The sign on the restaurant door is written only in Thai. But there’s a sign above the family-run grocery store next door that reads “Thai and Laos Market” in English. Just look for that, then enter the next door to the right.

Or just go into the market and cross through from the inside. They’re connected. Every once in a while you’ll see the chef come out of the kitchen and trek over to the market to grab another armload of fresh produce and a can or two of coconut milk.

When you pull into the old strip mall lot, the parking spaces directly in front of the restaurant will most likely be blocked with orange cones. Get out and move a cone, and the parking space is yours. Don’t forget to put it back when you leave.

“You want it spicy?” she asks, shaking her head affirmatively, as if to coax me into saying yes when I order the fried rice with basil and crisp pork. The waitress asks this with just about every dish we order, and the fried rice is one of the dishes that you will definitely want to try spicy. It’s one of the best things on the menu. The rice is studded with puffs of deep-fried pork rind and chunks of fatty bacon. The heat creeps up on you.

Another rice dish not to miss is the crisp rice and pork salad, which is fantastic. It’s loaded with gobs of fresh ginger, green onions and chilies, both fresh and dried. The fermented pork sausage comes from a Lao sausage maker in Whittier, and it is excellent (available for sale next door if you want to try cooking it at home, for which you’ll need a powerful vent).

A similar sausage is available grilled, served with cabbage and peanuts. It’s not as sour as some Lao sausages I’ve tasted over the years, but it still has that distinctive sourness that reminds me of buttermilk. The sausages are spiked with whole red chilies, so inspect each piece carefully before popping it into your mouth. One piece might be perfectly mild but the next will leave a mark.

Crispy rice and pork sausage salad at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Papaya salad is offered Thai style or Lao style at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Lao sausages at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Kao ka paow with a fried egg at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Pad see ew at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Lao style chicken noodle soup (kao piek) is topped with pork rinds at Thao and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Thai boat noodles are a specialty at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The cafe at Thai and Laos Market in Anaheim. (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The hits keep coming. The kao ka paow is as good as you’ll find anywhere. In most other Thai restaurants, the meat is served in large chunks or strips, but that’s not the way Thais typically eat it. They almost always prefer the meat to be pulverized into tiny bits, and that’s the only way they serve it here. Upon request, you can add a flash-fried egg, which is fried in so much oil that the egg comes with elaborate lace around the edges.

The green papaya salad is offered Thai-style or Lao-style. Thai style is bright and citrusy while the Lao style borders on the funk of fresh roadkill. “You want it spicy?” Be careful with this one. There’s no fat in the salad to cut the heat, so when she says spicy, she means it.

If you look around the sparsely decorated but spotlessly clean dining room, you’ll notice that everyone here appears to be Thai or Lao. Next you’ll notice that someone at just about every table is eating Thai boat noodles or Loa-style kao piek. The former is a noodle soup loaded with thinly slice beef, beef meatballs, tripe and celery.

It is distinctly sweet, not in a sugary sense but more of an aromatic way. It’s a flavor that reminds me of molasses, but which I believe gets its character from sweet soy. The latter is a clear chicken noodle soups topped with garlic and green onions. Without all that garlic and onion, the broth would be somewhat bland. Lao comfort food at its best.

With either of these soups, it is essential to add your own heat, which you can accomplish several different ways. Notice all those plastic canisters on the table. That reddish-orange powder is what they put in dynamite. Be extremely careful with that.

See the chopped green chilies in a clear liquid? Those are serrano peppers in some sort of sweetened vinegar; the effect is somewhat mild sweet/hot. See that red paste? That’s essentially just chopped birds-eye chilies and garlic, and it will attach itself to your breath for days, so if you eat that one make sure your partner eats it, too.

Thai and Laos Market

Where: 1719 W. La Palma Ave., Anaheim

When: Lunch and dinner, daily except Tuesday

Phone: 714-999-0563