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L.A. Chow: Lum Ka Naad

October 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

An exploration of Northern and Southern Thai cuisines

Los Angeles is a great city for Thai food. It’s in LA where I first became acquainted with Thai food, and I’ve had many a memorable Thai meal there. While Thai restaurants have become common in the Bay Area over the last three decades, and we have several ones even in San Leandro, there is still something special about LA Thai food.

Lum Ka Naad is not your ordinary Thai restaurant. It has an extremely extensive menu offering stereotypical Thai dishes as well as classics from other parts of Asia. More interestingly, they also offer a handful of unique dishes from Northern and Southern Thailand, allowing you to explore Thai cuisine more thoroughly. We visited the restaurant during our last visit to my family in the SF Valley, and I’m sure well return.

The restaurant itself is pretty casual, though more by juxtaposition than design. The dining area, if isolated, would be somewhat elegant. It’s decorated with non-garish pieces of Thai art. Alas, the bar/check out and their staging area, including where they keep their carts, are all open to the dining room and bring down the elegance factor by several notches. So just think casual.

We started dinner with an appetizer of beef satay ($15), which was delicious. It brought me back when I was first introduced to the dish so many decades ago. The beef is marinated in a curry then grilled and served with peanut sauce. Both the beef and sauce were on point. It’s been years since I last ordered satay – and I realize now that it’s because many restaurants don’t provide a beef option, and chicken or pork satay can be very dry. The beef was tender and didn’t suffer that problem.

We also shared an appetizer of angel wings ($16). These are boneless chicken wings stuffed with a mixture of ground chicken and glass noodles, then battered and fried. It was a very substantial dish, and I thought it was tasty though not out of this world delicious. Mike liked it more, I think. We took most of this home and reheated it a couple of days later, it stood up to time and microwaving quite well. Still, I wouldn’t order it again, though Mike might.

For dinner, I had the larb kua ($17) from the northern menu. Larb or laab, is a dish of Lao origins that has been adopted and modified in some areas of northern Thailand. I’d never had the northern Thai version, in which the meat is marinated with spices and then pan fried.

It was very tasty. It’s not a huge dish, and I actually finished it all, but I really enjoyed it. I had it with ground beef, but you can choose ground pork or chicken instead. The spicing was delicious and the texture added by the garlic was great.

Mike had the sator & shrimp ($20), a dish consisting of sator beans sautéed with shrimp, ground pork and a shrimp paste sauce. Sator beans, also known as stinky beans for their strong, foul aroma, are a feature of southern Thai cuisine. The dish was pretty spicy, but Mike thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a new flavor combination for him, pungent to say the least. The problem were the leftovers. They stank up my mother’s refrigeration and led her to ban us from using it in the future. The smell lasted even after the leftovers were consumed and she cleaned the fridge. If you order this, make sure to eat it all and don’t take it home.

My sister had the panang curry with chicken ($17). This was a good but not extraordinary version of this dish – but this is a dish so good that it’s hard to make any better. She enjoyed it quite a bit.

My nice, meanwhile, had the orange chicken ($16.50), but with with tofu instead of chicken. Made this way, this Chinese favorite is vegan. She enjoyed that it had been made with actual oranges, and remarked on the freshness of the flavor.

Service was great, our waitress was very attentive and cheerful, and helped us navigate the long menu.

We definitely enjoyed our meal and would return. There is a second Lum Ka Naad location in Encino, for those closer to that area.

Lum Ka Naad 
8910 Reseda Blvd,
Northridge, CA
(818) 882-3028
Mon - Sun : 11:00 am - 10:00 pm

Los Angeles Restaurant Reviews

Trader Joe’s Thai Style Yellow Curry Sauce Review

September 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A disappointment for any yellow curry lover

I love yellow curry, and I particularly love getting yellow curry and roti at Thai restaurants. The appetizer is expensive, and not very filling, but oh, so delicious. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that Trader Joe’s Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes made a reasonable substitute for roti, but I needed some yellow curry to complete my at-home hack. Enter Trader Joe’s Thai Style Yellow Curry Sauce ($3.50).

Alas, this yellow curry is just not very good. Indeed, it only vaguely tastes like yellow curry – I’d say the taste is closer to American or Japanese curry powder. It lacks the vibrancy and perfume of Thai yellow curry, and substitutes it for an unpleasant bitter undertone. The curry is also very thick and heavy – not surprising given that its main ingredient, after water, is oil.

