LAX Eats: Lobster Pad Thai at Ayara Thai (and Recipe)

Finding a place to eat near LAX has always been a tough task and In-N-Out ends up being the choice a few too many times. My recent visit to Ayara Thai told me that I should've explored the area more, and it's now on my list the next time I have a friend or family flying in with a short layover. Definitely keep an eye out for their specials announcement on twitter or Facebook, because they just may have the lobster pad thai. Yup, lobster!

For $16, they give a generous amount of lobster. Chicken? Meh. After having pad thai with chunks of lobster, it's hard to imagine any other protein that would go better with this sweet noodle. Lobster is the way to go, so try it whenever they have it available!

Even though I normally stay away from the chili sauces, the owner said the pad thai goes really well with the red sauce and the pickled jalapeno, so I tried a bite with the condiments. They really changed the flavors and the pickled jalapeno (which wasn't too spicy) acted like a palate cleanser in between bites. You should really try adding these two to at least some of your pad thai!

The spring rolls we ordered were apparently vegetarian (with tofu) so they were a bit more bland.

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El Balcon: Alta Cocina in San Felipe (Baja, Mexico)

Unlike the more metropolitan Tijuana, there aren't too many high end dining options in San Felipe, a sleepy town during the off-season. Still, there is at least one, and a very good one at that.

El Balcon Cocina Artesanal opened in Jaunary this year by Chef Julio Cesar Gonzalez Zetina who had previous worked at the Ritz Carlton in Cancun and researched Mayan culinary traditions for the university there. Now he also teaches the subject at the local university after a recent move from Ensenada.

El Balcon wasn't a fancy restaurant, just a few cute tables outside on the second floor of La Plazita, and an outdoor kitchen. Thick tortilla chips are accompanied by a bold housemade salsa.

Our lunch tasting began with an Aguachile de Cazon (dogfish marinated in burnt chili sauce and green sauce, smoked tuna, sea asparagus and "Huaxes" (toasted seeds), grasshopper, verdolaga

We have had plenty of bounty from the Sea of Cortez, but this was the first time in San Felipe that we had it raw. The fresh dogfish carpaccio reminded me of kanpachi and both of the chile were so good that despite not being able to eat that spicy, I had to finish the entire plate (while downing plenty of water).

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Tasting Menu at Shunji (West LA)

Shunji is one of the hot recent restaurant openings, with Chef Shunji Nakao's serving his "contemporary" omakase in an inconspicuous stand-alone building on Pico Blvd. There are only a handful of tables and a few seats at the sushi bar, and the chef prepared most of the dishes personally (some get fired in the kitchen).

His printed menu looks like the standard Japanese restaurant, but we had read about his omakase (the omakase was not printed on the menu) and just asked for that.

As an amuse bouche, a small bowl of jelly with cucumber and vinegar sauce

Next is a plate of small bites of vegetables, ankimo topped with caviar, a ball of purple potato with blue cheese and persimmon, and sweet potato with feta and truffle

Unsure if we were supposed to eat these in a particular order, we moved in one direction and it moves from rich (ankimo) to the palate cleansing, crisp, unadorned vegetables to the creamy potatoes

The scallop sashimi, topped with arugula flower, was so fresh

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