Twenty years ago when I lived in
San Diego, my ex-husband and I loved eating at Karinya Thai Cuisine.
The restaurant was up the street from our home in Pacific Beach, and it
was our “go to” dinner place when we entertained visiting family and
friends. We usually requested to eat in the “traditional” dining room.
This meant we’d have to remove our shoes before going in, and sit on
the floor atop beautiful Thai triangle pillows.
The head chef (an American) had married into the Karinya Thai family. Since we were regulars, the chef always took a few moments to tell us wonderful tales of his trips to the Far East. One of the best was about the first time he visited his wife’s family in a remote village in Thailand. He was shocked at the amount of time it took to shop for groceries each day. The entire family, led by the grandmother, would get up very early and drive for hours to pick up a particular type of chili, then go a couple of hours in the opposite direction to buy some galangal, and finally another hour south to pick up fresh kaffir lime leaves. By the time the shopping was done, they had driven five or six hours to get ingredients for THAT evening’s dinner. I found it fascinating that each ingredient was so special and distinct, that it was worth all that time and trouble.
Sometimes you don’t know a place is missing from a neighborhood until it opens. That’s how I feel about the new Sweet Lady Jane that opened a few months ago in Santa Monica up towards the east-end of the shop on Montana Avenue. I just hadn’t realized before – there really wasn’t anywhere to buy a perfect cherry pie (or a chocolate cake) or a delicious croissant or stop in for lunch and feel like just at the table next to you someone’s having an interesting conversation while you have one yourself accompanied by a perfect curried chicken salad sandwich (not an easy thing by the way) or home-made soup or if you need something cozy, a perfect grilled cheese, and the promise of a perfect cappucino (even though you don’t drink coffee at lunch).
And then, of course, any of their perfect sweets, a heavenly slice of cake, a hefty slice of pie. And you won’t be able to help yourself – you’ll bring something home for dessert that night, too – and if you’re anything like us, place an order for one or two pies for Sunday night (and maybe a chocolate cake) because you’ve just been inspired by Sweet Lady Jane to invite people over for Sunday dinner.
Hungry! Need. Food. Now. There are times when eating becomes the thing I have
to do before anything else. Knowing of close-to-home restaurants is of
paramount importance to me. Luckily, there’s a plethora of places in
my Atwater Village-Silver Lake neighborhood to choose from. Gingergrass
is one. I know that I can drive over and if it’s early enough, get a
table and have food in front of me within forty minutes. If it’s later
and the place is full, I can call an order in and pick it up. There’s
value in both of these.
I really needed a night out. Life has been conspiring against us lately, but it could be worse. Tired of being homebound and cooking three meals a day, I was desperate for a a little culinary magic. When a friend called with an invite to the opening night of Little Beast, I jumped at the chance like a drowning person needing a life raft.
It's sort of hidden. You can't see it from the street and it's beneath a hotel that doesn't seem nearly as nice, the Hotel Carmel, that is. It's called Chloe, the Westside complement to Laurie Mulstay and Ron Marino's stable of hot spots which include The Bar and Magnolia. And it's not quite full. But it's elegant, and hip, and calming in a way that makes you think you could go there to meet a business associate or a bed mate, and either would be a success.