Monday, November 03, 2003

Wat Thai Temple - North Hollywood


Had a fantastic experience yesterday at the Wat Thai Temple's Loy Krathong Festival. I've been to the usual food court they have on weekends, but this was something special. Thanks to Curt for the heads up post last week. There were food vendors galore, selling everything from pad thai, noodle soups, satays, and durian ice cream. There were things I haven't seen or heard of before. The music, the aromas -- it was like being transported to Thailand; we felt we weren't in the Valley anymore!

Here's a rundown of what we tried. If you know what these dishes are called in Thai, please educate me, as I would like to know:

1. We started with a tasty fried dish of wide, flat rice noodles stir-fried with dark soy sauce (and fish sauce) with greens and chicken. Noodles were chewy and had a nice bite; the greens were still crunchy and fresh.

2. Chicken and pork satay. Sweet with a nice barbecue char around the edges. Would've been killer if they came with a peanut sauce.

3. Shrimp ball stick. Delectably shrimpy, kind of like dim sum on a stick.

4. Mussels fried with glutinous rice flour and egg, on a bed of bean sprouts. This is a textural dream -- crunchy caramelized fried edges, chewy, with seafood flavor all complemented with the freshness of the crisp bean sprouts.

5. Seafood rice noodle soup, with slices of fish cake, some crunchy white fungus, and bits of fried tofu. The broth was a light pink from the sweet and sour chili sauce they put in. Delicious and refreshing with a little bit heat.

6. Crunchy battered fried bananas, taro and sweet potato.

7. Kanom krok. Tasty, small morsels of pan cooked batter made of rice flour and coconut milk. Amazing combination of sweet and savory flavors.

At this point, our bellies had reached their limits, although I would've wanted to try the papaya salad and the minced pork wrapped in rice flour batter...

NOTE: AS OF AUGUST 12, 2007, THE WAT THAI TEMPLE NO LONGER HOLDS ITS WEEKEND FOOD FAIR.

4 Comments:

At 2:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I lived in Thailand for over a year and my wife is Thai. We go to Wat Thai often.

#1 Sounds like Pad Thai Gai (pad = stir-fried, gai = chicken). Usually sprinkled with crushed peanuts. Add fish sauce & dried chili to taste.

#2 = Stay Gai & Stay Moo (Thai's pronounce 'satay' as 'stay', moo = pork), peanut sauce would only be for the chicken, for pork or chicken a sweet chili sauce is traditional (can be found in Thai or China town, doesn't have the sour element you find in Chinese sweet & sour).

#3 = Luchin Goon (goon = shrimp)

#7 I think of as coconut dessert pancakes. Traditionally has a few kernals of sweet corn in each.

I'd have to ask my wife about the other seafood dishes (I'm not a big seafood (Thai="blah", eg. "blah shalam" = shark) fan. She's busy eating Som Tum (spicy papaya salad) right now.

Also, there's a Thai temple much closer to you that has the same type of food vendors on the weekends. It's located at 14036 Don Julian Rd. La Puente, CA 91746.

 
At 8:24 AM, Blogger elmomonster said...

Thanks for the tip on the Thai temple in La Puente. That is definitely closer. Will have to check it out soon.

 
At 10:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

#5 Is "Yen ta Pho"

#1 is probably "Lrad Na" or "Pad Se Ew" those usually have the thicker rice noodles and Pad Thai have the skinny ones.

 
At 9:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

From my point of view, the Thai food here is authentic as it can be. The noodle soup tastes almost like the kind you get off the streets of Bangkok.

 

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