Now, it might be that this sauce is better with actual meats after being heated u, and perhaps somewhat diluted – but I don’t think I’ll try to find out.

I am afraid that I’ll just throw away the whole bottle.

Munching Around the Bay: Khao Hom in Hayward

August 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Updated Thai food and a killer roti

Khao Hom is a newish Thai restaurant in Hayward which has been getting great reviews. I found it when looking for “date” restaurants nearby and was excited to give it a try on a Saturday evening in August. It was good, but ultimately disappointing and I don’t think we’ll hurry back – though I wouldn’t say “no” if someone else suggested it.

The dining room we were NOT seated at

My first disappointment was with the seating. Khao Hom has two dining rooms, a pretty nice one that would make a good setting for a date, and a more casual one that screamed “weekday lunch”. Even though this was a Saturday evening, that’s where we, and the rest of the patrons, were seated. We did go relatively early – the place got full by the time we left, but the other dining room was no opened.

I was particularly bummed because from my seat all I got was a view of the kitchen door – not what I’d say “romantic”.

Khao Hom’s menu includes classic as well as modernized versions of typical Thai dishes. We weren’t super hungry so we forewent appetizers and went directly into our entrees.

We started with Roti Gai Tod ($22). This consisted of fried chicken, a roti, a mound of rice, yellow curry sauce and a sweet and sour sauce. The fried chicken was good, though nothing extraordinary. The meat was fairly moist but the breading was too thick. I preferred it with the sweet and sour sauce than with the yellow curry.

The yellow curry, however, was very good – though in the sense that yellow curry is really good, this wasn’t a specially good yellow curry. The roti, on the other hand, was delicious. It was very flaky, tasty in itself and very oily. It went great with the curry. We ended up getting two more, including one to go ($3.50)

Our second dish – we shared them – was Short Rib Massaman ($27). The massive piece of meat looked more like a shank than a short rib -for one, it wasn’t short at all, but it was just as good. The beef was tender, if fatty, and very flavorful. The massaman curry was also tasty, perhaps a little different from others but not enough that I can pinpoint the reason. It must the first massaman curry in which the potatoes were not partly raw. In all I enjoyed it, though I’m not sure if I enjoyed it enough to merit the price. I did have some of he meat leftover for the next day, however.

For dessert, we had the stuffed roti ($12). This was a roti stuffed with a banana and served with grapes and berries under a chocolate sauce. It was OK. The rotti is a bit salty and I’m not sure whether I liked this or not. The fruit was fresh and the sauce was ok. I don’t think I’d order it again.

We only had a soda with dinner ($3.50).

Service was very good. When I told the waiter I wanted another roti to go, he took my leftover yellow curry and added more to it to take home. Indeed, the fact that they have rotis on the side is a big plus for me. I might go back and just order the yellow curry (albeit the one from the street food menu) and a bunch of rotis.

Khao Hom also serves breakfast, and the reviews for that are fairly good, so we might try it sometime. 

Khao Hom
Foothill Boulevard
Hayward, CA
(510) 926-428922545 
Daily 9 AM - 3 PM, 5-9 PM

San Leandro Bites: SL Kitchen

May 27, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Lao sausage shines at this mostly Thai restaurant

SL Kitchen opened in San Leandro during the pandemic but we never got around to trying it until last week. We are quite fond of Mai Thai and it’s where we automatically go when we are in the mood for Thai food. Still, I’d been hearing good things about SL Kitchen so I proposed we eat there when our friend Maximilian came to visit us.

The restaurant occupies the McArthur Blvd space previously held by Chang’s and Kai Bistro. It consists of two boxy dining rooms, without much in the way of decore, though they do have some lovely bronze elephant statutes outside, which I think little kids would love to play with. It’s a nice enough place, for a relaxed, casual meal.

We started with the Fresh Spring Rolls ($12), which include shrimp, bean sprouts, herbs and lettuce in a thin wrap and were served with a peanut sauce. Both Mike and Maximilian loved them, Mike thought the peanut sauce was phenomenal.

But the real revelation were the Lao Style Sausages ($13). They were fresh and vibrant and delicious. They are made with pork, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaf, and the aromas of the herbs really broke through. They were unexpected and wonderful. Maximilian thought it was worth driving to San Leandro just to have them again.

I was far less impressed with my Yellow Curry with Beef ($15). The curry was OK, but it lacked the vibrancy and deliciousness of the yellow curry at Mai Thai. The portion was also somewhat smaller. Rice ($2) is on the side, which works well for people like Mike who prefer to avoid it. In all, I wouldn’t order it again.

