Bhan Kanom Thai

posted by jonathan liljeblad
Name: Bhan Kanom Thai
Location: 5271 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. 90027
Food: Thai, but just dessert
Service: Pleasant
Ambience: Just take out, with seating sacrificed for delicacies
Price: Cheap ($3-6 per dessert pack)

Most Westerners are oblivious to Thai desserts. Tell them about Thai food, and the first image in their head is usually of pad thai or pad kee ew or chicken satay or papaya salad. The idea of Thai dessert is a completely alien concept.

Which is actually a bit odd, considering that Thailand has a rich array of sweets in their culture, and accord it a dedicated place in their national cuisine. In some tourism circles, it's even promoted as one of the primary experiences for tourists--you can get a basic orientation at sites like Bangkok.com, Thaiways Magazine, Phuket Magazine, and Enjoy Thai Food. Thai desserts, called khanom in the Thai language, can be traced in the historical record to at least the Sukhothai period (1238-1350), and are known to have become popular during the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767). The creative explosion in Thai desserts are popularly attributed to a woman named Marie Guimar Phaulkon, who was a mixed-race (Portuguese, Japanese, and Bengali) wife of First Minister Constantine Phaulkon during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and introduced the ingredients of her heritage (particularly eggs and sugar) to expand the creativity available in formulating Thai dessert recipes.

To be fair, there are major reasons why authentic desserts are frequently left off the menu or ignored by most Thai restaurants: it's highly perishable, and it can be difficult to make. Much of the desserts require fresh ingredients, which when combined quickly lose their unique textures and flavors whether left on the counter or placed in the fridge. Personally I've noticed that they tend to lose their original qualities within a day, maybe less if it's warm or humid. This brief window of culinary enjoyability makes it difficult to justify the hours of preparation time, which frequently involve multiple ingredients layered in complex sequences with careful details in delicate chemistry.

Which is unfortunate, because Thai desserts, if fresh, and done well, are heaven.

They can be sweet, but not overly so. They can be filling, but not overly so. They can be heavy, but can also be light. They can be rich, but also simple. They can be overwhelming, but also subtle. There are desserts that are like bread, or cookies, or cakes, or pies. There are creams, gelatins, custards, tortes, dumplings, steamed, baked, or fried. There is fruity, there is sugary, there is syrupy, there is crunchy, there is chewy, there is smooth, there is melt-in-your-mouth and linger like the daydream of a tropical beach on a lazy warm day.
One of the better places in Los Angeles to view the diversity of Thai desserts is Bhan Kanom Thai. Located in Thai Town near the Thai Plaza, it's dedicated solely to Thai desserts. So much so, in fact, that you'll find yourself hard-pressed to make your way into the store and through the aisles to even see the selection--and when you do, chances are you'll have to make your way through the logjam of locals who know what they want and are trying to make a quick stop and the visitors who have no clue and are trying to figure out what they're looking at, let alone how to buy.

Most of the items in Bhan Kanom Thai are sold in lots, with an order being a packet of 4-6 individual bite-sized items. Most Westerners won't be able to tell what's in them--there's no way to identify the ingredients from the appearance or from the labels; you'll have to make do asking the staff behind the counter (assuming things are not too busy).

Not to fear. Pretty much everything is good. And as long as you remember it's dessert, and are happy that dessert is supposed to be some type and texture and flavor of sweet, you won't go wrong.

Scoops

posted by jonathan liljeblad
Name: Scoops Ice Cream
Location: 714 North Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA. 90029
Food: Ice cream, of the indie aficionado kind
Service: Not bad, not good (just bored trendy indie bums)
Ambience: Light, spare, to the point
Price: Moderate ($2-4 for scoops)

I originally heard about Scoops via word-of-mouth, in the vein of a whispered rumor spoken with hushed tones normally associated with sacred religious miracles. Then I saw it discussed in the LA Times in a review of Los Angeles ice cream shops that described in near-raving (of the spiritually possessed kind) language. Curious as to what would inspire such ardorous passion, I researched the place on the internet and found out that there's been an awful lot written about Scoops by the dedicated internet masses (reference: Yelp: Scoops), almost all of it in fervent (I would verge on the word "rapturous") emotion.

