is: a bakery. There are no Oz curtains to pull back as the whole kitchen is exposed behind the counter. An operation of 4 people was busy baking with the voices of the Food Network cooing them through their hanging television set. The bakery case is adorably arranged with various cake tiers and pretty platters (and the baked goods didn’t look too bad themselves). But I wasn’t there for a chocolate chip cookie (which looked divine) or a lemon bar (which was calling my name). I was there for one thing and one thing only: a cupcake.

What I got was much more, for Buttercake offers their signature cupcakes in miniature sizes! That’s right, I can only get a little fat if I want to. So I did what any girl with an appetite would do and purchased 3 miniature cupcakes: Red Velvet, Chocolate with Mocha Buttercream and Vanilla with Vanilla Buttercream. I felt so skinny already, getting three cupcakes for less than the size of regular one. I think I stumbled upon the real Los Angeles oxymoron: diet(ish) cupcakes. While Buttercake doesn’t offer the plethora of flavors that our famed Sprinkles does, they do a great job with the limited items they create. The cupcakes themselves were buttery and moist. The Buttercream was divine: creamy, sweet and ooey gooey. The Cream Cheese frosting on the Red Velvet was to die for. The Mocha frosting took the cake (pun intended, as always) blowing away any cupcake Sprinkles makes. A must go for an only slightly guilty pleasure.

Buttercake Bakery
10595 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064
$

Today is a BIG Day!

Photo Courtesy of Jupiter Images

Osteria Mozza and Craft open up their doors to the public! It's like someone gave me two puppies. Now I just have to find the $ to buy their puppy chow. Donations? Dates?

Update: You can check out Osteria Mozza's menu on Eater LA.

Have you been to Cuban?

Photo Courtesy of www.labodeguitadepico.com

La Bodeguita de Pico is a charming Cuban restaurant just a stones throw away from Roscoe's. You know, for those nights you're debating between a heart attack and a cultural experience, I would always sway you towards the latter, but it's good to know you have options.

If you do in fact decide to dine at La Bodeguita de Pico, you will be pleasantly surprised. The restaurant itself is clean and garners the look of Cuba without being overly showy. The colors are neutral with a few brightly designed accents. The chairs and tables are made of a heavy, dark wood, and the ambiance is very pleasant and inviting.

The menu is very reasonably priced and offers a lot of fresh and tasty options. If you're really hungry and on a budget, I recommend the Pollo Asado, which is all you can eat chicken for $16. They serve you out of a big pot, so you get the whole dining experience to boot. On this particular evening, I went for the Clasico Plato Cubano ($16), which is described as a classic Cuban dish with white rice and black beans, roast pork and ground beef in a Habanera sauce and yucca with Cuban sauce served with a sweet plantains. The presentation was lacking, but the pork was excellent: very tender, well seasoned and delish! The pork itself was enough of a meal, but it also comes with ground beef in a thick sauce that was very good but a little too heavy for my taste. The fried plantains were very good and a great compliment to the plate.

This restaurant is a great date spot. Not only is the food very good, but you feel like you uncovered a secret when you go inside. LBDP is relatively new and makes you feel like you are very much a part of the birth of the place. In addition, the restaurant also offers Salsa lessons for $7 on Sunday nights, so what's better than a little Cuban food and some Cuban dancing?

Get a taste of Cuba without the fear of returning to your home and being tracked by the American government for the rest of your life. Go, eat and tell me about it for goodness sake!

La Bodeguita de Pico
5047 West Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019
323.937.2822
$$

It only took me 4 times driving past the "Coming Soon" sign to check out the details on SweetCake. Although I never visited their previous location, I'm so excited to welcome this adorable bakery to my 'hood. Yelpers seem to have found the Hollywood location to be a gem, so yay for late Summer 2007 when SweetCake will again open it's doors.

SweetCake
633 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036

I Have Failed You

I apologize for the lack of postings. I was on vacation in Israel and Greece and trust me, I ate my way through those countries. I will be adding some new posts soon so be patient my little friends.

- Jaimey