https://www.anajakthai.com
What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where the best Thai restaurant in Los Angeles is in the San Fernando Valley?
You've got to know, the Valley used to be the pits. Maybe you could be from there, but you certainly didn't want to live there in the seventies, eighties, even right up to this century.
The Valley is America. Endless boulevards, littered with strip malls.
And it's also cheaper than the real estate over the hill.
But it ain't so cheap anymore, except maybe over Pacoima way. Then again, I just Googled and found out the median price for a house in Pacoima is now $700,000, which might buy you a mansion in many communities.
But as the years went by, baby boomers in Los Angeles discovered that unless you struck it rich, had a big entertainment job or the like, you couldn't afford to live on the Westside, the most desirable neighborhoods, from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills. (And the gentrification of Silver Lake and Highland Park were still decades off). So, if they wanted to own real estate and raise children, they had to move to the Valley.
But concomitant with this traffic got worse and worse to the point where the Valley became its own, almost walled-off garden. You no longer crossed the hill on a whim, in either direction.
Now ultimately some of those with more than average bank accounts moved to Calabasas, because it featured its own school system, it was not part of LA., but still...it was the Valley.
You could get your car serviced, you could buy anything you wanted, manufacturing was rampant in the Valley, they even made Camaros in Van Nuys, but you didn't want to tell anybody you lived there.
But a funny thing happened as the years went by. The San Fernando Valley became the epicenter of sushi culture. Up and down Ventura Boulevard, in seemingly every strip mall, there was a sushi bar, some rated as good as anything on the other side of the hill, in the city.
Now Thai cuisine started to burgeon in the late seventies. Mostly on Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, east of the 101. Which if you don't know L.A., is east of Hollywood and not a great neighborhood. The first standout was Jitlada. This was before Thai spread nationwide, it was still an L.A. thing, like sushi, in fact. But I ultimately favored a different outlet, if for no other reason than it stayed open until 4 AM, back when it was a badge of honor how late you stayed up as opposed to how early you awoke.
Now as the years passed, Thai spread across the city. And there was even an upscale place on Sunset, Talesai, which now only exists, ironically, as an outpost on Ventura Boulevard in the Valley, but Thai food was always seen as inexpensive.
Now you've got to know, Thai in L.A. became what Chinese is in the east. The Chinese restaurants were historically bad in Los Angeles. Cantonese and bland at best. But Thai? It was edgy, spicy, it delivered. And as I told Harry last night, if I could only eat one cuisine for the rest of my life it would be Thai? NOT ITALIAN? I pondered the question for a few seconds, I've been saying Thai for decades, but after thinking about it my preference still rules.
Now every time I drive by Anajak there's a crowd of people out front, waiting to get in. So when Harry said he could get a reservation on Saturday night at 7...
What I didn't know was he had pull. He'd had Anajak cater this private event for his client Niall Horan in Calabasas earlier in the week. Funny how the business changes. Niall has only had one hit in America, but he can sell out arenas. So, they decided to honor the superfans, with a sit-down dinner and acoustic performance at the Bunetta compound.
Which engendered a conversation about the modern music business. You don't play to the press, you play to those who are dedicated, who come to every show, who spread the word, who keep you alive.
Anyway, being familiar with the menu, I told Harry he could order.
Now we were sitting outside, which was a shock to me, having just spent a couple of months in Colorado. I mean it was warm in Vail, so warm that you didn't need a jacket the past couple of weeks, so warm that all the snow melted and they're closing the mountain early, but you could not go out in shirtsleeves at night. Yet in the San Fernando Valley? You didn't even need a jacket.
Now everything we ate was good, and we ate plenty, but I want to single out one specific dish, the Kampachi crudo.
Have you eaten tiradito at Matsuhisa? It's their signature dish, along with the black cod. I'm just gonna quote from Google:
"Tiradito at Matsuhisa is a signature Nobu dish blending Peruvian ceviche with Japanese sashimi techniques. It features thinly sliced raw fish (often halibut or whitefish) arranged in a Japanese style, topped with citrus sauce, yuzu, chili, and cilantro, famously omitting onions for a clean, spicy, and acidic flavor profile."
The fish is sliced thin, the serving plate is covered in slices, there's a tiny dot of hot sauce on top of each piece, but what makes it so good is the tang...not subtle, but not overwhelming. It's a must-eat.
But I found it was superseded by Anajak's Kampachi crudo.
