#13 - Krua Thai's Pad Thai

The time is 12:47pm on a Saturday afternoon deep in the heart of North Hollywood and traffic is at a COMPLETE STANDSTILL. What could possibly be happening on Sherman Way that has caused this kind of backup?

Melissa “The Vegan” -  “There must be some kind of accident or something, this doesn’t make any sense.”

Adam “The Old Roommate” – “Isn’t the Valley not supposed to have traffic? I mean isn’t that the whole point of living out here in the middle of nowehere?”

John “The DisNerd” – “Look at all the languages on these signs. Guys, I feel like I’m at World Showcase in Epcot!!!”

Me –  Sigh

As you may remember from our previous pLAte with Melissa, “The Vegan” (but not really a vegan because now she eats fish…does that make her Episcopalian? Melissa – “It’s a Pescatarian you idiot.”) is a pain in the hoo-hah when it comes to making a mealtime decision. Restaurant choices must include at least two of the following features: within 5 miles of Studio City, more than 10 vegan meal options and the meal must begin no later that 6:30. Adam and I usually aim to score a 0 out of 3.

However, for this foodventure (as an early 38^th Birthday gift to Melissa), John, Adam and I ventured to the Valley for a vegan-friendly thai meal at Krua Thai. On his original list of 99, Jonathan Gold named the Pad Thai the “best in the city”. Melissa, a self-proclaimed peanut-pasted-pasta-pro was already expressing her doubts as we pulled into the restaurant’s strip mall.

“It might be an A-Grade restaurant, but this sure is a C-Grade plaza,” Melissa commented on the way into the front door.

Nothing says sketchy like “Free Braces” with a “low-fee applied”.

Krua Thai is certainly not attracting guests with their décor. With walls covered with neon cosmic art posters and a large fish tank filled with some sad looking lobsters, I wondered if we actually had gone to the right place. Then we got our menus…

“Well look at that, the quote is right on the cover.” I said.

“Yeah and I kinda love the restaurant’s font. It reminds me of the Tiki Room”. John giddily chimed in. (That’s Disney reference #2 for those keeping track.)

Aside from the Shrimp Anchovy Fried Rice…

…which is clearly a hot sell, the dish to get here is definitely the Pad Thai. Jonathon Gold calls it the perfect “ultra-spicy, tamarind-soured, fish-sauce-laced“ version of the Thai staple. John decided to order the pLAte for the table with shrimp and tofu as Gold suggests. I went with the Spicy Mint noodles with shrimp, Adam went rogue with an order of Tom Kha Gai Soup (Chicken Coconut Soup) and Melissa…well, her order is best described in her own words…

Melissa – “Yes, I’d like the Krua Thai Pad Thai without the chicken please. Hmmm, yea and also no egg. Can’t have that. Oh, Oh and NO bean sprouts, I hate bean sprouts…”

Adam – “What’s that leave? The noodles and some peanut paste?”

Waitress – “Yea, pretty much.”

Right before we got to hear about the latest dating tragedy of an unnamed female at the table…our Egg Roll appetizer was served along with Adam’s Thai tea.

Looks like Nickelodeon exploded in a glass of milk, but Adam assured us that it tasted incredible. Meanwhile, the egg rolls were delicious. Unlike the crusty deep-fried version you are accustomed to getting from your Chinese deliveryman, these egg rolls were surprisingly light and not overly greasy. Look how much Melissa enjoyed dipping them in the spicy soy sauce.

Oh and did we mention they were chock full of fresh veggies and chicken. The Vegan wasn’t so thrilled to hear that piece of information…

Our main course followed (almost too) soon after, Melissa barely had enough time to inspect the egg rolls before her Pad Thai arrived. Adam’s heaping bowl of Tom Kha Gai was “very good” according to the rest of the group. Is it me or does that sour aftertaste ruin the soup for you too?

My spicy mint noodles were a bit too greasy to my liking. The hot pepper spice was dead on, but I couldn’t really get past the slick sheen of cooking oil. It looked like someone had sprayed Aquanet all over the top of the dish.

Onto the pLAte…we all had very high hopes for the best Pad Thai in town. After combining the neatly separated bean sprouts, peanuts and noodles into one big heaping helping, John dug in with the first bite.

“It’s good! It’s actually really good…for Pad Thai. I mean how creative can it be right?” John decided.

“I think I am allergic to pepper. Every time I eat something spicy, I get a headache.” Melissa stated as she devoured the first bites of her egg-less, chicken-less, sprout-less version of the dish. Next time Melissa will go pepper-less in an attempt to see just how many ingredients you can take away and still be able to call it Pad Thai.

In an effort to get one final thought about the dish before ending this article (and before John gets another Disney reference in), I’ll leave you with this assessment from Melissa about our experience at Krua Thai.

