It was time for our annual pilgrimage to Palm Springs to visit my aunt and Uncle and put their trailer to sleep for the summer. But it was too hot in Palm Springs and my aunt and uncle wanted to go home early, so they weren’t going to be there. We had meant to go to L.A. for a bit during the last visit, but Tequila wasn’t feeling well and we drove instead so we could keep an eye on her, which meant we couldn’t go anywhere.
So this became a perfect opportunity to visit LA! Which started with a visit to one of the oldest Tiki Bars in the country called the Royal Hawaiian. It turned out that almost nothing in it was old, but the decorations were great and we’ll be stealing some of their ideas for our The Jungle FLower Tiki Room 2.0:
Then we went to another Tiki bar called The Bamboo Club, but we were tired and not very impressed and headed home after a quick lap on the inside.
We woke up in the morning and headed to the Grand Central Market in Downtown L.A., which turned out to be a very cool spot and we tried the most popular booth that turned out to be Eggslut (https://www.eggslut.com/)
Then we headed to The Velaslavasay Panorama; which has a cool 360 degree painting of the largest city in China one hundred years ago:
For the past half-decade, the Velaslavasay Panorama has been working at bringing beautiful Shengjing to Los Angeles. Welcome《盛京全景图》! Painted by masters 李武 Li Wu, 晏阳 Yan Yang, and 周福先 Zhou Fuxian, Shengjing Panorama depicts an urban Chinese landscape during the years 1910 to 1930 – an era of great technological change, global exchange, and diversity in architecture, religions, and culture.
VISIT THE LARGEST CITY IN NORTHEAST CHINA, 100 YEARS AGO
Journey to Shengjing Panorama, a 360-degree painting of Shenyang city in the years 1910-1930. Visitors will travel to Northeast China to witness a golden era of diverse architecture, religion and culture. A detailed three-dimensional terrain and an exquisitely-rendered vista showcase scenes from everyday life in historic Shengjing. The immersive experience features a sound and light installation illuminating the plants, buildings and people of this transitory city. This landmark collaboration is the first panorama jointly created by artists of the People’s Republic of China and the United States.
They also had a theatre showing a documentary of a man living in the artic and a beautiful garden in the back:
Then we walked around the La Brea Tar Pits and found this very cool Arts and Crafts museum called Craft Contemporary, which had a fantastic exhibit from artists that we had never heard of.
And then Chris got to go to the Wat Thai Food Court! Something he was super excited about since he first read:
There’s a place where throngs of foodies jostle around rows of street-food stalls selling pad Thai, mango and sticky rice, and papaya salad in the shadow of a Buddhist temple, the air thick with the smell of sweet, grilling meat, noodles frying in curry paste and fish sauce, and coconut balls crisping in griddles. It’s not Bangkok; it’s a parking lot in Los Angeles.
Since the 1980s, this weekend-only food market has sold some of the best Thai food outside of Thailand. What began as a handful of Thai grandmothers getting together to share their family recipes and renditions of homeland classics evolved into a weekly transformation of the Wat Thai Temple’s parking lot into a bustling Thai street scene, with a portion of the profits going to the temple itself.
By the mid-2000s, however, the market had outgrown itself, with parking and garbage issues drawing heavy complaints from neighbors. In 2007, the city shut down the temple’s weekly food-fair, to the chagrin of the devout following the temple had accrued over the years.
In 2015, the market returned, once again selling everyone’s Thai favorites—meaty larb, sweet coconut fritters, fried bananas, and sour Isaan sausage—as well as some off-the-beaten-path dishes that never quite attained pad Thai–level fame, such as mussel pancakes with sweet-and-sour sauce, fried potato balls, and kanom krok, a pan-fried ball of rice flour and coconut milk.
Nothing comes closer to true Thai street food outside Thailand than this market. For elephants, waterfalls, and scuba diving, you’ll still have to go to the actual country.
They had great food with very reasonable prices and we loved everything we tried:
Then it was off to another Tiki car called The Lucky Tiki, which is hidden above a hot dog joint. We had low expectations, but were very impressed. We enjoyed this place much better than the other two Tiki bars we visited that night. If Chris ever makes a lending library, we’ll probably steal some ideas from this place.
Here’s our map:
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