#Mae Maeli Thai House of Noodles

[formeryelpers]

Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles, 5445 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles (Thai Town), CA 90027

The former street vendor now has its own brick and mortar noodle shop. I’m guessing that Thai street food portions are small. It’s authentic and Thai-owned. The specialty is Thai boat noodle soup, one of my favorite noodle dishes.

The menu includes appetizers (egg rolls, housemade Thai sausage, pork jerky), noodles (tom yum, boat, wonton, stir-fried noodles and fried rice, drinks, and desserts. You can choose the type of noodle (thin rice, big flat, vermicelli, glass, egg) and the spice level (mild, medium, spicy, Thai spicy).

I hadn’t seen dry Thai boat noodles before, so I decided to try them.

Dry Thai boat noodle ($8.49) with pork (beef was the other option), big flat rice noodles, peanuts, bean sprouts, one pork ball, sliced pork, pork cracklings, fried ginger, and fried garlic. The price surprised me (so low) and so did the size (very small). Luckily, the flavor is explosive so a little goes a long way. It’s sweet and very spicy. The noodles are the noodles you get in chow fun. There was a bit of dark sauce on the bottom, so the dish was moist. She said there was no blood in the sauce though, so that was disappointing. I also didn’t see liver or blood cubes. There was only one pork ball. The dry boat noodle had more texture and crunch but I did miss the broth.

Thai iced coffee ($4.95): Sweet, strong, and creamy, like Vietnamese iced coffee but not quite as strong, also larger than Vietnamese iced coffee

Service was friendly. For some reason, the boat noodle only comes in a small size. If you’re hungry, you might want to order something different. The strip mall actually has plenty of parking. Mae Malai is a small restaurant with a cozy feel. A caddy with various condiments is kept at each table.

4 out of 5 stars

By Lolia S.