Normally, “secret” restaurants don’t advertise themselves as such on their sign, but the word did grab my attention when driving by Thai Town’s Hye Plaza. This double-decker strip mall has housed Carousel since 1983. Darabar may not actually have “Secret Thai Cuisine,” but a look at their menu revealed they’re not like every other Thai restaurant in the neighborhood. Sure, Bangkok native Golf “Kevin” Seesod has a lot of Thai classics on Darabar’s menu. He’s also got a fried rice that may set the Los Angeles standard. Khao Clook Kapi features fried sliced pork plated with crunchy green eggplant and menacing peppercorn clusters. This week’s Dose of Vitamin P, Crunchy Pork Soup, is another one of the more enticing dishes at Darabar.

Crunchy Pork Soup ($6.50) involved an umami-rich broth emboldened with soy and seasoned with cinnamon that served as the base for a wide variety of pig parts. The chef piled on moderately funky slices of liver and lung, crispy fried pork belly, quartered hard-boiled egg, crispy fried garlic, scallions, cilantro and slippery coiled noodles they call “rice flakes.” The menu also promised ginkgo seeds and an unusual varietal called cauliflower fungus. Neither ingredient was readily apparent. Still, this was a good, unique noodle soup that bodes well for two-month-old Darabar. Especially when considered with those two other pork dishes.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.