Thai Corner

Everyone's in a corner
they'll never turn around

-John Frusciante
(I couldn't help but give a plug for one of my favorite songs.)

Hello friends, food bloggers, and creepers!
herb jankies here with your weekend update.

Last week, I checked out Thai Corner in the Stater Bros Plaza in Chino Hills. It's one of the first places you see going down on Grand Ave, next to the donut place and Tuesday Morning. It seems that that specific spot has some bad luck with business. I've seen a sandwich shop, then a wing place there, and now it's a Thai place.

I came for the lunch special, and it was $6.99 for an entree with your choice of meat, a drink (thai iced tea or ice coffee, no refills), 1 thai spring roll, and soup of the day. I had a hard time deciding because I read on Yelp that the eggplant was good, but since it had a while since I had last gotten pad thai, I ordered that with chicken.

I was pleasantly surprised when my soup came out because I was expecting tom yum.


It was a bit on the salty/sweet side, but addictingly so, and I had no problem finishing it. I think the soup base was made with some tamarind paste...It had some rice noodles, along with some overcooked mushy carrots, bean sprouts, and green onions. As for what it was, I don't know. When I asked the waitress, she simply replied, "Noodle soup.


The spring roll wasn't as greasy as other rolls I've gotten in the past. There wasn't too much filling inside my roll, and I also found a pineapple in it, which wasn''t one of the ingredients described in their menu. Winner!
The pad thai was average. The question of authenticity always comes up for me. How do I know what is real pad thai? I once went to eat with my college roommate, who was Thai, and he told me that what we were eating wasn't the real deal. At the same time, I like what I like, and I'll use the example of American Chinese fast food with real Chinese food. I like both. Back to business though. The noodles were chewy and sweet, but the chicken wasn't too great and dry. Honestly though, there hasn't really been a place where I've gotten pad thai, and the chicken wasn't dry. One complaint I had was that the green onions were raw. If it was for garnish, then my complaint isn't valid, but it would have been nice if it was cooked. Overall, a good sized portion for your money.

The service was friendly and quick, but one thing that I was slightly annoyed at was that the waitress never told me about the drink special. I only found out about it when I left the place and saw their outside flyers. If i I had known, I woulda gotten the Thai iced coffee. Oh well...everyone makes mistakes.

Would I come here again? Yes. I'm always willing to give another place a try, unless I have a horrible experience. They have a pretty wide menu, and I've been reading about larb lately in other blogs, and want to try it out here. I've only had larb once or twice, and want to try it again.

Thai Corner
14230 Chino Hills Pkwy #H
Chino Hills, CA 91709

-open daily from 11:00-2:30 and 4:30-9:00
and until 9:30 on Fridays and Saturdays

*They take card, but you have to have a $10 minimum.

For dinner today, I decided to make some chicken teriyaki. I love this stuff, and I've always got to try it, wherever I go. I don't care if it's some nice sushi place or Jack in the Box. Yet, I've never made it before, so I decided to give it a shot today, roughly adapting the recipe from mmm-yoso's blog. (If anyone is reading this from San Diego and doesn't know about this blog, it's worth checking out. I found a lot of good restaurants through Kirk's site, and it's an excellent resource for places to eat in the San Diego area. My first food blog I read too when a friend introduced it to me a couple years ago.)


I quickly cooked some chicken breast in a pan, along with some cooked red cabbage and carrots. For the sauce, I used soy sauce, sake, ground ginger, garlic powder, honey, sugar, and oj. Why oj? I've used it before in teriyaki marinades for bbq, so decided to put it in for fun. Cooking is about experimenting, isn't it? Yeah, I was lazy too and used the powder. Overall, the sauce came out okay, but it felt like it was missing something. Still, I thought it was better than some of the teriyaki places I've had in the area. This isn't to boast about my cooking; rather, it's just to point out that the places that serve teriyaki aren't very good. Anyhow, I put it over some rice, and I ate it with some siracha sauce and kimchi. Overall, I was satisfied with my meal.

I do have a question though. You know at those fast food type chinese places, and you order their chicken? How does it come out so moist? Is it a different part of the chicken, or is it the way that they cook it?

Lastly, my parents went to Korea a couple weeks back, and I was very specific about what I wanted: some fresh mountain spring water(I remember having some as a kid, and it was delicious. of course memory is a very unreliable thing...) and yut, a sort of Korean rice taffy candy that will wreck absolute havoc on your teeth. What I got instead was a Polo hat and Godiva chocolates...lol. But if I've learned anything about food blogging, there are plenty of opportunities to write about food, so here ya go:

Yeah yeah yeah. I understand that the flash created that glare, but without it, the chocolates don't look as nice. I have never really eaten much Godiva before, simply because of the price, and the fact that I don't see it around at the places I shop at. Anyhow, I liked how these looked and wanted to take a picture of them. I've only eaten a couple, and they are pretty good. I think I had a truffle one, and one with some sort of honey paste. But would I go out and buy some? Hell no. I'm fine with my See's Candies, or even a Reese's Peanut Butter cup...



1 final done, 4 more to go...then it's off to San Diego!