Luv2Eat (Thai Town): A Pictorial Essay

Oof! Why am I afraid this won’t end well. May I make a lame suggestion? Order everything mild? It’ll give you an excuse to come back and also NOT do this:

This is Thai restaurant pet peeve. It’s also horrible foodie karma (not that I’d know anything about good karma) considering the current push against food waste.

sorry, CB.

FWIW, I ordered the fish curry very spicy once. It hurt a bit (like BDSM?) on the way down, but it really hurt the entire next day, to the point I lost weight.

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Thanks @TonyC @CiaoBob @paranoidgarliclover @MyAnnoyingOpinions. :slightly_smiling:

Some good suggestions. I’ll probably try 1 “mild” or “lightly spicy” and maybe one a little more spicy than that level (let them tweak it), and order some non-spicy dishes as well to balance things out.

BTW, @TonyC thanks for the guide you posted a while back, but do you or anyone else have recommendations for cooked vegetable dishes (or dishes that are more veggie-heavy with some protein) as well?

Thanks!

Just went last week and thought it was good. Had the pork sparerib soup with jade noodle, quite good, but similar to many around. Spice level messed up my guts but I can’t say no. Paying $9.25 for mango / sticky rice was offensive to me.

want to try the curry crab next time but the reviews that say it’s just spice on spice with a monotonous unremarkable curry is a bit discouraging, larbs and papaya salads need to be tried as well.

Like these professional spice-eaters who tried the dreaded Carolina Reaper?

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Which reviews said that???

Whoever said that about the curry is just wrong. The taste is deep and complex. The problem I had was the heat was so overwhelming that after a while I couldn’t go back for it anymore. I will try it at a lower level in the future.

Every time I have gone in, the server (and I really should ask her name next time) has looked at me, said “You like spicy?” “I’m ok with spicy.” “ok.”

What came back was perfect, for me. Enough to make things tingly and interesting. Enough to make me reach for a drink once or twice, enough that 20 min. after I finished, I could still feel it a little. But nothing remotely painful, and certainly no dire next-day consequences.

As a middle-aged white guy, I suspect saying “do what you think best” will get you ‘mild’, and that seems to be just dandy.

Besides, there’s ample chili paste sitting on the table should you find you’d like more heat.

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edited

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When I went, I was thinking boat noodles, but the waiter told me he didn’t like them. Seems pretty damning

Thanks for the intel. The broth didn’t look nearly as dark as the Sapp version which steered me away.

I guess Sapp for boat noodles and luv2eat for the other dishes.

Finally tried the crab. LEGIT… mad spicy… next time (which is probably tomorrow) i’m going mild

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I know. God, I know. I tried the crab last time I was there, got it mild, and it still melted my face off. I ended up ordering a thai iced tea because I had to.

It was the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. That probably says more about me than about the dish, but still.

However, I’d still go back and get it again. Once the burn sort of settles in, all the other flavors, the lemongrass, the turmeric, everything just blooms… and there’s something about trading off the savory burn, followed by a swig of super sweet iced tea, that’s kinda magical.

And on the jade noodle front, I happened to run by Sapp the other night. Having both fresh in my mind, I think it’s still a real toss-up as to who does it better (as if there needs to be a decision), but both are brilliant in their own ways.

Yep it’s pretty hot. I’ve had spicier food at Thai places, this was glorious though. Mild for me next time. There was an older white lady that asked for advice as we were wrapping up and she wanted the curry i was sucking on… i kept insisting that it is really hot and she claimed to like spicy level medium… i didn’t inquire whether that’s thai medium or gringa medium… wish i was still there when she took her first bite… can’t wait to go back… prolly take family there like tommorow haha

for me a hugely prominent flavor/smell there was the fish sauce interestingly… and they forgot to order our second (eggplant green curry with roti) dish but this dish even though it looked small was filling enough for very hungry adult males.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BA53ZJ5g-uv/

I enjoyed the boat noodles, though I would have to give the win to Sapp.

Jade noodles I might actually prefer L2E’s over Sapp.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BA59OrvA-rA/

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Farang medium is what you’re looking for…

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Serious question:

is Farang a gendered noun? (is thai even a gendered language?) If I’m going to be self-deprecating I want to do it correctly.

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Only tried it once at Sapp, but I didn’t enjoy them. However, SO many other people here seem to love them, so what should I be looking for in a good boat noodle dish?

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I think you should be looking for exactly what Sapp puts in it. That’s the gold standard

I’ve been recently told it is finally “OK” for anyone to not like a certain food/dish.

Kinda like: Filipino food is disgusting; Shanxi food is boring AF. Doesn’t it make you feel better just to say: “I don’t like boat noodles”. Boom, done. moving on. Eat what you like. Don’t order boat noodles at luv2eat when the other dishes are SO MUCH STRONGER.

And here we thought millenials couldn’t teach us a damned thing.

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What’s the item on top of the noodles, and what was the broth like?