Mike had the Panang Curry with Chicken ($15), one of his standards at Thai restaurants. He felt the same as I felt about my yellow curry: it was fine, but not nearly as good as the panang curry at Mai Thai.

Maximilian had the Spicy Green Beans with Chicken ($16.50). He said he liked it, but he was far more effusive about the sausage appetizer.

After the amazing version of sticky rice with mango that I’d had at Jo’s Modern Thai, I was ready for another taste of the original version of this dessert. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the Mango Sticky Rice ($8.50) at SL Kitchen. It was, like the dishes before, fine – but uninspired. The rice could have been softer and had a silkier sauce. The mango could have been riper. Again, I prefer the version of this dessert served at Mai Thai.

Maximillian ordered the Fried Banana with Ice Cream ($8). He also seemed to like it but didn’t ooooh and aaaah about it.

Service was efficient and friendly, they didn’t complain when we stayed later, and it’s nice place to hang out with friends. But the food, albeit beautifully presented, is less than stellar for Thai food – which has a super high bar to begin with. In all, I continue to prefer Mai Thai, though it’s not as close to my house.

SL Kitchen
1057 Macarthur Blvd
San Leandro, CA
(510) 567-3529
Tu - Su 11:00 am - 02:45 pm, 5:00 pm - 08:45 pm

Oakland Eats: Jo’s Modern Thai

May 17, 2024 / / 0 Comments

It turns out you can make Thai food even better.

Update: The Chef and sous chef have resigned

Let’s be honest, Thai food is absolutely delicious. Mind blowing yummy. With its expert combination of sweet, sour and spicy flavorings, and a complete mastering of umami, Thai cuisine ranks among the best in the world. Take your average strip mall Thai joint in Los Angeles and compare it to a three star Michelin star restaurant, and on flavors alone, the Thai joint might very well win. Indeed, one of the most amazing things about Thai food, is how consistently good it is (at least in California). Sure, you can find some duds once in a while, but those seem to be the exception.

So, I was very curious to find out how the very well reviewed and quite expensive Jo’s Modern Thai could elevate Thai food even further. Was it possible to “modernize it,” whatever that meant, in a way that it would improve it rather than just bastardize it? Was there anything new to be done to dishes that achieved perfection after hundreds of years of evolution? It turns out, the answer is a resounding yes. Thai cuisine can be modernized and elevated, and Jo’s Modern Thai is at the forefront of this movement.

I went to Modern Thai with a group of girlfriends for a busy and loud (middle aged) girls’ night out. Thus I didn’t take any photos of the food, nor do I have detailed recollections of every dish – beyond saying that my mind was blown. I will, of course, return to Modern Thai again for a more careful review. But meanwhile, here is what I recall us having.

Coconut Cakes ($22 for 4). These come with “Tom Kha scallops and shrimp ceviche, trout roe, makrut, bird’s eye chili, cilantro.” I’m not a huge fan of seafood, and I do hate shrimp, but I loved these. The combination of flavors was really on point, with the cakes adding very nice hints of coconuts.

Crying Tiger ($17 for 4). These consisted of small slices of grilled short ribs, served on top of sticky rice in some sort of leaf and topped with “tomato jaew sauce, pomegranate, shiso, herbs.” They were quite spicy, thus the name, but also absolutely delicious. A great combination of flavors.

Green Papaya Salad ($16) . I don’t personally remember this salad. We ordered two, and I remember people particularly raving over one of them – but I’m not sure if it was this one or the other one, and I’m not sure what the other one was.

Lobster Pad Thai ($32) I’m not a fan of lobster – though those who were, loved it here -, but I absolutely loved the pad thai itself. You can also order it plain.

Drunken Noodle ($26) I was blown away by the smokiness of these noodles – not just the BBQ brisket. They were absolutely delicious.

Massaman Curry ($25) This is a vegetarian dish, and it was actually quite good. It was, however, spicy.

Pork Belly Curry ($27) & Beef Cheek Green Curry ($33) I can’t remember either of these, though I do know I enjoyed them. They were both medium spicy, but I didn’t have an issue with them.

Pork Laab Burger ($17) I remember this being tastier than I expected, but I only had a bite.

We might have had other food, and I know this is very unhelpful – I really should have written this review right away, but I do know that all in all I was blown away by all the food. There was nothing that I didn’t really like. That is, until it come to dessert.

