Midtown Lunch

It’s official… my new favorite thing about Los Angeles (and more specifically L.A. over NYC) is Thai boat noodles.  I can’t say for sure if there are or aren’t “boat noodles” in New York City (I’m guessing you can get them somewhere) but it isn’t like it is here.  Here, boat noodles are a thing. And like most regional specialties in L.A. (be it Thai or whatever) there are quite a few restaurants that specialize in this one dish.  For those of you who have never tried boat noodles (aka me, three weeks ago) it’s a beef noodle soup that got its name from being served off of boats in the rivers and canals of Thailand.  It is traditionally made with bits of beef, liver, tripe, and whatever else is on hand… but for those of you who aren’t into the offal, most restaurants in L.A. have a version that’s just pieces of plain old beef.  The one thing they can’t go easy on (or else it wouldn’t really be boat noodles) is…brace yourself… the blood.  (Please don’t stop reading.)

That’s right.  The not-so-secret ingredient in boat noodles is blood- but now that I’ve told you that, I want you to completely forget you ever knew it.  Because if nobody told you about the blood, and pushed this sweet and sour, savory and spicy soup in front of you and told you to drink, you’d love it. And why should a little blood get in the way of you tasting one of the best foodstuffs ever. I guarantee you will love it.  Well, maybe you wouldn’t love every version.  But some boat noodles are… let’s say… easier than others.  So the trick is to find the bowl that is right for you.

And if you thought department of health ratings or willingness to accept credit cards is a factor, it isn’t. They all get Bs and none of them take plastic.

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To truly understand Midtown Lunch (and me, for that matter) it might be helpful to go back and read my Guide to Beating the All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet.  It was written a few years ago, inspired by the only all you can eat Chinese buffet near my work (the only one in all of Manhattan, as far as I know).  To say I’m a huge fan of all you can eat buffets (especially those that serve Asian food) doesn’t really do justice to how I feel about the buffet.  Maybe the word “student” is more appropriate.  I have studied, and thought about, buffets for all my life.  And one day I hope to fulfill my dream of eating at a Chinese food buffet in every single state in the country.

Sadly, there aren’t many under $10 all you can eat buffets between Downtown L.A. and Santa Monica… unless you include Koreatown- but  those aren’t really buffets.  They’re just all you can eat- so you lose out on one my favorite parts of the buffet experience:  the variety.  Back in 2005, when I lived in L.A. the first time, there was only one all you can eat lunch buffet option near where I worked (on Miracle Mile).  On Fairfax, across from CBS, Chao Krung was my one buffet outlet- and while I remember it being just ok, I was excited to find out that it’s still there.  And still buffeting it up during lunch, for $9.99.

So yesterday, I headed over to put it to the test… and surprisingly, unlike most things I’ve tried again after 5 years of eating in NYC, it was far better than I remembered.

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Whenever anybody says that New York City is better than Los Angeles, one thing immediately pops into my head.  Thai food.  Sure, the Mexican food is awesome… but I’m kind of addicted to the Asian thing.  And, for me, the Thai food alone is enough to make me feel pretty damn good about my decision to move back to L.A.  And while there are little pockets of great Thai food all over SoCal, Thai Town in East Hollywood is still the mecca.  They have everything you could want, with countless restaurants specializing in a few great dishes… like the spicy catfish at Ganda, the great dessert place next door, the Northern Thai food specialties of Spicy BBQ or Pailin Thai, and for those who want a show (but don’t care about the food) there’s Thai Elvis.