Oh, they're not exactly the same thing. And I don't want to say anything negative about Matsuhisa/Nobu, whose dishes are unique and always deliver, but when it comes down to raw fish in sauce with zing, I'd rather have Anajak's Kampachi crudo.
Now if you go to Anajak's Instagram page, they've got a picture of the dish:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C40_JxSPgBY/
To be honest, I don't remember the sauce being that yellow, not at all. I remember it being clear, but with all that chozzerai pictured included.
So, you pick up a piece of fish and...
(No chopsticks, just regular silverware...)
You put it in your mouth and it is soft and only slightly chewy and ultimately delectable, but what puts it over the top is the sauce...which was so good when the fish was gone I ended up spooning it into my mouth again and again and again, I just couldn't stop.
I live for that zing. But unlike with the Tiradito, it's not just one flavor, it's a composite...I could make a whole meal of Kampachi crudo.
Of course we ate more, and everything was great, a lot of stuff 10 on a 10 scale. But I just can't get the Kampachi crudo out of my mind. It's sticking there, like the after-effect of a great concert, you wake up the next morning still thinking about it, still feeling it, in this case, still tasting it...in your brain anyway.
So I did some research when I got home. Is Anajak really the best Thai restaurant in Los Angeles?
Well, there's a debate, but many people think so. And I've eaten a lot of Thai, and this was definitely one step above.
As far as getting a reservation... I don't know, go on OpenTable, it ain't easy, but it's not impossible, you don't have to know someone.
As for the mass of people out front, maybe I've been driving by on Tuesday, because that's Taco Tuesday, when they feature a special menu of tacos and the restaurant doesn't take reservations.
Scroll down on this page to see Tuesday's offerings. If they don't immediately appeal to you, ignore everything I've said above.
https://www.anajakthai.com/menu/
As for the elements of the Kampachi crudo...
You can see them here:
https://www.starchefs.com/recipes/dry-aged-kampachi-crudo
Give it a shot if you want to, but we could never recreate the Carlos 'n Charlie's tuna fish dip...
But that was the seventies.
This is worth a special trip. Not for a special occasion, but to tickle your taste buds.
Anajak is not glamorous, but it's not East Hollywood down and dirty either.
It's worth a trip to the Valley!
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Sunday, 5 April 2026
Switchboard Susan
https://open.spotify.com/track/5GV9rMlkPYHXDBIO95K3sO?si=2bf95f7ffb5a42a8
"I'm a long distance romancer
I keep trying 'til I get an answer
Gimme gimme one more chance
She's a greater little operator"
I didn't know it was written by Mickey Jupp!
So I was reading today's "Los Angeles Times" and there was an interview with Nick Lowe. Wherein he said he never wanted to record "Cruel to Be Kind," that his A&R guy at Columbia, Gregg Geller, made him. That he just threw off the vocal.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-03-26/nick-lowe-biggest-hit-cruel-to-be-kind-was-almost-never-recorded
And that turned out to be Nick's biggest hit in the U.S., assuming you can call something that was an alternative FM staple a hit. Then again, years later Elvis Costello's version of Nick's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was included in "The Bodyguard" soundtrack and that sync has provided a living for Lowe all these decades later (which he claimed in a prior interview). Once again kids, when the big bad businessman tells you to sell your publishing rights, just remember, you never know when you'll get lucky. And this luck is not built into the multiple they're paying you today, because it's unforeseen. Life is short, but it's also long (of course if you're aged, your mileage may be different).
But what I did not know was that "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was originally recorded by Brinsley Schwarz, when Nick was in the band. I knew Nick's history, but you've got to know that pub rock never broke in America, some of the records were ultimately released over here, but none got airplay. I actually bought Ducks Deluxe...do you remember Ducks Deluxe?
And did you see that Andrew Bodnar of the Rumour died? Back in January, but the obit was only in "The Guardian" a week ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/30/andrew-bodnar-obituary
Now the thought was that Graham Parker was going to have a renaissance after Judd Apatow included his songs in "This Is 40," but that didn't happen. Just like Jonathan Richman didn't break through after he and his music were featured in "There's Something About Mary," which was an iconic picture of the era. But Richman never got the traction Parker did, he's still unknown by most. But for a minute there, Graham was up front and center, with the hipsters during his Mercury tenure, and then the press when Clive Davis snatched him up and paired him with Jack Nitzsche and the album "Squeezing Out Sparks" was released. People say that's the apotheosis, but I never agreed with that, it's really all about the first two, "Howlin' Wind," produced by Nick Lowe, and "Heat Treatment," which was produced by Mutt Lange before we knew who he was, before his breakthrough with AC/DC (along with one track, "Back Door Love," produced by Lowe). Now all these years later, I've got to admit that "Howlin' Wind" is better, but I loved, loved, LOVED, "Heat Treatment"...two songs especially, the white reggae "Something You're Going Through" and the anthemic closer "Fool's Gold."
