Restaurant Review #146: Swan Thai, North Hollywood

Larb-ground meat tossed in lime vinaigrette mixed with ground toasted rice


Driving down Sherman Way, you're unlikely to be enticed to stop at Swan Thai, located across the street from the 99 cent store in a creamy orange strip mall where the mostly empty parking lot is strewn with trash. Swan Thai may do most of its business through delivery and takeout, because the food is very good, but at prime lunch time on a weekend only two tables were occupied.

The atmosphere feels a little grungy--it's partly that the parking lot gives off an icky vibe before you've even entered the restaurant. If you're feeling skeptical, check out the menu taped to the window--the huge variety of dishes and the great prices will convince you. Inside, you'll find red vinyl booths, embroidered gauzy cream curtains, and dark green tablecloths topped with plexiglass. Fake wooden window panes with mirrors instead of glass decorate one wall. A strong but not particularly cold air conditioner rustles the curtains and the leaves on a small tree near the door as well as providing the only sound in the restaurant besides the clanking of dishes in the kitchen and the chatter of other diners. Replacing the stained ceiling tiles and flourescent lighting would do a lot for the atmosphere, but this is a low-budget place that's strictly about food.

It's been ages since I've had larb, a salad made of ground meat and a spicy lime juice dressing. Swan Thai has quite a few larb options: fish, duck, beef, pork, or chicken (duck and fish are more expensive). Even though I don't like pork, I like pork larb. If you don't like to eat raw onions, you'll have to do a bit of picking to get through this dish. I suspect that the unappetizing name (larb sounds a lot like lard) may be a turnoff for some, but if you can get past it, you're in for a treat.


Traditional fish cakes blended with red Thai curry paste and green beans

Most fish cakes taste about the same to me (with the exception of Krua Thai's, which are loaded with green chiles). These were predictably good. The only thing that was notable about them was that they were cut into smaller pieces than usual.


Pad kee mao - stir fried noodles with onions, bell pepper and mint leaves in spicy sauce

Swan Thai's rendition of pad kee mao has plenty of thick, chewy noodles and flavorful beef. A few more peppers and mint leaves might be good, but for those who don't like their noodles contaminated with veggies, this dish is a great bet. I asked for medium spiciness, but what I got wasn't spicy at all (they did put some chiles and Sriracha on the side that I could mix in). I liked that it wasn't too greasy, unlike Krua Thai's version, but I liked the spiciness and the texture of the beef at Krua better.

Almost everything on the menu is either $6 or $7, with the most expensive item coming in at a mere $12. Everything you see here cost me just $21, and I have several days' worth of leftovers. To save even more money, take this tip from a fellow foodie on Chowhound: ask for the $2 menu.

The service was friendly, the food was fast, and even though I got my food to go, it was still presented nicely when I opened the takeout containers. Wow!

I suspect that there may be a link between Swan Thai and Sri Siam because their food seems quite similar and they have both modified their business cards to cover up the "closed Wednesdays." Does anyone know?

What are your favorite dishes at Swan Thai? Leave a comment! I'll definitely be back and I'd love recommendations.




Swan Thai Restaurant
12728 Sherman Way (just east of Coldwater Canyon)
North Hollywood, CA 91605
818.764.1892
Swan Thai Hours 10:30am-10pm daily
Free delivery within 4 miles, $10 minimum

Restaurant Review #127: Wat Thai Festival, North Hollywood

Last weekend, I went to the Songkran festival at Wat Thai temple in North Hollywood. The temple is on Coldwater Canyon, close to the end of the earth. The temple faces diagonally, so the view of it from the street isn't great, but it's so huge and different from everything that surrounds it that there's no way you'll miss it. Parking was difficult, but we found free parking on a residential street several blocks away (and walking a few blocks isn't such a bad thing when you're about to chow down).

What is the Songkran festival about? Wat Thai's website explains it better than I could:

Songkran Tradition is held as Thai New Year Tradition which is a very important and beautiful national culture of the Thai people for a long time. The foreigners are also very interested in this tradition. Songkran Day is the day of concern that people will perform a bathing rite for Buddha images and the monks, sprinkle scented water over the elders and ask for their benedictions, and splash water over every person in sight. To show of the delight by blessing one another to be happy and good luck is a beauty of Songkran Tradition, thus the adherent of this tradition can help keeping good mind, good manner, kindness and gratitude.

