Mermaid lamp at Toi Thai. I've been in love with mermaids ever since "The Little Mermaid" enthralled me as a baby...

What are Thai mermaids?  I don’t know.  But I love this lamp on display at Toi Thai on Sunset.  I ate there a few weeks ago when I was in the neighborhood for a screening of “Epic Jukebox,” a collection of short films presented as part of the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival.

The funky eatery also used to have a location in Santa Monica, where I frequently dined on pad thai and got take out tofu and eggplant.  The day it closed, my hometown lost one of its few truly cool, quirky and unique restaurants.