But the true breakthrough was Elvis Costello and "My Aim Is True," which came out in 1977. Now although Nick Lowe was the producer on all of Costello's albums from the first through "Trust" (where he shared credit with Roger Bécherian), it's the first that stands out for me. Because it lacks the Vox organ of the later albums, the backing group was not the Attractions, but Clover...which featured John McFee, now of the Doobie Brothers, and Sean Hopper of Huey Lewis and the News (Huey was in Clover, but not on the Costello album). The backup did not detract from the lyrics, Costello's delivery, which on subsequent albums it tended to do, the band was competing with Costello, even though I know most people don't agree with me.
SO, Elvis Costello was the new wave breakthrough. As big as the Ramones are today, at least on t-shirts, punk didn't triumph until Nirvana in the nineties. And sure, there was a new wave scene in New York, but Blondie didn't really make it until 1978, after leaving Private Stock and working with Mike Chapman at Chrysalis, and even though their debut was entitled "Talking Heads: 77," it wasn't until the RISD band worked with Brian Eno on their second album, "More Songs About Buildings and Food" that they were taken to the river in 1978.
So, wherever it started, the new wave was seen by most people as an English thing. And after Costello broke down the door, Stiff Records followed up with Ian ("Wake Up and Make Love to Me") Dury and Lene Lovich and Wreckless Eric and England had not been so hip since the sixties. Skinny ties, short hair, the antithesis of the bombast of the headbangers and corporate rockers.
And at the center of all this was Nick Lowe.
Like Graham Parker, his music didn't really fit in, but his name was on all the records and when his first album came out, we bought it. But I always preferred the second, "Labour of Lust," it was less precious, a bit more in your face.
Yes, "Labour of Lust" started with "Cruel to Be Kind," but it truly took flight with the second track, "Cracking Up," with its descending line and irreverent vocal. That's one thing about Lowe, he had a sense of humor, he oftentimes delivered his tunes with the wink of an eye, and you've got to be smart to be funny, Lowe radiated intelligence, but unlike those before him, he didn't lead with it, he didn't lord it over us.
And after "Cracking Up" came "Big Kick, Plain Scrap."
But the song I liked just as much as "Cracking Up," they being the two best on the LP, was "Switchboard Susan."
"Switchboard Susan, won't you give me a line"
You've got to know, even back in '79, switchboards were in the rearview mirror, they went out the window along with prefixes... Forget area codes, our home number in Connecticut started with "Forest," you had to dial FO before the rest of the numbers. And on TV, we always were told to dial "Murray Hill"...
"I need a doctor, give me 999"
This was a regular theme back in the day, before acts were brands, when they saw themselves as the other, outcasts, with emotional problems.
"When I'm near you girl, I get an extension
And I don't mean Alexander Graham Bell's invention"
A good turn of the phrase, but a bit obvious for Lowe.
And then at the end:
"Hey babe, you're number's great
38-27-38"
This always seemed a bit base for Nick, but now that I know the song was written by Mickey Jupp, it all makes sense. You remember "Juppanese," don't you? Another Stiff act with a sense of humor.
Well I just learned today that Jupp's version of the song was produced by Nick Lowe, and his band Rockpile provided the backup. But Jupp considered it "sh*t from top to bottom" and Lowe got Mickey's permission to add his vocal to the backing track, and voila!
And it's the instrumentation that puts Lowe's version of "Switchboard Susan" over the top... It's the lead guitar work that echoes, adds a coda at the end of the chorus. And repeats with a solo later in the number. It's a thin sound, but it feels so right, it's like the instrument is answering the lyrics, commenting on them, the guitar adds meaning.
And that solo, it's almost like out of the circus, but it's perfect for the whole number, because it's FUN!
