bulan's papaya salad with chili lime dressing...

when confronted with plenty of options for vegan thai fusion cuisine in this city, i decided early on that Bulan is my top restaurant pick in the genre. at least the one in silverlake, i haven't tried the one on melrose. the three words: vegan, thai, and fusion seem to make for a frequent combination. i guess thai cuisine rather lends itself to vegan translation...and i can see many vegans tend to connect with the "earthiness" of what they perceive to be thai culture...

anyway, Bulan won me over with their mushroom tom kah, which has me whipped, as i cannot seem to replicate one of the flavor therein. but a more recent rope that has been pulling me back is their papaya salad. generally a hard item to fuck up, but i have seen it done, though not here. 

with shredded papaya, green beans, carrots, tomato, crushed peanuts, it's one of the best i've had. but the main attraction here is a chili-lime dressing that is unbeatable! 

the sugar sweetness is offset by what we thought might have been a bit of tamarind, but wasn't...it's just proportioned well with soy sauce and flavored up with fresh thai chilis and lime, but not too much lime. you can taste the lime on the first go, but it eventually evolves into a sweet citrus tone, which, once again, avoids the cheap sugary taste.

i ventured there today with ms. j. shelley harrison to enjoy the dish. consistency is good, and they are. half way through, ms. harrison posed the question as to whether or not i felt the chili-lime dressing would work outside of the papaya platform...and i believe it would. it has such a distinct tanginess, kinda like a life-force that would be hard to defeat, and would prove effective in other (esp. lighter, brighter) salads. if possible i think i might add fresh mushroom, but who cares.

the website tells that..."Bulan is owned and operated by three
friendly Thai women with extensive restaurant experience who
guarantee top-notch quality and service."...

sounds good to me, but who knows. i can say that the aesthetic is good, the staff is nice, and there is always great jazz pouring out into the space. 

shalom. 

salad: chopped vs. the wedge...

i like staying abreast of all the latest salad trends. that's not to say that i like them all, or bend to these societal inclinations. just like everything, there are some good, some bad, and some _____. here is an example of two polar opposites concerning trend salads of recent years. 

chopped salad vs. the wedge salad

i absolutely hate wedge salad. a recent visit to "taix" (an echo park french restaurant/elderly magnet) reminded me of this. there i witnessed droves of seniors, entire 4 top tables, all ordering these blocks of iceburg bucketed in bleu cheese dressing. the wedges arrive at their tables, i turn away, and next thing i know they're gone....
i am a notoriously slow eater, but the wedge salad seems like a universally time consuming food item, which brings me to why i hate it...
it's just too fucking hard to eat. i mean, it's just a big block of iceburg salad. you have to approach this thing with knives and forks and other implements. cut and chop. and it kinda moves about and has too much potential for mess. 
on the opposite end of the spectrum, we find the chopped salad...a picture of ease and efficiency. this one nearly tops my list. neatly chopped lettuce(s), tomato, small bits of whatever vegetables, edamame, etc. together with creamy dressings and avocado makes for a forkable, easy to eat (practically anywhere) product. no knife required. blair's in silverlake makes one of the best i've ever tasted (though owner marshall blair can eat something besides salad...).

don't get me wrong, speed eating is not the focus here. actually, as many know, it is impossible for me to eat anything at even a normal pace...an average sandwich can take anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on the situation. but why spend all that time hacking through layers of iceburg when one can gracefully fork up a bowl of chopped plant matter that tastes so much better?

chopped salad: 2
wedge salad: -2

first post...about,etc.

i heart salad, but it's nothing without dressing. personally, i am fond of tahini based dressings, such as annie's naturals "goddess dressing". it was cool at first, but it seems to have become a guilty pleasure sauce...

anyway, we like to experiment with the creation process as well, diy style. lemons, balsamic vinegar, garlic, red bell peppers, whatever.
let's go!
"all the cats head's have been burned away."- joseph conrad.