10/20/2006, Home
Busaba: It's Thai for "Woman"
Every great once in a while I have a dining experience that's nearly an epiphany. I've always considered myself a lover of Thai food and though I knew what was good, and frankly what Thai food was about. I've done high and low, fusion and folk Thai, and am pretty critical of Thai - it's almost always good on some level, but I want to be tickled with my Thai, not just sated. I'd been waiting to try Busaba, a completely vegetarian (and mostly vegan) Thai restaurant at La Brea and Melrose for a while. It's owned and operated by an all-female team of Thai food industry veterans who wanted to do something different. They have not only succeeded, they've really managed to blow me away. First, I've struggled with Thai since going vegetarian, as so many of my favorite dishes just didn't seem to be possible without chicken or shrimp. Boy was I wrong. Second, I thought I knew what to expect from something labeled Thai food. Wrong, way wrong, again! This was certainly among my favorite, if not simply my absolutely favorite, Thai food ever. We had a crispy rice salad I can still taste, a "duck" curry that was sweet, spicey and ducky, and just wonderful, and sizzling pra ram with tofu. There are so many things on their menu we have to try that we're going to be visiting the busaba for our Thai fix whenever the jones hits.
Oh, and "busaba" apparently means "woman" in thai.

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