LAX-C is a restaurant supply store that has earned a reputation as the “Thai Costco” since opening northeast of Chinatown in 2000. LAX-C Express is the Thai steam table café inside LAX-C that has fed hungry shoppers (and the general public) for over a decade. The operators don’t bother with a menu. Instead, they sell one item for $4.95, two items for $5.95, and three items for $6.95. It’s a pretty simple formula. On weekends, they make the decision even easier by serving Rice with Pork Leg ($5.95). This is my favorite LAX-C dish yet.

Stewed pork leg, infused with soy sauce and anise, arrived in lean, sticky chunks. This rich protein was a good match for the caramelized strips of glutinous, fat-lined pig skin. Minced mustard greens, hard-boiled soy egg, steamed white rice and cilantro garnish completed the plate. The pork had plenty of flavor on its own, but became even better (or more frightening) when served with a nuclear strength garlic chile sauce that could ward off vampires, or pretty much any people within a 100 meter radius. Better yet, the café owners sell containers of house-made chile sauces to go.

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