Now ultimately Mickey Jupp saw the error of his ways and recorded his own version of "Switchboard Susan," and it's good, but it doesn't have those guitar tweaks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E83UP0wIgs
And I knew the Searchers did a cover, but I never knew Gary Brooker did one too:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7E4XpvvX7ohGix2fOsDO7D?si=22f4df1731474d7e
But even crazier, my old friend Per Gessle redid the lyrics in Swedish for his band Rockfile, before Roxette:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVtdzC02tIk
So can Mickey Jupp live off of "Switchboard Susan"?
Well, the stunning thing is Mickey Jupp is still alive, he's 82. And he's still making new music, when so many superstars of yore have given up.
As for Elvis Costello, he's now respectable. However, if he used the n-word today like he did back in that bar in '97, would he pay the same price as Morgan Wallen? Even crazier, it's the Costello fans who have contempt for Wallen, who won't forgive him.
As for Nick Lowe... He married and divorced Carlene Carter and then slowly faded into the woodwork. He's made more records, for ever more indie labels, and he goes on the road now and again, but he can go to the grocery store unnoticed. He could walk the fields of Lollapalooza and I don't think anybody under the age of 40 would recognize him.
But if you were around back then, you've never forgotten him.
Sure, he was behind the board on some great albums, but he also recorded some great tracks.
Like "Switchboard Susan."
"I'm a long distance romancer
I keep trying 'til I get an answer
Gimme gimme one more chance
She's a greater little operator"
I didn't know it was written by Mickey Jupp!
So I was reading today's "Los Angeles Times" and there was an interview with Nick Lowe. Wherein he said he never wanted to record "Cruel to Be Kind," that his A&R guy at Columbia, Gregg Geller, made him. That he just threw off the vocal.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2026-03-26/nick-lowe-biggest-hit-cruel-to-be-kind-was-almost-never-recorded
And that turned out to be Nick's biggest hit in the U.S., assuming you can call something that was an alternative FM staple a hit. Then again, years later Elvis Costello's version of Nick's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was included in "The Bodyguard" soundtrack and that sync has provided a living for Lowe all these decades later (which he claimed in a prior interview). Once again kids, when the big bad businessman tells you to sell your publishing rights, just remember, you never know when you'll get lucky. And this luck is not built into the multiple they're paying you today, because it's unforeseen. Life is short, but it's also long (of course if you're aged, your mileage may be different).
But what I did not know was that "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" was originally recorded by Brinsley Schwarz, when Nick was in the band. I knew Nick's history, but you've got to know that pub rock never broke in America, some of the records were ultimately released over here, but none got airplay. I actually bought Ducks Deluxe...do you remember Ducks Deluxe?
And did you see that Andrew Bodnar of the Rumour died? Back in January, but the obit was only in "The Guardian" a week ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/30/andrew-bodnar-obituary
Now the thought was that Graham Parker was going to have a renaissance after Judd Apatow included his songs in "This Is 40," but that didn't happen. Just like Jonathan Richman didn't break through after he and his music were featured in "There's Something About Mary," which was an iconic picture of the era. But Richman never got the traction Parker did, he's still unknown by most. But for a minute there, Graham was up front and center, with the hipsters during his Mercury tenure, and then the press when Clive Davis snatched him up and paired him with Jack Nitzsche and the album "Squeezing Out Sparks" was released. People say that's the apotheosis, but I never agreed with that, it's really all about the first two, "Howlin' Wind," produced by Nick Lowe, and "Heat Treatment," which was produced by Mutt Lange before we knew who he was, before his breakthrough with AC/DC (along with one track, "Back Door Love," produced by Lowe). Now all these years later, I've got to admit that "Howlin' Wind" is better, but I loved, loved, LOVED, "Heat Treatment"...two songs especially, the white reggae "Something You're Going Through" and the anthemic closer "Fool's Gold."
But the true breakthrough was Elvis Costello and "My Aim Is True," which came out in 1977. Now although Nick Lowe was the producer on all of Costello's albums from the first through "Trust" (where he shared credit with Roger Bécherian), it's the first that stands out for me. Because it lacks the Vox organ of the later albums, the backing group was not the Attractions, but Clover...which featured John McFee, now of the Doobie Brothers, and Sean Hopper of Huey Lewis and the News (Huey was in Clover, but not on the Costello album). The backup did not detract from the lyrics, Costello's delivery, which on subsequent albums it tended to do, the band was competing with Costello, even though I know most people don't agree with me.
