Mae Ting’s Coconut Cakes

From 9 to 5 on weekends, Mae Ting slings delicious Bangkok-style street food outside LAX-C, an Asian supermarket on the edges of Chinatown that’s often called Thai Costco. Along with kanom krok—her signature sweet coconut cakes—“Mama Mae,” as Ting calls herself, sells green papaya salad, chicken and pork skewers and spicy Thai sausage links. Each order of coconut cakes are poured fresh into a hot cast-iron mold, which gives rise to saucer-shaped cakes with crunchy crusts and soft, sweet centers. Add-ons like green onions, candied egg yolk shavings and sweet corn add flavor and texture, but the coconut cakes are already good as is.