I hear from Chowhound that they have vendors selling food from booths every weekend, so I suppose the festival was, in some respects, a more intense version of that. Overall, what I saw wasn't very exciting as far as festivals go. The live performances were pretty painful to watch, and the event seemed to be more about consumerism than anything else. The area around the temple was packed with vendors, some selling food, some selling the usual things you can buy on the street: 2 for $5 earrings, mirrored handbags, fake Coach bags, CD's and DVD's, clothes, incense, and more.

Then there was the fat burning supplement stand, complete with disgusting stomach photos, the Western Union stand, teeming with workers in bright yellow shirts, and the "Stop! I know you want to help save the elephants!" girl. At least entrance was free, unlike many festivals I've been to in other cities.


Fish cakes

As the only white girl at the event, I felt a little out of place and very tall. I was hoping for some good photo opportunities, but everything was so chaotic and close together that it was hard to know how to take an interesting photo without being obtrusive. As an outsider, I also had my inhibitions about being one of those obnoxious people who likes to photograph people who look different from them and then pretend that the photos have some interesting National Geographic-esque quality to them just because the subjects aren't white. That's not me.
I wish I had gone into the temple, but I'm not Buddhist and I thought it might be rude. I think sometimes I try too hard to be sensitive to other cultures and miss out on cool opportunities. That's just part of my introverted nature, I suppose.

I had a hard time finding the food--from where I entered, the food stands were all the way in the back. Though it was late in the afternoon and vendors were starting to run out of things, I did manage to get some fried banana and fried taro, fish cakes, and mango sticky rice. What I didn't get were these delicious smelling pancake things with an unidentifiable bright green paste in the middle, and I was pretty peeved since I had waited in line for 15 minutes and no one bothered to tell me that they were running out.

We also had some boba from Modern Teaism, the company that used to be Upper House and isn't as good anymore. The drink lost its flavor toward the end, which is common with frozen blended drinks (in my experience, the more cream a drink has, the more likely it is to hold its flavor until the end, but of course, the cream makes it terribly unhealthy).

To add to the general chaos of trying to move through the crowds, some booths only accepted plastic tokens that you had to purchase at a separate booth. Maybe if I read Thai I would have known this before getting to the front of the line, but I don't. I wasn't sure what the rules were, since I purchased earrings and boba with cash, but I couldn't purchase any of the other food that way. (Is boba tea not considered food?) For those of you familiar with Wat Thai--do the food booths only use tokens every weekend?

I wanted to try some new things, but when you've been eating foreign cuisines for long enough, the novelty starts to wear off. I already knew that palm sugar pretty much tastes like regular sugar, so I didn't feel the need to try the palm sugar sweets, and I already knew that egg yolk candy grosses me out (I like omelets, but that's the only form of egg I've ever liked), so I ended up sticking to tried and true things: fish cakes, deep fried banana and taro, and mango sticky rice.

You can't go wrong with mango sticky rice. The name is a bit deceiving: since the mango isn't mixed into the rice in any way, the dish would be best called sticky rice with mango (and probably sometimes is). The rice is mixed with a thin sauce whose mostly sweet but slightly salty flavor is completely addictive, and fresh chunks of mango are served alongside it.

I probably would have gotten some pad Thai or some of the soup that I saw lots of people with, but the lines for the hot food were painfully long, and it's not like I've never had pad Thai before. I should also point out that since I am somewhat allergic to shellfish and the Thais love shrimp, eating unfamiliar Thai food is not always the best idea for me.

The fish cakes were cheap, at 6 for $3, but they were small and barely warm, so I didn't eat them until that evening when I could nuke them. I was turned away at the first booth I tried to order them from, but the seemingly identical booth next to it sold me their last batch. The fried banana and taro were incredibly greasy. The taro was dry and hard to eat without sips of water in between each bite. The banana was better, and I liked that it was tangy, like a slightly underripe banana, but still soft. There were lots of jam-packed picnic-style benches for eating your food, but I don't like crowds, so I got my food on my way out and ate in the car.


