Lunch Offerings

I often eat lunch with folks from work at Ocha, a Thai Restaurant in a rundown part of Van Nuys. I kept noticing that we never got seated at the tables with the pretty settings of orange, orange soda, rice and two other tiny cute portions of something or another.

It took me a few visits to figure it out. The employees set the places and make offerings of the strange little meals to Buddha. No one gets seated at these tables until the workers clear them. It's not like I really like orange soda anyway.

In fact, there a just a few things worth ordering here. And they're really worth ordering -- beef eggplant curry, spicy flat noodles with tofu, and spicy chicken. Lots of water. Once, I had the fried rice (someone else ordered it, and it was bland). But the blandness was a blessing because I discovered my new favorite condiment. It's a fresh hot sauce made with lime, fish sauce, hella Thai chili, and cilantro. Mmm. I ordered some to go in a jar I brought (like almost all restaurants in SoCal, to go = styrofoam). Next time you're at my house ask for some.