I've eaten Thai food a few times, but for the most part I've stayed close to the "Americanized" pad thai's and the like. But since I want to travel to Thailand in the future, I decided that I should try some real, authentic Thai food. And where else to go, besides the neighborhood with the highest concentration of Thai people in the world, outside of Thailand?
The only problem was, as any Angeleno would know, is that the further east you drive... the more sketchy it is. Thai Town was no exception. We parked in a well-lit Ralphs parking lot and walked past the "Thai Town" sign (photo op) and headed to our restaurant. On the way:
Me: Ronny, are you prepared to beat off any guys that might attack me?
Ronny: Um... no, I'm not going to beat off anyone.
Me: WHAT? You won't protect me??
Ronny: ....
Me: Hehe... oh.
Yeah, that happened.
We walked to a small shopping center that was full of different Thai restaurants, and just looked in the windows to pick which one we wanted to eat at. We weighed crowd, menu, grade in the window (no B's please!) and decided on Red Corner Asia. It looked contemporary, but authentic without being dirty, and had a good mixed crowd of people inside.
After looking over the menu for a few minutes, I realized that every single dish had a chili pepper symbol next to it. Basically meaning that every single thing on the menu was spicy. As many of you may know, I cannot eat spicy food. And it's not that I don't WANT to enjoy it, but eating spicy food literally makes me feel like I want to die. I asked the very pretty, very Thai-looking waitress if the "mild" version was still spicy. She very emphatically nodded her head yes. Great.
I decided to order giant shrimp topped with coconut curry sauce, and Ronny got the "red door special" which was a full fried fish. I also insisted on an order of crispy spring rolls and coconut sticky rice, just in case I couldn't eat my entree due to spiciness.
The rolls and the coconut rice were delicious. The coconut rice could easily have been (and probably was) a dessert, which I was happy to eat before dinner. When our food arrived, Ronny immediately dug into his fish, but was unimpressed. I struggled with the shrimp, simply because they served it to me whole and I couldn't get the meat out. So yes, I had to pass it over to my more skilled boyfriend, who cut it up for me (and stole quite a few bites for himself). The sauce was a yellow curry, with coconut milk drizzled on top, and it wasn't really all that spicy. The shrimp were cooked well and was enough food for two, and we walked away full.
After we finished dinner, we were going to walk around a bit to see if there was anything worth seeing in Thai Town. There was the "Thailand Plaza" (but with the burned out neon lights it just said "and Plaza") but most of the Thai markets inside the plaza were already closed. There wasn't really much else to see, and it is obvious that Thai Town is not a "tourist" destination. But I did learn that it isn't far from where I work in Hollywood and I wouldn't mind going back.
Even though we went to Thai Town and had "authentic" food, I question how authentic it is to actually get "mildly" spicy things when actually in Thailand. If I ever go there, I will prepare myself to eat lots of rice and vegetables, which probably wouldn't be a bad thing!
I decided to order giant shrimp topped with coconut curry sauce, and Ronny got the "red door special" which was a full fried fish. I also insisted on an order of crispy spring rolls and coconut sticky rice, just in case I couldn't eat my entree due to spiciness.
The rolls and the coconut rice were delicious. The coconut rice could easily have been (and probably was) a dessert, which I was happy to eat before dinner. When our food arrived, Ronny immediately dug into his fish, but was unimpressed. I struggled with the shrimp, simply because they served it to me whole and I couldn't get the meat out. So yes, I had to pass it over to my more skilled boyfriend, who cut it up for me (and stole quite a few bites for himself). The sauce was a yellow curry, with coconut milk drizzled on top, and it wasn't really all that spicy. The shrimp were cooked well and was enough food for two, and we walked away full.
After we finished dinner, we were going to walk around a bit to see if there was anything worth seeing in Thai Town. There was the "Thailand Plaza" (but with the burned out neon lights it just said "and Plaza") but most of the Thai markets inside the plaza were already closed. There wasn't really much else to see, and it is obvious that Thai Town is not a "tourist" destination. But I did learn that it isn't far from where I work in Hollywood and I wouldn't mind going back.
Even though we went to Thai Town and had "authentic" food, I question how authentic it is to actually get "mildly" spicy things when actually in Thailand. If I ever go there, I will prepare myself to eat lots of rice and vegetables, which probably wouldn't be a bad thing!
Street sign announcing Thai Town on Hollywood Blvd.
My jumbo shrimp swimming in yellow curry sauce with coconut milk drizzled on top. Yum!
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