I'm sure this sand pile is significant somehow

Overall, if you're just looking for good, authentic Thai food, you might have a better time eating at a restaurant in North Hollywood or Thai Town. If you want to sample smaller portions of lots of food at low prices and you don't mind crowds and lines, Wat Thai is a great bet. The festival itself didn't impress me (maybe more interesting things were happening earlier, or on Sunday), but I was glad that I actually got out and did one of the interesting things that this city has to offer. I love that in Los Angeles, I can get a taste of another country, but unlike actually traveling to that country, I can go back to my own comfortable life when I get tired. Those of you who have traveled abroad know how exhausting culture shock can be.

If you missed it, don't worry--the next festival, the Loy Kratong festival, is in November.


Wat Thai of Los Angeles
8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave
North Hollywood, CA 91605
Website

Restaurant Review #121: Sanamluang Cafe, North Hollywood

Indian curry noodles with beef

If you're never been to Sanamluang Cafe before, you may be thoroughly confused when you walk in. Do I seat myself? Do I order at the counter? Is there a real menu with words, or do I have to pick one of those numbered photos and hope for the best?

I read good things about Sanamluang Cafe on Chowhound. Anyone who maligns the Valley for not having good food has clearly never been to North Hollywood, the third mecca of Thai food (after Thailand and Thai Town, of course).

I was really confused when I first walked into this restaurant. There was no sign of a hostess, and behind the counter, instead of a regular menu, there were rows and rows of backlit (lightbox-style) photos of food. My plan was to just order vegetarian pad Thai and fish cakes like I always do, especially because with a purely pictorial menu there was no way I'd be able to safely pick something new. Fortunately, they do have real menus. Just walk up to the counter and get a menu, and if you're staying, someone will point you to a table. The photos aren't the best, but they are a nice complement to the menu descriptions and a good way to avoid stupid patron questions about what a dish is like.

It was a cold, rainy day, and the metallic tables and chairs were freezing. In spite of that, my friend couldn't resist ordering a cold drink. Neither of us understood the waiter's heavily accented description of the pink drink photographed but not named on the menu. He ordered it anyway, which was a very proud moment for me. I love it when my adventurousness rubs off on formerly conservative eaters! Our waiter was friendly and very accomodating of our non-Thainess. The hostess made me mad though when she seated a large party with several children right behind our table, when there were many other empty tables available.



Mystery drink with boba

The drink was pretty sweet, then sort of sour but not puckery while still retaining its sweetness. I understood that it was some sort of fruit drink, though I couldn't identify the flavor (or what fruit was supposed to be represented by the very late 80's pink food coloring).


Pad Thai with tofu

I didn't order fish cakes because they only had shrimp cakes. Did you know that you can often tell how authentic a Thai restaurant is by the prevalence of both fresh and dried shrimp on the menu? If you're allergic, note that there is an extra charge for shrimp in most dishes at Sanamluang Cafe, which means you'll be safe if you order the basic plate. If you're really allergic though, you probably don't belong in a Thai restaurant (and I'm very sorry).

I did get my pad Thai, though. In general, my chief complaint about pad Thai is that the noodles are never chewy enough (except at Krua Thai and Cholada), and this was no exception. The tofu, however, was the real star of the dish. Instead of the usual dense squares, the dish came with big hunks of fantastically spongy bean curd. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it. Where can I buy this stuff, I wonder? The dish was pretty saucy, but there really isn't a right way to make pad Thai--every cook has his own version, and part of the fun is that it tastes different everywhere. It's also a great comeback when people make fun of you for ordering it--just make up something about how you're on a mission to find the best rendition of pad Thai in Los Angeles, and make sure to cite my previous sentence. There is a reason why pad Thai is so popular--it's good! Maybe I do come across as a stereotypical foreigner every time I order it, but at least I enjoy my meal.


