Thai Homemade, Hai Woon Dae, Taqueria Puebla cemita

I thought I was done with my roundup of old, previously unposted recycled LTH list-serve posts but here are a couple more fragments. A lot of pics, so this will load slowly on dialup:

Thai Homemade (May 1, 2004)

So, anybody want to comment on the Thai Homemade dinner last night?

I didn't work hard enough at remembering every dish to be able to offer a blow by blow. My general impression was-- good at the appetizer-level stuff, less good at entrees.

Some spicy chunks of jerky like beef and especially some roasted pork strips were delectable, really nice. Tasty if gooey and greasy chive dumplings:



The fried chicken tasted great, but the fact that it was wings meant that it just wasn't very substantial, as Gary said the other day. But the supernova-hot dipping sauce was good. Papaya salad was less fresh tasting than Spoon or TAC, but not bad; there was another stinky bamboo salad I was less fond of. Overall, appetizers batted something like .600, the beef and pork were really quite good.

A duck curry was tasty but too sweet and way too Thai-Am-seeming to be on the Thai menu, I thought. Gary's suggestion of the liver was a one or two bite dish, I mean, as a dish it had really good flavor, but that just made you wish it wasn't liver that it was all working to support:



Some others blurred together, and I noticed refrigerator flavors in a couple of dishes that were kind of offputting (I think the same in the bamboo salad). On the whole, I'd have trouble saying there was really a standout entree. I don't mean, if I lived closeby, I wouldn't order delivery from here, but there was nothing among the entrees that made me say ooh, ooh, you gotta go try.

Fakey-tasting soup with what looked like circus peanuts:



Still, another Thai place, try a couple of things you haven't had before and that are really good, hey, it's a good night's work. I have some pics, I'll try to post soon.

Hai Woon dae and cemita at Taqueria Puebla (May 17, 2004)



An impromptu dinner at Hai Woon Dae was organized by Gary, in that spirit of generosity and shared adventure that makes all this internet-based fun so much more than it could ever be if it were merely a matter of posting text in solitude.



Note the action shot of Charlotte, who should be teaching Korean Bar-B-Q handling from the top of a mountain somewhere, in a long flowing beard and with a loud (dubbed) laugh-- "Ha! So you are foolish enough to think you can learn the secrets of the tongs! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" (Yes, I have seen Kill Bill Vol. 2.) Gary has pictures of the same meal from the other angle, if he posts them.

Peter demonstrates noodle technique:



18 plates of kalbi later, the soup arrived:



Scene of the devastation:



Then, in another one of those perfect LTH moments, I decided to go see what all the fuss was at Taqueria Puebla [subject of this Chowhound thread and others around the same time], and who should pop in moments after me than Rich, last seen on the Mil-walk-a-thon. He and his friend were kind enough to allow me to photograph some of their food as well (his friend only seemed moderately alarmed that I had a camera with me for that very purpose). The cemita milanesa:



Taco Arabe:



To be honest, I can't say that I was orgasmically, life-changingly affected by the cemita milanesa, the thin slices were tougher than at, say, Taqueria la Oaxaquena, but it's pretty good and is obviously made with more care than most Mexican tortas I've had-- anyway, well worth checking out, as is the, shall we say, intense decor of the sport-themed restaurant and laundromat.



Thai Homemade Restaurant
6950 N. Western Ave.
773-508-0396

Hai Woon Dae
6240 N California
Tel:

Thai Homemade appears to be gone, the space now being a Mexican restaurant called Jesse's.

Yeah, Thai Homemade was one of those places that started out strong but succumbed to the bland McThai pressures of the local community. I went in there a few months after the report and the menu was stripped of the fried chicken, larp, moo ping, and anything else that might get fish sauce or some actual flavor. Pad thai and pad see ewwwwwwww were the headlines.

I was at Hai Woon Dae on Friday night with a few of my friends, when halfway through the meal, the really nice lady started poking my arm and yelling "AGASHI!", among other things... After a few seconds, I dropped my tongs and was dragged to the front of the restaurant, where I saw this...

Mike G wrote:

The nice lady made sure that everyone in the restaurant knew that I was eating there that evening, including the nice Mexican guys that bring out the charcoal! Ah... my 15 minutes of fame... and yet no raw crab panchan...

So thank you LTHForum and MikeG, for making me "famous" at Hai Woon Dae. And thank you Hai Woon Dae for making sure that my mugshot is right next to the Hungry Hound.

LTH,

Nearing the end of a typically top-notch meal at Hai Woon Dae the waitress switched out our cooking grate, not in the least unusual, but before placing the clean grate she made indentations in the fire and set three, one for each of us at the table, small foil wrapped packages directly on the coals. She rotated the foil packs once then surprised us with blisteringly hot whole potatoes, lightly charred outside, dry, fluffy, almost airy, inside.

These were campfire potatoes at their finest, I even enjoyed the charred crisp outer layer where they were in direct contact with the fire. Only problem is I've never seen this before, have no idea how to ask for the potato gems again. Anyone familiar with this, seen it at a Korean BBQ restaurant?

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:Anyone familiar with this, seen it at a Korean BBQ restaurant?

I've never seen this practice in the US or Korea. I asked my wife (born and raised in Korea) about your "meat and potatoes," and she's never heard of it either.

My guess is that your group benefited from some inventive "service."