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Vanessa Anderson is the Grocery Goblin, on a mission to explore neighborhood grocery stores throughout Southern California.
I cannot shake the sense that Los Angeles is a city of supreme spiritual significance. Perhaps I feel that way because of what I see out of my car window. The estimated 15,953 religious organizations in the greater metro area take up quite a bit of real estate, after all. Or maybe it’s that once this thought took hold, I noticed divinity showing up time after time in the aisles of grocery stores.
At India Sweets and Spices, I’d pick up a bag of powdered tulsi leaves, only to learn that the tropical herb goes by another name: holy basil, considered a powerful Ayurvedic medicinal plant and a frequent sacred offering. At now-shuttered Papa Cristo’s, I’d cock my head at a bag of buckwheat, unable to recall a Greek recipe that uses it, then discover koliva — sweetened wheat ornamentally adorned with dried fruit and nuts, prepared to honor the passing of a loved one.
So imagine my simultaneous surprise and lack thereof when I learned the lore of Thai strawberry Fanta, known as Fanta nam daeng, or “Fanta red water,” found at spirit houses. The small shrines — constructed outside of Thai restaurants, cafes, shops, homes and parks — honor spirits’ claim to the land and provide them with a place to dwell.
The red Fanta, almost always a spirit house offering, flows freely in Los Angeles, considering it is home to the most Thais outside of Thailand.
My resounding “Why?” is, I suppose, a fitting question considering the higher powers at play. The answer is, as it always seems to be, all but simple.
A Thai deity at the spirit house at Silom Supermarket (left) and a selection of red Fanta in cans and bottles for an offering. (Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
In Thai culture, ghosts, broadly referred to as phi (ผี) are commonly believed in and tended to. The list of spirits is long, each with their own physical attributes, epic folklore and methods of appeasement.
Much like those on this earthly plane, the way to a spirit’s heart is through his or her stomach. The list of snack and drink offerings found at spirit houses is almost as long as the list of spirits themselves. At the spirit house outside of Silom Supermarket on Hollywood Boulevard, coconut water, rice, fruit, the fermented milk drink Yakult and desserts sprout up daily as if grown from the pavement below. But red Fanta is the most perennial of these offerings.
Pip Paganelli, a cashier at Thai dessert shop Banh Kanom Thai, gives me an explanation. “In the past when we would do offerings to ghosts, it would be an offering of blood,” he says. The bubbly strawberry nectar has since replaced animal sacrifice.
He also posits that red Fanta toes the line of sickly sweetness and is beloved by ghosts because of just that. Most spirits have a sweet tooth, and will gladly gobble up fruits, sticky rice and coconut cakes.
Some have other theories. “Red soda specifically is for when you pray to the kid ghost,” Kira S., another Banh Kanom Thai employee (who preferred to provide only her first name), tells me.
“It’s the spirit of a boy who’s passed away. If you give him offerings like toys or red soda, you can ask for things.”
She’s speaking of Kuman Thong, a common household deity who can be of assistance when it comes to the protection of the home, help at school or, “say I wanted a new phone from my mom, I’d pray for that.”
An answer to the pressing question of “Why Fanta?” is a bit fuzzier and most likely has to do with the giant soda brand’s longtime presence in the Thai region. Coca-Cola, the beverage behemoth that sells its products, including Fanta, in more than 200 countries, did not respond to requests for comment.
“It can be any red drink, but the red Fanta is the most common,” Paganelli says. “There are some gods where you’d offer any black drink, like Coca-Cola. It’s a Thai Hindu belief that when there’s an eclipse, the god that we believe slowly swallowed the moon has dark skin. So you’d offer any black drink, food or items.”
Paganelli is referring to Phra Rahu, frequently depicted as a giant black creature, jaws eagerly wrapped around a glowing planet.
Although Buddhism is the leading religion in Thailand, and by proxy Thai Town, the cultivation of spirit houses and the offerings that go along with them actually originates from animism mixed with Brahmanism (an early form of Hinduism), which subsequently made its way into Buddhist beliefs. Spirits can offer protection to homes and businesses, ensure a fruitful year or safeguard the health of friends and loved ones — a sip of the Champagne of fruit sodas lubricating these prayers of course.
1. LOS ANGELES, JUNE 17, 025 - Red Fanta presented as an offering at the spirit houses at Silom Supermarket in Thai Town on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. (Emil Ravelo / For The Times) 2. (Emil Ravelo / For The Times)
I encountered cases of the stuff at LAX-C, known to many as Thai Costco; saw it elegantly stacked at Bangluck Market; and at Silom it stood post next to the regional Thai flavor of Fanta “green cream,” which tastes of bananas and citrus.
However at Wat Thai, the massive Thai Bhuddist temple located in North Hollywood, I paced the lush red carpet puzzled to find a lack of soda with the same hue. It was then that I was pointed to the weekend food court, where a corner stall mixes up icy cups of Hale’s Blue Boy with milk or sparkling water. Hales, a Thai concentrated syrup, comes in several flavors, including red-toned salak, or snake fruit. This, I’m told, does the trick.
Belief system or sugar threshold aside, trips to L.A.’s Thai groceries should not be complete without a stop by their respective spirit houses, a welcome moment for reflection. Take a look at the daily offerings; in Los Angeles, the ingredients for pious pie grow abundantly, and they might just be right in front of you.
Eat your way across L.A.
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