Surveying the waves of ecstasy engendered by this place, I figured I had to see what all the talk was about. I consider myself an aficionado of ice cream: I've had pretty much every kind of frozen creamy dessert imaginable (including the European and Asian kinds), and sampled untold numbers of flavors, and visited legions of ice cream parlors, and my love for ice cream is great enough that even though I'm lactose intolerant I am more than willing to suffer for the sanctity of the art that is ice cream. As a result, I view my palette as broad and deep when it comes to this particular refreshment. I figure it'd be an insult to my sensibilities to have missed out on a place as spoken about as this.

I should note that Scoops should not be confused with L.A. Scoops. Scoops is located next to Los Angeles City College (right across the street from the Bicycle Kitchen) near Thai Town, and is owned by a man named Tai Kim. L.A. Scoops, despite the similarity in name, is located by the Mitsuwa Market in Little Tokyo, and is owned by a husband-and-wife couple (don't know their names).

We went to Scoops on the Sunday after National Ice Cream Day. Remiss that I had almost forgotten the holiday, I figured the best way to redeem myself and absolve my sins was to visit the first location on my foodwise list of priorities (reference: Jonathan in the Distance: National Ice Cream Day). We chose to go in the evening, around 7 pm, after finishing a large dinner in Thai Town.

Ice cream parlors, based on my experience, tend to attract attention in a certain number of ways: ambience (i.e., making the experience enjoyable), variety (i.e., a wide number of flavors), quality (i.e., excellent taste, which is a highly subjective measure), and novelty (i.e., uniqueness of flavors).

I can describe Scoops relative to these criteria. The ambience itself is pretty bare. There's not much in the way of pretty interiors or furnishings, and seating is spare to the point of being an afterthought. If the word spartan was ever an adjective, Scoops would be one of the nouns connected to it. It's pretty clear that the attitude of the place is ice cream, and only ice cream, straight and to the point, no frills and no luxuries and--more importantly--no distractions or diversions.

In terms of variety, Scoops holds a position that depends on your point of view. One of the things I was told was that Scoops had a lot of different flavors, as in a plethora. However, not all the flavors are offered all the time. In fact, at the time we visited, we counted only 12 flavors of ice cream. The discongruity is explained by the way Scoops works, which is that they have a rotating array of flavors (I've been told endless), whose selection is determined by the owner (basically, he offers whatever he feels like offering).

Regarding quality, the ice cream is good. Very good. You can talk about ice cream quality in terms of what I call sweetness (too much or too little), intensity (too rich or too bland), butterfat content (too heavy or too light), creaminess (too rich or too bland), or hardness (too hard or too soft). All I can say about Scoops is that the ice cream is made by someone who has learned, loves, and lives ice cream, and it shows.

As for novelty, this is the hallmark of Scoops. Its reputation is built on offering odd, unusual, unique flavors. The ownership is constantly experimenting with new and different flavors on a daily basis. The day we visited we saw pineapple, guava, cinnamon rum, tarot ginger, and cappucino fudge. I've been told in the past they had avocado, cardamom, curry, and even bacon (!!!). Scoops prides itself on its willingness to experiment, and even has a whiteboard where customers can pose their own suggestions for the shop to try. Check out the photo below:
Overall, it was a good experience. The one hitch was that we found out that there is only a limited supply of ice cream made each day. As a result, even though the store hours are Monday through Saturday, 12 noon to 10 PM, Scoops is really open only as long as the ice cream lasts, and closes when it runs out. I'm guessing this is part of the charm of the place, and a marketing ploy to drive daily demand (you want to get there before the ice cream runs out). When we got there (around 7pm), most of the bins were empty, and the remaining few (I'm guessing 4-5 of the total of 12 bins) were almost to the bottom--and this was on a Sunday, when you'd think there'd be fewer people going out for the day!

Advice to visitors: get there earlier in the day, because by evening the odds are that the supply will be long gone.

Is it worth it? Dude, do you even have to ask? Does a surfer go for good waves? Does the opera have people who sing? Does the pope live in the Vatican? If you're into ice cream, this place is tantamount to a shrine. Learn it, love it, live it.