There is a gray building on the northwest west corner of 47th and Imperial, diagonally from Lincoln High School. It was time to finally check it out...
In fact, I remember reading Kirk's old posts about this place which seemed to keep changing owners and signage since 2006 (his posts linked at the end).
There are a few parking spots in the front and some in the back. I'm glad I didn't drive because I would have hated backing up onto 47th St.
A poster we saw on one of the windows. I believe the the Jacobs Center on Euclid and Market will be hosting the Lao New Year Celebration. We might just check it out for the food! (Here is more info from the the Lao Community Center site)
There a few tables in here if you want to eat in. We were just going to get takeout, not knowing what to expect; it ended up being a 25 minute wait. There are two older ladies making the food behind the counter. A young man was helping in the front and kept going back and forth from the counter to a back room getting orders from the back kitchen.
Their offerings:
We got the Papaya salad (Thai style/$6) and the Chicken Laab (Larb/$10). I also picked up one of these packages at the counter, the one with the cilantro leaves on top. It turned out to be what the guy called tapioca rice balls with a pork filling (only $3). THe other item looked like a glutinous rice cake with stripes.
To the right of the counter was this rack that had rice cakes with some sort of drizzled glaze on it (made note to self to try that next tie) alog with bags of rice crisps and powdered stuff in containers (not sure but will ask next time) and these really pretty fried rosettes. I picked up one of those packages as well ($3 for 5 rosettes).
I liked the paintings of the Lao countryside. It reminded me of the Philippines...
Every table had a tray full of condiments which included fish sauce, soy sauce, hot sauce and two huge containers (one with chili oil and the other with fried garlic), along with crushed peanuts.
That's a LOT of chili oil! It smelled so good too!
One of the ladies was making each papaya salad fresh to order, using a big mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients.
On a nearby table were these three bowls of soup. I didn't see soup on the menu and wasn't sure if this was just food for the workers or what or if they had a "secret" menu only for Lao folks. I spied some blood cubes in there. I read on yelp that they offered a chicken vermicelli soup which has blood cubes. I'm not sure if this is it or not. I will have to ask next time as well.
Our receipt for the papaya salad, chicken Larb and tapioca balls. I also bought some freshly fried beef jerky with the rosettes ($5 + $3).
When I ordered this, the guy asked me how spicy I wanted it. I asked for 'mild' and it proved to be just right for us wimps. TC thought it was on the spicy side though, but that's just her. Mixed within the minced chicken were darker and thicker pieces of...something. I'm not sre what it was. You can see a few pieces here. Maybe it was liver or heart? We ended up picking off those pieces. I didn't like the minerally flavor; I'm certain it was some sort of organ meat. The chicken larb itself was so very delicious. We ended up having this at home later with lettuce leaves for wraps. The ingredients were so fresh and fragrant.
The papaya salad (Thai style) - this was a deep container. There were way more of those cut up long green beans in there than you see on top. There were a few tiny pieces of dried shrimp. Because this was Thai style, the fish sauce flavor was lighter and sweeter and not as dark and funky as Lao style. We all really enjoyed this for lunch!
When I was looking at those snacks, I saw some containers of beef jerky (one dark brown and the other more pink brown labeled $5 and $6) and asked the guy at the counter the difference between them. He said they were from different vendors then said they made their own beef jerky here for $5 and it was much better than the dried ones. The lady in front of me in line chimed in and said that I HAD to get their freshly fried beef jerky and that the flavor was so much better than the pre-made ones. Of course, I took their advice and off the guy went to the back room to fry it up.
The fried beef pieces were so fragrant and burning hot (tempwise not spicewise). I added some of that fried garlic into the container before we left. My only gripe was that the pieces were on the fattier side and some pieces were so chewy that I couldn't swallow it. For the most part, this was a food item that I was glad that we tried.
Here were those tapioca balls which Bert and I enjoyed. The tapioca/rice was pleasantly sticky and chewy and filled with a savory pork filling. There were five or six pieces in there for $3. This was a perfect snack.
The food at home...See the papaya salad? That was quite a bit! It was probably one of the better papaya salads we've had in awhile.
Here were those rosettes, which had a faint vanilla/coconut flavor studded with black sesame seeds.
These were fantastic! They were so very light and crispy and pretty to look at and delicious to eat!
I'd get this snack again in a heart beat!
Bane Phonkeo's Food to Go (located at the Lao Community Market near Muang Lao Market II; the first Muang Lao Market is next to Asia Cafe on 47th and Market)
110 47th St.
San Diego, CA 92102
(619) 263-0476
There is no website but here are the yelp reviews and another entry with more recent comments under "Lao Community Market"
Here are some older posts from Kirk from when this same place was called
Vientane Food to Go in 2006, which became Imperial Thai (2009) which became Thai Garden in 2010. Who knows when it became Bane Phonkeo, although looking at the yelp reviews, one was written as early as September 2012. The yelp reviews were hit and miss, as always, dinging them for their service, which to me, didn't seem that bad.
I'm already thinking about our next visit since we really enjoyed that papaya salad! We want to try that secret soup, their fried chicken wings and some of their other salads and snacks as well (such as the #6 and #9 papaya salads with vermicelli and mango)! We seemed to be the only non-Lao there, which I liked.
4 comments:
Man, this place seems to turnover every couple of years. Looks pretty good though!
It seems like it, eh. We did like their snacks and that jerky. I definitely plan to do a return vusit.
Those snacks look great! The fried jerky sounds really interesting, I'd like to try that and those rosette snacks. I've had larb salad, like once or twice and I really like it so it'd be fun to try it at another place. Mom and pop shops are the best.
I totally want to come back here.....I want to try their wings and their other larb salads.
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