between moving into a new neighborhood, restaurant.com having a massive sale on gift certificates for $1 (that are worth $25), and jonathan gold’s 99 essential LA restaurants (we are planning on going to all 99 in 365 days)…we may never eat at home again (which is too bad, since we also just finished pimping our ride – i mean our kitchen).

more food! don’t feel like cooking in our tiny kitchen. interested in going out to all the places on the westside that i’ve always wanted to try. i really liked the noodles. hard. salty. better than ramen-ya. i had the shio ramen and m had the tanmen ramen w/ pork. her broth was waaaay good: rich, opaque, full-bodied. my broth was also good, but lacked the depth that hers had. my chashu was better, though. don’t forget that it’s closed on thursday. every time we’ve tried to go here, it’s either packed w/ 8 people standing outside or it’s thursday.

i’m still in love with tonkatsu ramen and shin sen gumi and daikokuya rock my ramen world. but it’s nice to know that i can get my ramen fix without crossing the 405. not crossing the 405 – that’s really what it means to be a westsider.

http://www.asahiramen.com | 2027 sawtelle 90025 | 310.479.2231

last night LCR + m + i went out to eat at soi56 soi56. i have been wanting to go ever since i saw it during one of my farmers market trips. how could you *not* want to go to a place described as “serving thai street food”? when i first went to their web site, there was nothing but a home page. both the restaurant and the web site are much more developed now. but let’s get to the food. it probably wasn’t totally authentic or as unhygenic as street food should be, but i really enjoyed everything i ate…and that’s rare. it certainly wasn’t hot enough, even for a wimp like me. our server, rungsan (“oat” is his nickname), told us to ask for him next time we come in and he’ll make it “thai spicy”. awesome. there was also a cover band playing timeless love songs and stuff from the 90s. the asian guy had duran duran hair. m couldn’t even look at him. i kinda liked it. but let’s get to the food.

the fresh lemonade/nam manow was awesome. not too sweet. a bit sour. i finagled my way into getting it for free by asking if it qualified for the free in-house drink with valet parking ticket. LCR enjoyed it, too.

for the most part, m + LCR let me order. if okra is on the menu, i usually order it, but not this time. i’ll order it next time. the menu includes “tradition tao yang charcoal grill”, “small plates / thai street vendor specialty”, “spicy thai salads”, “wok noodle and noodle soup”, “curries”, “house specials”, and “thai sweets”.

we ordered:
chicken liver (trad tao yang charcoal grill)
issan sausage ( ” )
scallop wrapped in bacon ( ” )
japanese shishito peppers ( ” )
thai beef jerky/kao niaw neua (small plates)
crying tiger beef/suah loang hai (small plates)
grilled calamari/pla muk yang (small plates)
crispy frog leg/gop tort (small plates)
spicy raw papaya w/ blue crab/som tam pu dong (spicy thai salad)
curry noodles/kao soi

when we go back, m will order the beef jerky and curry noodles and issan sausage and i will order the crispy frog legs. i will also order the okra wrapped in bacon, the lamb chops (special from tao yang grill), fish cakes/tort man pla, fish sauce wings/beek gai tort, maybe the tom khaa gai, poorman noodles/tung dtak. the ginger and wood ear mushrooms, five spiced bbq pork, pepper tiger prawns, roasted game hen, muslim style curry, and grilled whole fish sound delightful. i know LCR likes prik king (green beans) and we’ve also had larb before at sanamluang. both of these are on the menu. looks like i’ll be making multiple return trips.

soi56.com | 1556 n cahuenga blvd 90028 | 323.962.5656

if i twittered, i would tell you that [1] i just posted pics of baby G in this blogosphere [2] we are the proud new owners of a rice cooker [3] we have waygu beef in the fridge [4] we also have mangosteen in the fridge (SG had been looking for it forever, but says its plentiful in NY, so he’s not jealous of us at all…darn) [5] i have had the croissants at cafe tazzina (across wilshire) and cafe zella – the ones at cafe zella are not only cheaper but are also flakier…mmm…butter. for a while, i thought i was lactose intolerant. good to know that i’m not.

JEA was here last week. we ate at samosa house and had the happy vegan at tender greens. sadness: the raita @ samosa house resembled a coleslaw rather than indian goodness (unless indians are known for their coleslaw) and the tabbouleh at tender greens had also changed – not bad but not the same and not as good, imho. on wednesday, m found sungold tomatoes for me at the SM farmers market. tomato-y goodness. this is probably the second time i’ve had them in LA since moving back, but the first time was just orange cherry tomatoes disguised and pretending to be sungolds. after tasting them, i was no fool to their duplicity. these recently discovered sungolds were the real deal and i devoured them without sharing them with m.

the real highlight of her visit, besides enjoying her company, was tuesday evening @ the hollywood bowl. we saw yo-yo ma perform dvorak with the la phil conducted by placido domingo. after dvorak but before tchaikovsky, yo-yo ma performed an impromptu cello solo (asian-inspired music – did he compose this himself?) and then accompanied placido domingo out onto the stage and they performed together. i had goosebumps. our tix were only $15 and they were pretty high up, but they certainly weren’t bad seats and i was very glad i witnessed that amazing musical treat. and my fellow concertgoers weren’t stoned from smoking pot. that was a plus.

when i started telling people i was moving to SM, they would say: “ahhh, now you’ll be living the westside lifestyle.” what exactly does that mean? before i moved here, i thought it meant lots of beach time. ethnic food wasteland. virtually no taco trucks. paucity of subway public transportation. inability to leave the westside (k-town is just too far…i hope not). now i understand it to mean warm sun and a cool breeze. using wilshire and sunset instead of santa monica blvd. japanese food on sawtelle (and i’m closer to terried sake house!). yuppieville underscored by thousand dollar strollers. flatland and grass. using the 10 to get to SGV. closer to my MDR costco (this is crucial). i’m also closer to mi ranchito, samosa house, SFV sushi, little tehran, the getty brentwood, multiple farmers markets, julia dean workshops, and a political climate that’s almost as friendly as WH (the jury is still out on this one).

but i am farther from silverlake, huntington gardens, that beautiful bridge in glendale, 24 hour fitness, k-town (kyochon, sweet potato lattes, kbbq…i’m weeping), the lacma, russian delis, and my beloved hollywood farmers market.

the beauty of LA is that no matter where you live, you are farther from some really great things but also closer to some really great things, too. you are never far from anything.

my favorite stonefruit vendor, scattaglia farms, has robada apricots in june. they are only in season for a few weeks. this year, we got them on june 14th and the market vendor thinks they’ll only be available for another two weeks. last year, we got them on june 15 and june 22. this particular variety of apricot has a strong red blush spot and is the most amazingly sweet apricot without being cloyingly sweet. i can eat 20 and not feel sick at all!

in other farmers market news, my favorite asian vendor has those sweet italian peppers that look like they should burn, but have a mild sweetness which makes them perfect for salads and egg white omelettes.

i love summer at my hollywood farmers’ market!