The Unvegan

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10 Years of Unvegan
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Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

‘Thai’

Thai. Seriously. At Summer Canteen

A real summer has no vegetables.

In the continuing story of trying to find new and interesting food in the Valley, a coworker suggested trying out a place called Summer Canteen. Not knowing what sort of food a place named Summer Canteen would have, I opened up the menu online to find that it served none other than Thai. Wait, Thai? Really? I thought the rule of Thai restaurant naming was that it had to have “Thai” in its name (Thai Boom, Thai Smile, Natalee Thai, etc.) or use words from the Thai language (Jitlada). Summer Canteen broke these two rules, and would go on to break one more.

Le Dinner at Le Basil

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Le Pad See You

In the hotbed of food culture known as Palm Desert, California, we went off to dinner with my aunt and uncle, who were craving some Thai food. After some extensive searching using the newfangled interwebs, we found a place called Le Basil. Rather than being confined to Thai food, Le Basil expanded to another area of Southeast Asia and integrated Vietnamese food into their menu. Although this only covered 2 of the 11 sovereign nations of Southeast Asia, it was enough for Le Basil’s menu to claim Southeast Asian cuisine (come on, where’s the balut?).

Happy Hour Appetizers at Urban Bar & Grill

Who wouldn't want stabbed pineapple?
Who wouldn’t want stabbed pineapple?

On a short trip down to San Diego to visit a friend, I only ended up having time for one meal, so I wanted to make it good. I was told the Gas Lamp area was a great part of town to find some grub, so we took a stroll through that part of downtown to see what we could find.

After checking out a couple menus prominently displayed outside of restaurants, we chose Urban Bar & Grill, mostly because they had a pretty great happy hour going on. Aside from some pretty swanky drink specials, all appetizers were half-priced. We took our seats at the lovely outdoor patio and opened our menus. Even though the main courses looked good, I knew I had to stick to the awesomely priced appetizers.

Going Orange at Asia House (CLOSED)

Want more orange on your chicken?
Want more orange on your chicken?

For lunch one day, I ordered from a little Asian place called Asia House. They claim to be “Fusion Thai Cuisine,” which in my mind means they are mostly Thai, but threw in some other assorted Asian dishes to please people afraid of food named Pad Kra Pao and Kang Mus Mun. On this day, I chose to be one of those people and ordered the Orange Chicken even though it is by no means an actual Thai dish.

They have a lunch special, which comes with soup, a fried wonton and steamed rice, so I made sure to take advantage of that. The delivery came pretty quickly and also brought some surprises. As a thank you for being awesome, Asia House also brought me some egg rolls and a Thai iced tea. These were great additions to the already cheap lunch I had.

Eating Trendy at Natalee Thai

There is a flame in there, you just can't see it.
There is a flame in there, you just can’t see it.

For something new, my friends and I decided to check out Natalee Thai in Palms. The building isn’t exactly decorated in the Thai style and is rather some sort of a postmodern mash-up. Nonetheless, Thai food awaited within.

I first set eyes on the drink menu. In it, there was a crazy-looking flaming drink that seemed to be like a Hawaiian shark bowl. I ordered it with a friend and we proceeded to be amazed as the flame burned and we imbibed the alcohol.

The Appropriately Named Thai Smile (RELOCATED)

It would look much better if it weren't for those vegetables.
It would look much better if it weren’t for those vegetables.

One of the nights that I was visiting my grandparents in Rancho Mirage, we went to a restaurant called Thai Smile. There was a 20 minute wait, but I was assured that it would be worth it. Besides, I really had nothing better to do.

While waiting, we checked out the menu so we could order as soon as we got our table. It really took me a long time to decide what to order because the Chicken Spicy Peanut Sauce looked great except that it had green beans and peppers, while I could just create my own dish, but none of the customizable items looked as good as the chicken dish.

Getting it All Wrong at Thai Boom

Is this Pla Prik Pao?
Is this Pla Prik Pao?

Living in close proximity, I’ve ordered from Thai Boom tons of times. I’ve always found it to be a safe bet for Thai food. The best thing about their menu is that they serve their lunch specials all day. This covers a wide variety of food, but aldo includes rice and a fried wonton.

Feeling adventurous, I ordered the Pla Prik Pao, which is sauteed roasted curry with basil. For my meat I chose tofu. Just kidding, I got chicken. I picked up my food from the carry-out and brought it home for eating. When I opened it up, I was a little taken aback. If this was chicken with curry, it was the strangest chicken and curry I had ever seen. On top of that, there were peppers, which most certainly were not included with my dish. It almost distracted me from the fact that there was a tiny little salad in the corner. Almost.

Silk Thai Cuisine

In the Hills of Beverly, there lies a restaurant called Silk Thai Cuisine. A friend of mine recommended it, so I went with a couple friends of mine. Despite the initial trauma of trying to find the restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard when there are somehow two Santa Monica Boulevards, we arrived in one piece.

You know it's good curry when it's orange.
You know it’s good curry when it’s orange.

The menu was littered with all sort of Thai goodies, and my eyes immediately went to the Panang Curry, which is Thai curry mixed with coconut milk, peanuts, basil and kaffir leaves. There was also a choice of vegetables, tofu, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, calamari, salmon, seafood or scallop. Despite the initial setback of vegetables and tofu, they offered a nice array of unvegan additions. I decided to keep it simple and went with the beef. Because we were in a group, though, we decided to get our food “family style,” so we each ordered a dish to split. This was unfortunate for my lifestyle, because I have no other friends with a diet that excludes vegetables. My “friends” chose to order the Pad Thai with Chicken and Basil Chicken. On top of that, we each got our own little bowls of rice.

The Crown Rivers

This is as good as British food gets...
This is as good as British food gets…

Being stuck in London’s Heathrow airport, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to find anything to eat beyond a bag of “crisps” and a bottle of Irn-Bru…gag. I was actually surprised when I found myself with a decent selection of restaurants. After carefully checking out each menu and price (since the British pound is worth about 1.5 dollars) , I settled on The Crown Rivers. They served up mostly pub food, but also had a good-looking selection of curries. I settled on the Thai Green Chicken Curry, since I always wanted to know what green chicken tasted like…just kidding…maybe.

The ingredients listed in the curry were lemon grass, coriander, lime leaf, cumin, coconut and choi sum. None of these sounded like vegetables to me except for the choi sum. I figured I would take a risk and allow it, hoping it could be some incredible new meat I had never heard of.