Pretty much everyone at the table ordered the salted Thai tea panna cotta ($14) and only one person sort of liked it. The dessert wasn’t sweet at all, and it had an off putting taste. It’s dessert, I guess, for people who hate dessert. I had reluctantly ordered the mango sticky rice ($14) and fared much, much, much better. They basically took what is a common Thai dessert, concentrated the flavors, and served it in a small glass. The sticky rice pudding was topped by both mango sorbet and chopped mango, with coconut cream sauce and pandan rice krispies for texture. Absolutely delicious and worth the hefty price.

Pretty much everyone got cocktails and everyone raved about them. I didn’t taste any, so I can’t comment on them.

Service was impecable, very friendly, attentive, informative.

All in all, it was an amazing girl’s night out with incredible food, and I look forward to returning – and writing a more detailed review.

Jo's Modern Thai
3725 MacArthur Blvd.
Oakland, CA 
(510) 479-3167
Tuesday - Thursday:5:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Friday - Saturday:5:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Sunday:5:00 pm - 9:30 pm


NYC Food Adventures: Dock Asian Eatery

February 26, 2024 / / 0 Comments 
Notes from a New York City Foodie Trip

This pan-Asian restaurant in trendy Bushwick didn’t hit the mark.

Brooklyn, by all accounts, has some of the best food in NYC. However, for various reason, a visit to Brooklyn was not in the cards during this trip and we had not make do with a brief stop during our bus tour of the NYC boroughs. I knew, by looking at the reviews, that the bus would stop for lunch at either the Timeout Market or Wyckoff & Flushing in Brooklyn, and that we’d have about an hour to have lunch and get back to the bus. I thus was prepared with a list of possible restaurants to visit at either location. That section of Bushwick is really full of restaurants and bars, but a very large proportion of them do not open for lunch, so our choices of well-reviewed restaurants within walking distance, was actually smaller than you might think if you know the area. We decided on Dock Asian, as Mike was in a mood for Thai and there wasn’t anything else particularly exciting on our list.

Dock Asian is not a Thai restaurant per se, though its chef is Thai and many of the dishes in the menu are also Thai dishes. Still, they also serve some Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese dishes. It might just be that those are better, but I wouldn’t count on it.

chicken satay


We started with the chicken satay ($10) and here is where our disappointment started. The chicken was tender and moist, but it lacked flavor. The accompanying peanut sauce was very generic, it almost tasted bottled. It really lacked the complexity that the best peanut sauces have. The dish wasn’t bad, I’m not sure we’ve ever had bad Thai food, it just was below average. This dish came with four skewers, but I didn’t think of taking a picture until after we’d eaten three of them.

I had the beef pad khing ($15) lunch special as my main. It consisted of beef sautéed with mushrooms, onions, scallions, ginger and red bell peppers and was served with rice and a choice of salad or a spring roll. Once again, I found it to be pretty generic. It was tasty enough, but something that you can easily put together in a few minutes yourself for a fraction of the price. Of course, this was likely my fault for ordering a stir fry – but I thought the sauce it would be cooked in would be more compelling. The spring roll was equally unremarkable.

panang chicken

Mike ordered the panang chicken ($16), which comes with white rice. He chose to have it medium, and it was exactly as a medium spiced curry should be: too spicy for me but not for him. The problem, once again, was the flavor. It was fine, but not developed enough. Definitely below average in comparison to the hundreds of panang curries he’s had in his life (we are old and this is his favorite dish).

While the food wasn’t stellar, the restaurant itself was very cool. It had an industrial (lots of metal) / modern feel, and it did look very hip. There is sitting at tall tables downstairs and more upstairs.

Service was competent and friendly. Menus are also your typical QR codes, but they do have paper menus if you ask.

Our expectations of Thai food might be particularly high given the plethora of high quality Thai restaurants we have in California – recently, we were equally disappointed by a well rated Thai restaurant in Vancouver, Washington. But two other tourists from our bus tour who also ate there were equally disappointed with their meals. 

Dock Asian Eatery
22 Wyckoff Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11237
(718) 821-3900
M-Su Noon - 10:15 PM

Butterfly Crispy Rolls- Mango Flavor – Review

July 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments
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I got these Butterfly Crispy Rolls at the small 88 market in San Leandro. I didn’t have high expectations for them, but they were very tasty, to the point of being addictive. They are flaky but less dry than I would have thought. I had imagined they would need some filling, but they are flavorful enough that they don’t need it. All in all I’d buy them again.