But if you want a Southern Thai feast, of epic proportions, from a restaurant with a menu that is the Thai equivalent of the Cheesecake Factory (how… do… they… do… it!?) then there is only one spot for you:  Jitlada.  And if you want to do lunch at Jitlada, everybody who is a huge fan will tell you the same thing- “talk to Jo.  She goes every Thursday.”  And so last Thursday I asked Jo (from My Last Bite) if she would show us how the “Mayor” of Jitlada recommends doing lunch.  She agreed, and a crew was assembled of her friends just knowingly arrived to join us…

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Ever since visiting Thailand a few years ago, Khao Soi has become one of my all time favorite dishes.  The crunchy noodle topped curry dish, usually served with chicken, is a Northern thai specialty- so you won’t find it at most Thai restaurants (unless the owners are from the North.)  I love it so much that I had the version from Spicy BBQ as my very first Midtown Lunch here in L.A. (Spoiler Alert: It was awesome.)

So last week you can imagine how surprised I was to see the blog Sinosoul call the khao soi at Spicy BBQ an “atrocity”. After all it came recommended by “The Guru” himself.  And I thought it was pretty damn good. Hyperbole aside (I can assure you the khao soi at Spicy BBQ is not an atrocity) the comment was in the context of a pretty stellar review of the noodles from Pailin Thai.  And even though Tony “Mr. Sinosoul” C. is fairly acerbic, a known contrarian, and loathed by many of his contemporaries, I felt like if he found Spicy BBQ to be atrocious Pailin’s khao soi must be the second coming of Jeebus.

Only one way to find out.

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When a fat guy’s wishlist of places to eat is growing exponentially by the day, there is really only one thing said large man can do in the face of such adversity… start eating! Saveur’s homage to Los Angeles came out a week before Jonathan Gold’s 99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die list, so I feel obligated to start there. And nothing stood out more to me in those 104 pages of pure bliss than Editor James Oseland’s love of the crispy catfish at Ganda, in Hollywood’s Thai Town.

I don’t know James Oseland, but there are two things I know about him. 1) He edits my absolute favorite food magazine there is. 2) The guy knows a little bit about Asian food. So if he claims to have eaten the crispy catfish at Ganda five days in a row, I think it’s safe to say it’s worth checking out.

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I’ve been in L.A. only two weeks now and I have to admit I am completely overwhelmed.  Seriously.  How do you people do it?  With so many amazing and diverse neighborhoods, serving up interesting under $10 lunches, deciding where to eat every day is completely daunting.  No matter where you work, you can travel five minutes in any direction and find some strange deliciousness… and it’s no easy task trying to keep up with it.  My wife reminded me that I felt the same way when we moved from L.A. to Manhattan, and while that time and place seems like a distant memory, I vaguely remember that being my motivation for starting Midtown Lunch.

I guess what I’m trying to convince myself is this feeling of vertigo is familiar, and eventually it will pass (at least that is what I’m going to keep telling myself!)  The problem is I keep eating at places like Sri Siam!  The recommendations keep pouring in, each one better than the next, and while some people would take joy in finding a great new spot for lunch- I kind of find it depressing.  How many Sri Siams are there out there, and how will I find the time to eat at all of them!? And most importantly how am I supposed to find time to eat at Sri Siam again! And make no mistake about it… I really want to eat there again.

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I thought long and hard what my first lunch in L.A. would be. In Midtown it was this place called Hing Won, and it epitomized everything about what a perfect Midtown Lunch should be.  So I wanted my first lunch here to be just as special.  Street food?  An all you can eat buffet?  French dip?  So many options.  And then I saw this on Squid Ink. When asked by a reader where she could find the best khao soi in L.A., “The Guru” (aka Jonathan Gold) pointed her towards Spicy BBQ- a Northern Thai restaurant on Santa Monica and Normandie, on the outskirts of Thai Town.

I’ve been a big khao soi fan ever since trying it for the first time a few years ago in a Chiang Mai night market. You don’t see it too often in American Thai restaurants because it is exclusively a Northern Thai dish, and most restaurants here don’t serve dishes from the north. I had actually never tried (or even heard of) khao soi before seeing it being eaten by others in that night market, and my wife had to use the patented finger pointing ordering system to get us a bowl.

I found a decent version in Midtown, but it was a far cry from the original (isn’t it always?) and I was pretty excited to see if L.A. could do any better.  (Spoiler Alert: It can, and it does.)

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