I haven’t been back to the original location in a while, but was lured by the prospect of boudin noir on the DineLA menu. I was very sad to learn they no longer make their amazing ice cream sandwiches, but oh well.
Their DineLA deal is ridiculous. It’s $39, but I don’t see how one person could eat all of the food given the portions.
Started off with what is most people’s favorite dish apparently, Nam Khao Tod. This version was way spicier, crunchier, and more sour than the version at Song I had. Really intense and pleasant. A great display of Thai cooking. I think I understand why it is so popular now.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBHDu4yk0BF/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Raw Scallop and Ikura Fried Rice was a huge portion, and a seemingly obscene deal for the massive amount of scallops and roe. For me, Night + Market fries rice exactly right. It has a wonderful sticky texture that is pungent with garlic. It was deeply accented by the salinity of roe, and fresh, delicate scallop meat, as well as a very spicy sour birds eye chili sauce. One of the best fried rices I’ve ever had, similar to the Uni and Ikura one I had a bit over a month ago at Song. The side sauce seemed much spicer than at Song.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBHD8tmE0BX/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Boudin Noir was kind of this amusingly classic French plating. Lovely silken potatoes, a kind of jocular basic green iceberg salad (actually quite pleasant, and nicely dressed), and a simple boudin. The sausage itself was explosive with cinnamon and anise, while retaining a lovely earthy must from the blood. My only gripe is that it seemed like such a small sausage…I wish the portion was as generous as the scallops on the fried rice, but I digress. It was a wonderful, classically French dish in the middle of the Thai storm. I hope this ends up on the regular menu in some form.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBHEIPDE0Bh/?taken-by=compulsiveaesthete
Overall, this visit revealed to me that the cooking may be stronger at the original location. Food seems spicier, more pungent, and generously more carefully prepared. It also taught me, and should show everyone, that Night + Market is not a pure Thai restaurant in terms of its food. How Thai is boudin noir? I assume not at all…except that hotels serve it in Thailand apparently. How about the ludicrous scallop and ikura over garlic fried rice? I could be wrong, but it seems like more of an invention of a creative Thai chef living in California. Yet at times the cooking IS, or at least feels straight up as intensely Thai as Thai can get, as showcased by the nam khao tod.
For those who have dismissed the place based on Song, I say it’s worth giving the original location a trip.
Especially while DineLA is happening, since this was more than enough food for 2 of us, meaning it was like $25/person after tax and tip. We split a great bottle of cab so it came out to $49/person, but that’s not bad at all really. I also admire the strange, yet delicious wines that Night + Market always seems to cultivate. I started off trying a Mexican wine, but the bottle had a defect and was the last one, so we went with the cab, which I thought was going to be boring, but was actually remarkable, and interesting. Super reasonably priced bottles all in the $30-$45 range, nearly unheard of in places with such a high caliber of cooking.
Now if they would just bring back those ice cream sandwiches…