Melissa – “Listen, the Pad Thai is good. I don’t know if it’s good enough to drive all the way out to North Hollywood”.

Adam – “This, coming from the person who lives in North Hollywood!”

Krua Thai

13130 Sherman Way

North Hollywood, CA 91605

#11 - Akasha's Quinoa w/ Edamame

Planning a dinner with Melissa usually goes something like this:

Melissa – Where do you guys want to go eat? I don’t want to choose.

Me – I just heard about this new brick oven pizza place on 3^rd, let’s try that.

Melissa – And what am I supposed to eat, everything is going to be covered in globs of cheese.

Adam – How about sushi, I could be down for Izakaya or something.

Melissa – I am looking at the menu and there is like 1 option there for me.

Me & Adam – ARHHHHGGGHH!

You’d think Melissa might have extreme food allergies or maybe she just likes to be difficult (ding ding!), but alas Melissa’s real reason for being so picky comes from being a VEGAN. (We watched the movie Fast Food Nation, I fell asleep before the main titles ended, Melissa went off the deep end). Vegan means no animal by-products whatsoever. Meat, fish, eggs, dairy, butter and basically anything that tastes remotely good are OUT on her food plan. (Needless to say, I couldn’t last a few hours without a frozen yogurt fix).

So when Melissa asked to join for a pLAte, I sent the list of 89 remaining spots over so she could give US the options. Surprisingly we were sent back a list of about 8 or so choices and we settled on Akasha, a restaurant with an urban loft-like feel nestled in the newly reinvigorated Culver City.

It had been almost a year since Meredith, Adam, Melissa and I got together for a dinner, mostly because of the infamous Mother’s Day Meltdown of 2010, which kept several parties apart for nearly 7 months. I played the role of innocent bystander (having your own blog gives you liberty to rewrite history). But with everyone Kosher again, we were all looking forward to a night of mildly inappropriate insults flying across the table.

The pLAte to be ordered at Akasha is Quinoa with Edamame. However, the menu only listen two kinds of quinoas, one with chicken and the other with market fresh vegetables.

Adam – Have you ever encountered this before? The pLAte isn’t on the menu!

We asked the waitress and indeed, edamame is not on the menu tonight. Knowing quinoa for dinner wouldn’t be enough, I suggested Melissa and I share dishes. She went with the Punjabi Mung Beans (I mean…) and I ordered the Market Vegetable Quinoa.

Waitress – Do you want chicken or tofu with that quinoa?

Me – Umm, I will go with chi….

Melissa – TOFU!

Me – Right, tofu…(internal groan).

Melissa – Look at you going vegan tonight!

As if I had a choice…

Adam ordered off the DineLA menu and went with Scallops and a German chocolate cake for dessert. Meredith went exotic with her choice…a turkey burger.

Meredith – Is it possible to get no bun?

Waitress – Sure!

Melissa – What the hell are you doing?

This coming from a vegan mind you…

We also ordered a basked of onion rings (per Jonathan Gold’s suggestion) for the table.

After enlightening discussions about whether all beans come in pods (they do) and if I was allowed to share Melissa’s sexual exploits on the blog (I don’t), the onion rings landed in the middle of the table.

Meredith - You know how sometimes you bite into onion rings and they fall apart, these are perfect.

The rings had the perfect breading to onion ratio and almost snapped apart instead of crumbling into a mushy mess.

Next up, the entrees. So how would my first foray into vegan eating begin? 

Me – Meh.

Melissa – Oh, shutup! Michael doesn’t like it because it wasn’t alive once!

Here’s the thing…the quinoa was good. It was tender, not overcooked, well seasoned. Is it something I HAVE to eat before I die? I’m not so sure…If I learned anything from the Lion King, it is that we are all part of the great big Circle of Life and according to Rafiki, eating meat is okay.

Melissa – Well, I don’t care what you say. This is a nice piece of tofu.

Nice piece of tofu??? What does that even mean? Was that bean curd nurtured better than the next?

The Punjabi Mung Bean dish actually had a lot more going for it. Along with the lentil-like bean mush (for lack of a better word) the Naan bread and dipping sauces were a nice flavor injection to the dish.

Meredith and Adam ended up switching plates halfway through the meal. The melted gruyere on the bunless turkey burger called to Adam, while the slightly undercooked scallops were better received by Meredith.

We ended the meal with a slice of German Chocolate Cake and a Salty Chocolate Peanut Bar. Despite lofty expectations, the best part of each dish was the ice cream on the side. Besides, who needs $9 desserts when you have these babies in your bag…

It was Girl Scout Cookie Day at work and Thin Mints beat dry cake any day of the week.

Melissa – So Michael how does this work now? You write the blog, you pay the bill?

Keep it up Melissa…next time we do dinner it will be at In-N-Out.

Akasha

9543 Culver Boulevard

Culver City, CA 90232