Barbecued pork with rice

I'll admit that I don't like pork to start with, but the main reason I didn't like the barbecued pork dish was because the sickeningly sweet sauce tasted like gingerbread cookies. There were also some pieces of something sort of spongy and salty that I couldn't identify. Could it have been deep fried pork fat?

To try something new, I ordered Indian curry noodles with beef. Once and for all, I was forced to concede that I don't like coconut milk based curries anymore. Panang curries used to be my favorite--I even learned how to make a mean one at home (thanks, Mae Ploy), and now I can't stand them. Sigh. That aside, the dish still wasn't great, since the noodles were clumped together and I kept splashing my clothes with broth each time I tried to pull them out. The flavor of the beef reminded me of beef stroganoff. The dishes here are super-cheap though (about $6-8), so anyone but the poorest college student can afford to take a chance on a second dish.


Dining room

Sanamluang Cafe is located in a strip mall with very tight parking (a parking attendent helps direct traffic, though). It looked like a nightmare when we pulled up, but we somehow got a spot right away. Of all the authentic Thai restaurants I've been to in LA, almost all of them have the same horrendous parking situation. Why is that?

The interior was funky with lots of neon. It reminded me of Toi, or maybe even Krua Thai, but significantly sleeker thanks to the metallic tables. Incidentally, eating off of a metal table gives the impession that things are extra clean. Most restaurants that are this cheap don't pay much attention to decor. I wouldn't take a date here or anything, but it's far from a hole in the wall.

Try to avoid sitting in the far corner by the drink coolers--it's noisy. Make sure to check out the bathrooms though, which are consistent with the restaurant's decor, and quite a trip.

They also have insane hours. They're open until 4:00 AM!

Sanamluang Cafe
12980 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA 91605
818-764-1180
10:00 AM-4:00 AM

Restaurant Review #99: Krua Thai, North Hollywood

Pad Thai Krua Thai

I chose Krua Thai because it's one of Jonathan Gold's 99 Essential LA Restaurants, and because I'm trying to expand my foodie universe beyond the Westside orbit.

The restaurant's name means Thai Kitchen, which, though not very inventive, is a fitting name given that the dishes here are more authentic than they are at the plethora of Thai restaurants I am accustomed to eating at on the Westside.

The restaurant is known for its noodles, and in fact the front cover of the menu quotes Jonathan Gold as proclaiming that Krua Thai serves the best pad Thai in Los Angeles.

Finally, an excuse to order my favorite dish without being mocked for being unoriginal.

The menu offers both pad Thai and pad Thai Krua Thai, so I chose the latter, what with it being a signature dish and all. The difference between the two is that the pad Thai Krua Thai is spicy. I always thought pad Thai was supposed to be spicy, though I'm not sure what I based that assumption on, given that I'd never been served spicy pad Thai before.

Much to my relief, the restaurant was happy to accomodate my request to leave out the dried shrimp, and the dish already comes with tofu. You can add chicken, beef, or pork for no extra charge, or regular shrimp for another $1.50. The chicken was ground, so I assume the other meat would be, too. Since it's hard to impart chicken strips with the flavor of pad Thai, I think grinding the meat was a good choice.

Krua Thai's recipe is the (perhaps) more authentic version that uses tamarind paste, not ketchup, as a base for the sauce. Sadly, I've actually gotten really used to the bright reddish orange version of the dish (I like to think that it's not made with ketchup though, especially since I don't even like ketchup) and now I actually prefer this version. As far as authenticity goes, from what I understand, there is no one right way to make pad Thai, and what with globalization, for all I know there are street vendors making pad Thai with kethcup over in Thailand. Also, I think it's better without the heat. Although there's generally nothing wrong with mixing sweet and spicy, something about the sweetness of this sauce doesn't mix with chilies, according to my taste buds. I still prefer the pad Thai at Cholada Beach Thai.

The noodles were indeed nice and chewy, though I don't see how that sets Krua Thai apart from any other place that knows how to cook noodles. Rice noodles are easy to mess up, I can attest to that, but for a restaurant that knows it's stuff, this is a basic, basic thing that no one should get extra credit for.


