Rodded follow-up visit re: duck soup

[Rich Gould-Saltman]

On Thi's rec., went there with the Chow-pup last night (we'd been to one of the other two Thai places on the same block on the same side of the street about a year ago).

Parking is a problem, particularly at near-rush-hour; three restaurants in that block, none with a parking lot; Thi's hang-out coffee place on oposite side of the side street, with no lot; NEW coffee place ("Lithium Cafe"; I didn't believe it either when the Pup pointed it out and had to go past again to read it myself) on the other side of the street; Torung a block up...

Service (we were getting take-out) was fast and accomodating.

Menu is starch-intense, even for a Thai place. Noodles, noodle soup, wonton, and rice.

We had:
glass noodle pad thai (Pup's choice; interesting texture variation, but a little on the blandish side; perhaps waitress had us pegged as gringos from our "mild" duck soup order; improved by shot of hot sauce and several squeezes of lime)

Pad see yew (pretty good; not as ily as some; could have used more gai lan though) and

the aforementioned duck soup (available with wide noodles, thin noodles, rice thread noodles, egg noodles, etc., you get the idea) which, even ordered "mild", was pretty wonderful.

$17. before tip.

Now I must go repeat Thi's A-B comparision with Ruen Pair myself, and also with duck noodles soup at Thai Wat, which in the Chinese-ness of their spicing (lots of 5-spice) invoke in me a nostalgic memory of the Far east Cafe in San Francisco in about 1966.

rfgs

[Thi N.]

I've tried some other things now, including the glass noodle soup.

Nothing else there seems to come close to the duck soup.

Though they seem to have a serious dedication to won tons, judging from the menu.

Though I note that the duck soup is based on their duck stew (perhaps just a diluted version), and the duck stew is available pure, in pretty much every version you could one. One is... served over fried egg noodles. Hmmm...

Try the kou jub soup too, while you're at RP. If that ain't overload.

-thi

[mpken]

We finally ate here after all these years. I remember reading this post and decided that we would one day eat here. There was always something else in the area that took us off track, but now I can check Rodded off the list. My wife was craving Boat Noodles at Sapp, but I spotted Rodded as we drove down Hollywood Blvd. and quickly found parking.

We ordered the duck nooodle soup, half stewed duck, and spicy eggplants with pork. Every dis was outstanding. The dwell duck soup broth was properly spiked with Thai spices. The stewed duck was sliced, served on top of some Chinese broccoli, and eaten with the tangy Thai salsa from the tableside jars. The final dish of spicy Chinese eggplants was a savory pile of al dente pile eggplants interspersed with onions, pork and chili. I'm saddened that it took so many years to make it to Rodded, but I am sure glad we finally got to try it. Thanks Thi, RFSG, and Chowhound.

MPken

[Thi N.]

How long ago was the original write-up? Like, 2003? Almost every place I loved in 2003 has declined, gotten boring, been replaced and surpassed... but I still love Rodded pretty damn hard and still eat here on the regular.

They also have my favorite Hainan Chicken rice in town - only on weekends, and they run out by noon or soon after... but *damn* it's good.