Critic Bill Addison reviews the Atwater Village location of Holy Basil — and then seeks out excellent boat noodles at 9-month-old Mae Malai in Hollywood.

It’s unlikely that you’ll over-soak rice noodles. If you go run an errand that takes 20 minutes longer than expected, your noodles will be fine.

“This is considered to be the first mention of the name ‘pad thai noodles’ in a written cookbook, which leads me to believe that pad thai emerged during the 1960s, to express the identity of ...