Before departing the land of Los Angeles, I had a couple of restaurants to knock off of my to-eat list mixed in with the number of restaurants I had to eat because I knew I would miss them. One from the former category was Night + Market, a Thai restaurant that wasn’t just your ordinary Thai restaurant. With an air of authenticity, I heard Night + Market boasts some spicy food, and while that wouldn’t be in the cards due to some mild white people I was with, I was still eager to see the flavors they had to offer.
Upon our late arrival, we found our friends had already ordered some Nuoc Mam Chicken Wings, which meant they were fried with rooster sauce. What this rooster sauce is I will likely never know, but I do know the wings were pretty good and likely connected to Sriracha in some way. I may not have ordered them, but I was certainly happy they were waiting for me.
After this, we opted to go family style and ordered Beef Grapow (chile, garlic, thai basil and a crispy fried egg), Pad Thai (with tofu, don’t ask me why), Pad Kee Mao (short rib, flat noodles, chile, basil, garlic) and Kao Pad Pu (crab fried rice). Then we got a bit of coconut rice to accompany all of our dishes that pretty much already had rice or noodles. They were all ordered mild, but our waitress brought out some vinegary hot sauce for the people with a palette to eat with.
Without a doubt, this was some of the best Thai food I had ever eaten. Despite being mild, the Beef Grapow still had a kick and was probably my favorite dish. What can I say, I have a soft spot for food with names that sound like Street Fighter power moves. And this is not to say any of the other dishes with less Street Fighter-y names were a disappointment. Each had seriously special flavor and the flavor was even better when I added the spicy sauce to it.
Of these, the only dish I don’t think I would order again is the Pad Thai. Sure, it was a good Pad Thai, and even the tofu was nothing to complain about, but it just wasn’t terribly special compared to the other food. Also, next time I would make sure to get the dishes with spiciness recommended. It might be tough to take, but sometimes it is simply better to order things the way they are meant to be.
