Orange County eating maven Dave Lieberman, who contributes food stories to OC Weekly, said he must have eaten at Thai Nakorn 100 times. During our lunch at the standout Stanton Thai restaurant, he proceeded to order a table full of his favorite dishes. Plump Thai sausage with ginger, peanuts and cabbage would have been the clear-cut choice for Dose of Vitamin P during any other week. I could say the same about Nam Sod with crispy rice, another noteworthy plate. However, neither of us counted on the surprise from chef-owner Wanida Sreewarom’s greatest hit: Stuffed Squid.

Lieberman said that every other time he’s ordered the dish at Thai Nakorn, Chef Sreewarom drowned the squid in a chile and mint gravy. This time, the crusty pan-fried squid were stuffed with corks of pork forcemeat. However, the chef tossed this squid rendition with clusters of caramelized garlic and pepper. The pungent flavor bombs worked in tandem with the pork to produce a scintillating plate of cephalopods. As if the dish wasn’t flavorful enough, the baby squid were sprinkled with more fried garlic. All this dish needed was sticky rice to temper the potency.

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