Monster Thai, and Cafe Bolivar

Monster Thai: Yay yummy Thai food. And cheap too. Double thumbs up on the fried banana in springroll wrapper with coconut ice cream, and also for the excellent soup. Pad Thai and Red Curry and Pineapple Fried rice were all good. The vegetables in the red curry were great. They also spice the way you ask...medium means medium, good job. My thai ice tea was pretty good, though just a bit light on tea. It's a tiny restaurant...about 6 tables inside and another 2 outside, but they deliver. And they were empty between noon and 1pm on a Saturday, which for yummy Thai food is a bit distressing.

Cafe Bolivar: Our fifth time here. The limeades have been amazing four of those times, and still pretty good the other time. The arepas are always great....yum warm corn bread-like sandwich. This time I tried one of their sandwiches, serrano ham with roma tomatoes, olive oil, and black pepper. Very good.

House of Thai Taste

House of Thai Taste in Westside LA: Delivery for dinner tonight. We've been craving Thai food lately so we dug through the 5 or so fliers that have been left at the house in the past two weeks. Based on online reviews we picked House of Thai Taste and was quite pleased with the result. Food was delivered in about 35 minutes. We got Heavenly Shrimp (shrimp in crispy egg noodle), Wild Ocean soup (lemon grass base with a variety of seafood), Pad Thai, Roasted Duck Curry (red curry), brown rice, and a Thai iced tea. The two best dishes were the curry with its tasty duck covered in a just-right red curry, and the soup with a fresh lemongrass flavor soaking some very tasty seafood bits (including lobster, mussel, and scallops) along with bursts of cilantro. The Thai iced tea was pretty good, relatively standard, but without the layering of coconut milk like usual. The Pad Thai had good flavor, but without any peanut and with so-so noodles. The shrimp was odd...the texture of the crispy noodles didn't work with the shrimp and the shrimp didn't have enough flavor, so the sweet and sour sauce was necessary, but then why get something with shrimp in it in the first place? In all, a very tasty meal.