Lemongrass Thai Cuisine – Restaurant Review – Fairbanks, AK

April 5, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Lemongrass Thai Cuisine was recommended to us as one of the best Thai restaurants in Fairbanks (which has surprisingly many).  While we liked the food at Tiparos better, Lemongrass is a much more upscale experience – and the food was very good.

We went there during what looked like the dinner rush a Monday evening in March, 2015.  The place was packed and service was a little slow at first, but we didn’t care much as we had a lot of time to waste before taking our plane back home.  Service during dinner, however, went very smoothly.

I played it safe and ordered my favorite Thai dish, mussaman beef ($14).  It was lighter in color that I’m used to, and perhaps a little bit less intense in flavor, though it was somewhat spicy.  It was very good, however.  It was a large enough portion that I was able to share it with Mike (being our last night in Alaska, we didn’t want any leftovers).   Mika had the pad thai ($14) as usual, and she also enjoyed it.  Camila had the kid’s chicken satay ($6).  The skewers were very small, but Camila thought they were very good.

In all, it was a very good dinner experience.

Lemongrass Thai Cuisine
388 Old Chena Pump Road
Fairbanks, AK
907 456-2200
http://www.lemongrassalaska.com/
M-Sa 11am — 4pm, 5pm — 10pm

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews

Tiparos Thai Food Review – Fairbanks, AK

April 4, 2015 / / 0 Comments

We went to Tiparos for dinner our first day in Fairbanks, in March 2015.  It was recommended by the concierge at our hotel, who had heard it was the best Thai place in town.  I only tried one other Thai restaurant, but I liked Tiparos better.

Tiparos is a humble place, it has a third worldly look to it with decorations thrown into the walls rather than carefully arranged. When we went there for dinner, perhaps before the dinner rush, the place was pretty empty but for some kids belonging to those who worked there.  Despite that, service wasn’t particularly attentive – it took a while for the waitress to take our orders and later bring us the bill.  She was very nice, however.

The food is what matters, however, and Tiparos it was very good.  Los Angeles level good (which is saying a lot as LA has uniformly good Thai restaurants, unlike the Bay Area where I live).

I had the yellow curry with beef, and very much enjoyed the rich and fragrant curry.  Mike had the panang curry with chicken and was just as delighted.  Mika had the pad thai, and she gave it her stamp of approval while Camila had the chicken satay.  That one was probably the least successful dish, I think the chicken needed more flavor.

I doubt I’ll return to Fairbanks, but if I did I’d have dinner there again.

Tiparos Thai Food
404 Lacey St.
Fairbanks AK
(907) 455-8424
http://tiparos.webs.com
Mon-Fri: 11am-9pm
Sun: 12pm-8pm

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews: Outside the Bay Area

Lotus of Siam, Las Vegas

January 23, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Lotus of Siam is described as being the best Thai restaurant in Las Vegas, if not the country – so, of course, we had to try it.  After a failed attempt in 2012, we finally managed to get in in 2013.  It was very good, but not extraordinary.  Then again, Thai food is so good in general, that finding extraordinary Thai food seems like a Herculean task.

Lotus of Siam has a huge menu, offering both traditional Thai foods, Issam and northern specialties.  With so much choice, it’s easy to get lost so I asked for my waiters’ recommendation and ended up getting the duck on drunken noodle ($26).  That was a mistake.  The duck was OK, but the noodles lacked flavor.  I liked them, but I didn’t love them.  I would have been better off going with one of my favorites.

One of the kids had the chow mein ($9).  This was a lovely dish.  It tasted like a combination of Chinese and Thai flavors, which were perfectly melded.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a large portion.

My other daughter had the Pad Thai and this was phenomenal. The noodles had a welcomed smokeyness I’d never experienced before.  Unfortunately, the portion was not large enough for me to get more than a taste.

Mike had one of the special panangs. I don’t remember what meat he had, but the sauce was described as a panang with cognac.  It was good, but it didn’t taste any different from a regular panang sauce.  Still, he was happy with the dish, if not the price.

The place was very crowded, it took a long time to get seated and service was competent but busy.  In all, I think it’s a restaurant worth trying, but which cannot possibly live up to its hype.

Lotus of Siam
53 East Sahara Avenue Suite A5
Las Vegas, NV
Phone:(702) 735-3033
http://www.saipinchutima.com/

Marga’s Las Vegas

Marga’s Restaurant Reviews

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