‘Curry’
In the search for something light to eat after an afternoon of consuming delicious snacks at work, I found a Japanese place called Fresh in the Box in Culver City. Now let’s be realistic, who doesn’t want to get fresh…in a box? And if I told you I was going to some Asian place called Fresh in the Box, you’d probably think I was in for more than just a bite to eat. Yet, there I found myself at a pretty legit Japanese restaurant.
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.
As an unvegan I always like to be on the forefront of any sausage happenings around LA. Fortunately I have my friend DCo1 to keep in the know and he informed me of some new sausage popping up in Silver Lake called Berlin Currywurst. I am not the most knowledgeable about food from Germany, but I figured I am a fan of curry and a fan of bratwurst, so a place that combined the two sounded great in my book.
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?).
Not too long ago (at least in my head), Ajisen Ramen opened its doors at the Century City food court. I’m not sure where else this Japanese ramen chain exists in the US, but I do know it is a pretty popular and slightly upscale chain in the land of Asia. I decided to check it out to see how it held up against its Asian brethren and found that the menu was pretty similar to what I remembered from Asia. It had a variety of ramen options and some tasty-looking Japanese appetizers.
For a little post-tennis victory Japanese treat, I headed to Asahi Ramen in West LA with my vanquished tennis foe to get some…ummm ramen. Now don’t be fooled by the name of the restaurant, as it apparently has nothing to do with delicious Asahi beer. Confused myself, I took the liberty of looking up Asahi on the old interwebs and found that Asahi is the name of about ten different towns and cities in Japan, so for the name to carry over into both beer and ramen isn’t that surprising. Anyway, enough with geography and economics, let’s get to the food.
While in Boston for a long weekend, I took the opportunity to check out how people eat on the other coast. My first chance to sample the “local fare” came at Wagamama, an international Japanese food chain originally from England. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly local, but Boston is New England, so I made due with what I had.
Our waiter was a low talker, making it difficult to ascertain what he was trying to say at any given moment, but eventually we all figured out when it was time to order. After a long look at the menu, I settled upon the Chicken Katsu Curry, which is some fried chicken cutlet, rice and curry. It also came with “mixed leaves and red pickles,” which I tried to convince the low talker that I didn’t want.
Finding ourselves in Westwood without any idea where to eat, my roommates and I walked into Ambala Dhaba. None of us had looked the place up online, nor had it been recommended, but we were feeling risky.
A look at the menu revealed a whole lot of vegetarian dishes, but also some meaty Indian dishes I had never heard of and was excited to try. Tucked under the glass on the table was their beer special, Bell beer from Uganda for only $3 a glass. I wasn’t sure why Ugandan beer had found itself at an Indian restaurant, but it would definitely be something new for me.
Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find that Marked5, one of LA’s multitude of food trucks, was making its way down to El Segundo, just in time for my lunch hour. I looked up Marked5 online real quickly to make sure I knew what I was getting into and saw that their menu consisted of a sort of American and Japanese fusion. They made burgers, but instead of regular buns, they used rice. I had no idea how this would work without the rice falling apart, but I was eager to find out.
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.