Dining room

The dining room was decked out with Christmas lights and tinsel, and neon lights and brightly colored walls mean that it must look festive year-round. In spite of the decor, the place doesn't exactly have atmosphere--it isn't a place I wanted to linger after my meal was done, or a place I would take a date. A lot of the tables are very large, which leaves me wondering if, at busier times, you end up sharing these large tables with strangers, a la Palms Restaurant. Fortunately, at lunch time, we secured our own table. It was kind of greasy and didn't look like it had been wiped down very well, but alas, I suppose that is part of the authentic ethnic experience. Actually, no, I don't think "dirty table" is anywhere in the definition of "ethnic."

Our server was friendly and took our order promptly, though she disappeared for a while near the end when we were ready to pay and get our leftovers boxed up. Krua Thai gets points for being environmentally friendly because they use Chinese-style paperboard takeout containers. Why must so many restaurants use styrofoam?





















To drink, we ordered palm juice, which came in a bottle accompanied by a large cup brimming with crushed ice. We also blindly ordered a whole young coconut (pictured above). The palm juice wasn't that exciting, which was disappointing because drinking whatever brand they serve at Palms Restaurant is simply a heavenly experience reminiscent of liquid sugar cookies, if such a thing existed.

The whole young coconut was, in fact, a whole young coconut, with a little door cut into the top so I could poke my straw in and suck out the clear, sweet liquid whose consistency was much like water. It also came with a spoon, which I assumed was for scraping bits of coconut from the insides.

I would recommend getting a sweet drink to go with your meal. As I sit here eating my leftovers accompanied by only a glass of water, I'm finding myself really craving something sweet. Yes, Thai food is sweet, but the flavor it leaves behind in your mouth is salty and spicy.


Pad Kee Mao

The other dish we ordered was also a noodle dish called pad kee mao which I have never tried before. The dish consisted of wide, flat noodles, ground beef, tomatoes, onions, and mint leaves. This dish was just okay. It's main selling point for me was the noodles, but the overall flavor was a bit lackluster, and the noodles were very greasy. Also, I really have no desire to eat entire strips of onion, large chunks of cooked tomato with the skin on, or mint leaves, so I had to pick around those things to get to the noodles and beef. Finally, while this was listed under noodle dishes, the noodle to meat ratio didn't seem right--there was much more meat than there were noodles.


Fish cakes

As usual, I couldn't resist ordering an appetizer of fish cakes. These were chock-full of tiny, fresh, sliced green chilies, but that didn't mean they were too spicy. The real heat was in the dipping sauce, though if you don't eat a bunch of sauce straight out of the spoon like I did, you shouldn't find your throat catching on fire. It isn't really a spicy sauce, more of a sweet sauce, it just happens to have a a few pepper bits in it. It's that red sauce with cucumbers and crushed peanuts that fish cakes always come with.

Here's something useful I figured out when I was getting my leftovers packaged up. You know how they never package the sauce in with your leftovers? Well, if you dump the remaining sauce all over your food while it's still on the plate, they have to package your sauce. This only works with foods that won't become soggy, of course, but I've eaten the leftover fish cakes and the sauce dumping trick worked nicely.

By the way, we had plenty of leftovers even though we came in famished. I'm also starting to think that Jonathan and I don't have similar tastes, and that his reviews really don't tell me everything I need to know about a restaurant.

In addition to noodles, Krua Thai serves 21 appetizers (fried tofu, fried taro, nam-thai sour sausage); 10 soups (wonton soup, tom yum koong, spicy beef tripe soup); 19 salads (papaya salad, larb, salted blue crab salad); 21 rice dishes (roasted duck over rice, catfish with chili sauce over rice, pineapple fried rice); 37 entrees (fried salted turnip with egg, clams with chili paste in oil, tilapia with Thai herbs); and several drinks and desserts. As you can see, there is something for everyone, and enough variety to keep you interested for many, many visits. They also have a special vegetarian menu!

Total cost of this meal for two, including tax and tip: about $30

Krua Thai
13130 Sherman Way
North Hollywood, CA
818-759-7998
Open daily 11:30am-3:30am

Second location (not reviewed):
Hong Kong Market Plaza
935 S. Glendora Ave.
West Covina
626-480-0116