Category: Birth announcements

Went to the December 30 re-opening of Ruen Pair on Hollywood Blvd. and I'm happy to report that the place has expanded and cleaned up real good, the servers are still sweet as pie, the "kitchenmothers" (Thai for cooks) are all the same, and the food is still TO DIE FOR. It's still my favorite Thai restaurant anywhere. Punchy tom yum goong with flecks of roasted chili and barely cooked shrimp; dry-cured and fried moo daed diew that manages to be sweet, salty, crisp, moist, and tender all at once; red fire morning glory, crisp and green, with whole yellow beans and whole thai chilies; and of course, my favorite som tam anywhere, spicy as sin, made with salted crab, not sweet, with hand sliced papaya bruised by the deftest pestle hand on this side of the Pacific. And it's so cheap -- $90 with tax and tip for 10 dishes, 4 servings of sticky rice and regular rice -- I could sit there and eat all day long if my Mae would let me. If I lived in L.A., I'd eat there once a week. At least.

Saw the owner while we were there, who extended friendly greetings to my Mae and Pau, who are regulars. "Closed for six months -- the customers have been so mad at us." Well, get back in there, people. The kitchen wants to prove that they've still got it, and believe me, they've still got it in spades. And they've got it in spades from 11am-4am EVERY SINGLE DAY. You people are so lucky.

Ruen Pair
5257 Hollywood Blvd. at Hobart Blvd. (close to Western)
Los Angeles, CA
(323) 466-0153
Cash only

I can't wait to see what "the northeastern Thai tradition of barbecuing with spicy lemongrass marinades" means. Sounds to me like the Italian tradition of raw fish, or the Chinese tradition of General Tso's Chicken.

Boy, Kampuchea Noodle Bar is really getting their money's worth from their PR. But before all the food writers 'round town start disseminating misinformation, I need a little clarification. I was always under the impression that pho was a Vietnamese thing. But I'm hoping that Cambodian noodle soup, like Thai noodle soup, is a wholly different animal from pho. So just as I wouldn't say baguette instead of bagel, I don't think we should be calling Cambodian noodles pho. And yes, I am one uptight stick-in-the-mud nerd.

I called Kampuchea Noodle Bar to clarify and got this e-mail:

"Pho is primarily Vietnamese. Our restaurant serves Southeast Asian food but focuses on Cambodian cuisine the most. The dish similar to Pho would be Ka Tech for Cambodia.
We hope you check us out!"

UPDATED: I also called the restaurant's PR contact (which I got from the website. My bad. From the press release:

"Kampuchea’s menu is divided into six sections, and the Noodle Soups (Pho), Cold Noodles and Stews are Chau's specialty."

Weird that a place called "Kampuchea Noodle Bar" would use the Vietnamese name for their noodle soups. But I'll bite -- a cuisine from the country sandwiched between southeast Thailand and French Vietnam, cooked by a former Fleur de Sel guy is worth checking out. They're hoping to open the week of 11/27.

***
Also, remember when the Bluths hired a PR person?

BUSTER: I will be neither seen nor heard.

Prospect Heights, re-Joyce! The pastry revolution is upon you at Joyce Bakeshop. Cupcakes and cake blah blah blah but check out her classy selection of tea sweets and cookies, including financiers, madeleines, peanut butter parfaits and caramel pots de crème.

Joyce Bakeshop
646 Vanderbilt Ave
between Park Pl and Prospect Pl
718.623.7470

Great news in the Times for us West Village worker bees:

Tarts and Brioche, Marching from Brooklyn

Melissa Murphy and Wade Hagenbart have opened a branch of their Brooklyn bakery, Sweet Melissa Pâtisserie, in Manhattan at 75 West Houston Street (West Broadway), on the edge of SoHo. The shop's breakfast pastries, including twice-baked brioche slices, and its creamy tartlets, cookies, cakes and fancy lemon meringue and fruit tarts are all baked in Brooklyn. The shop also sells quiches, sandwiches and salads: (646) 773-2427.

For you Cobble Hill kids, from my friend Winnie:

Taku:  It's a Japanese restaurant that doesn't serve sushi, so more like an izakaya.  The two main cooks met at Bond street and neither of them are Japanese, but they have been making Japanese food for a long time.

They have a full bar, where you can sit and hang out, and an assortment of snacks, appetizers, noodles (ramen and soba), main courses and desserts. Main courses run about $15-28 and include steak, roasted chicken, pan seared scallops and a seafood nabe being the head chef's self-proclaimed best bang for the buck. It looked good - packed with all sorts of yummy things like beautiful shrimp, different kinds of clams, mussels, etc. The wings are also an excellent snack, marinated in a yuzu brine with a cucumber yogurt type of dipping sauce.

Taku
116 Smith Street
b/n Pacific and Dean

A friend sent me a blurb that says the ever popular Nolita eatery Cafe Habana is opening a sister restaurant in Fort Greene called Habana Outpost.  No more clawing your way in through the pre-purge rice and beans binging clothes hanger crowd in Manhattan.  Maybe at the Brooklyn location, you'll feel un-self-conscious enough to actually get something to eat.  Note to hippies: the new place is solar-powered, apparently.  And I have to admit -- the Mexican-style corn is good.

Habana Outpost
755-757 Fulton Street at South Portland Avenue
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
(718-230-8238)

E-mail tips to gandas[at]gmail[dot]com.

A Public Service Announcement for all you drunken sots in the East Village: My friend Josephine is opening a taco shack on 3rd and Ave. B, open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights to start, but open late.  It's called Dragon Shack and it opens tonight! 

(I'm sorry, that headline is so Post-worthy.  Thank you, thank you.)