SO, Elvis Costello was the new wave breakthrough. As big as the Ramones are today, at least on t-shirts, punk didn't triumph until Nirvana in the nineties. And sure, there was a new wave scene in New York, but Blondie didn't really make it until 1978, after leaving Private Stock and working with Mike Chapman at Chrysalis, and even though their debut was entitled "Talking Heads: 77," it wasn't until the RISD band worked with Brian Eno on their second album, "More Songs About Buildings and Food" that they were taken to the river in 1978.
So, wherever it started, the new wave was seen by most people as an English thing. And after Costello broke down the door, Stiff Records followed up with Ian ("Wake Up and Make Love to Me") Dury and Lene Lovich and Wreckless Eric and England had not been so hip since the sixties. Skinny ties, short hair, the antithesis of the bombast of the headbangers and corporate rockers.
And at the center of all this was Nick Lowe.
Like Graham Parker, his music didn't really fit in, but his name was on all the records and when his first album came out, we bought it. But I always preferred the second, "Labour of Lust," it was less precious, a bit more in your face.
Yes, "Labour of Lust" started with "Cruel to Be Kind," but it truly took flight with the second track, "Cracking Up," with its descending line and irreverent vocal. That's one thing about Lowe, he had a sense of humor, he oftentimes delivered his tunes with the wink of an eye, and you've got to be smart to be funny, Lowe radiated intelligence, but unlike those before him, he didn't lead with it, he didn't lord it over us.
And after "Cracking Up" came "Big Kick, Plain Scrap."
But the song I liked just as much as "Cracking Up," they being the two best on the LP, was "Switchboard Susan."
"Switchboard Susan, won't you give me a line"
You've got to know, even back in '79, switchboards were in the rearview mirror, they went out the window along with prefixes... Forget area codes, our home number in Connecticut started with "Forest," you had to dial FO before the rest of the numbers. And on TV, we always were told to dial "Murray Hill"...
"I need a doctor, give me 999"
This was a regular theme back in the day, before acts were brands, when they saw themselves as the other, outcasts, with emotional problems.
"When I'm near you girl, I get an extension
And I don't mean Alexander Graham Bell's invention"
A good turn of the phrase, but a bit obvious for Lowe.
And then at the end:
"Hey babe, you're number's great
38-27-38"
This always seemed a bit base for Nick, but now that I know the song was written by Mickey Jupp, it all makes sense. You remember "Juppanese," don't you? Another Stiff act with a sense of humor.
Well I just learned today that Jupp's version of the song was produced by Nick Lowe, and his band Rockpile provided the backup. But Jupp considered it "sh*t from top to bottom" and Lowe got Mickey's permission to add his vocal to the backing track, and voila!
And it's the instrumentation that puts Lowe's version of "Switchboard Susan" over the top... It's the lead guitar work that echoes, adds a coda at the end of the chorus. And repeats with a solo later in the number. It's a thin sound, but it feels so right, it's like the instrument is answering the lyrics, commenting on them, the guitar adds meaning.
And that solo, it's almost like out of the circus, but it's perfect for the whole number, because it's FUN!
Now ultimately Mickey Jupp saw the error of his ways and recorded his own version of "Switchboard Susan," and it's good, but it doesn't have those guitar tweaks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E83UP0wIgs
And I knew the Searchers did a cover, but I never knew Gary Brooker did one too:
https://open.spotify.com/track/7E4XpvvX7ohGix2fOsDO7D?si=22f4df1731474d7e
But even crazier, my old friend Per Gessle redid the lyrics in Swedish for his band Rockfile, before Roxette:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVtdzC02tIk
So can Mickey Jupp live off of "Switchboard Susan"?
Well, the stunning thing is Mickey Jupp is still alive, he's 82. And he's still making new music, when so many superstars of yore have given up.
As for Elvis Costello, he's now respectable. However, if he used the n-word today like he did back in that bar in '97, would he pay the same price as Morgan Wallen? Even crazier, it's the Costello fans who have contempt for Wallen, who won't forgive him.
As for Nick Lowe... He married and divorced Carlene Carter and then slowly faded into the woodwork. He's made more records, for ever more indie labels, and he goes on the road now and again, but he can go to the grocery store unnoticed. He could walk the fields of Lollapalooza and I don't think anybody under the age of 40 would recognize him.
But if you were around back then, you've never forgotten him.
Sure, he was behind the board on some great albums, but he also recorded some great tracks.
Like "Switchboard Susan."
--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp
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