Michelle Obama arrived in Los Angeles today to promote her 'Let's Move!' campaign, the healthy eating initiative that will soon celebrate its two-year anniversary. A major component of the First Lady's crusade has been to improve the nutritional quality of lunch programs among public schools nationwide. Despite the good intentions of the cause, in early January L.A. Unified School Food-Services director Dennis Barrett concluded that the initiative “has been a disaster.”
Since the beginning of Mrs. Obama's mandate to “combat the growing epidemic of youth obesity, diabetes and other health problems,” L.A. school officials have reported enormous waste, and uneaten food amassing in the garbage bins. Typical dishes served as part of the program include green salads with carrots and beets, vegetarian tamales and curries, quinoa salads, and pad thai noodles.
A recent Los Angeles Times report quoted a student describing the food as “nasty, nasty stuff.” The same report told of students averting the school lunch lines, and opting instead for “Flamin' Hot Cheetos and sodas stockpiled in their backpacks... “this is our daily lunch, we're eating more junk food now than last year.”
In the last four years L.A. Unified schools have seen expenditures for fresh fruit and vegetables increase from $2 million to $20 million annually. Faced with an overwhelming mountain of complaints, L.A. Unified has decided to implement necessary lunch menu modifications for the remainder of the school year.
Most folks in Los Angeles would probably agree...the First Lady's cause is a worthy one...nobody wants fat kids getting fatter. However, should public schools be in the restaurant business? It's hard enough for a commercial restaurant, with trained chefs in the kitchen and fresh ingredients abounding, to prepare and serve a delectable meal that's universally satisfying to customers. Should the lunch ladies working for a massive school district (the nation's second largest) be expected to perfect a delicious pad thai? Keep the cheeseburgers and pizza in the schools and leave the pad thai to the restaurants.
Many consider Los Angeles to be the finest source of Thai dining in the world, outside of Thailand. Rating the attributes of Thai cuisine is a thoroughly subjective issue, since opinions vary so widely regarding regional cooking, Americanized variants, levels of spiciness, etc. Lists of 'best' Thai restaurants are commonplace, but as aforementioned, utterly subjective.
Here's a short list of Thai restaurants that are 'popular.'
Rambutan Thai - Silverlake
Sri Siam Cafe - No. Hollywood
Palms Thai - Hollywood
President Thai - Pasadena
Chan Dara - Larchmont
Talesai - W. Hollywood
Si Laa - South Robertson
Pa Ord Noodle - Hollywood
Spicy BBQ Restaurant – Hollywood
Ruen Pair Restaurant – Hollywood
Jitlada - Hollywood
Natalee Thai - Culver City
Sanamluang Cafe - Hollywood
Yai - Hollywood
Wat Dong Moon Lek – Hollywood
Tuk Tuk - West Pico
Krua Thai - No. Hollywood
Thai Paradaise - San Gabriel
