Scoops (and Jitlada again....)

So this is going to be my third post on the same day because clearly the novelty of this blog hasn't worn off yet...

I went to Jitlada Thai again tonight with JM. I can't help it, I have this habit where once I've tried out a new restaurant, I want to go back immediately if I really liked it. She wanted to try something new in Thai Town, so I told her about Jitlada, and we immediately agreed to go there for dinner. Of course, I had to do my research again about what to get because the menu's magnitude intimidates me. We split the coco mango salad, and JM ordered the Chinese broccoli with salted fish while I got the southern curry soft shell crab.

The coco mango salad is a mix of sliced mango, shrimp, lime juice, onion and chili with also a bit of coconut water. It's a bit sweet and tart, but it definitely has a kick to it. It was really good and exactly what I needed tonight. The Chinese broccoli with salted fish was also delicious. It must seem like I rave about every dish I try, but this restaurant is actually that good. This dish didn't have actual chunks of fish since they were shredded up, but you could still taste the fish in the dish.

The best dish was definitely the southern curry soft shell crab. It took them a long time to bring it out, but it was worth the wait. Even though it had the same name as the beef curry SH ordered the first time I went there, this sauce is completely different. I was worried about burning my taste buds again, so I decided to go on a milder side with this dish, but it was way too mild for me. This red sauce was sweet and salty at the same time. It reminded me of the red chili pepper sauce that Korean places give you when you order bibimbap. I love soft shell crab, and when the dish came out, I was a bit apprehensive because the crab had been fried in the red sauce. It honestly looked like fried red lumps, and you could sort of make out the crab legs. The second I ate it though, all of my concerns about this dish immediately went away, and I made JM try it right away. We agreed it was our favorite entree of the night.

Finally, after completely stuffing myself at Jitlada, we decided to go to Scoops, a nearby ice cream place that I've been wanting to go to forever. Scoops is a little shop off Heliotrope, and if you've never been there, you probably won't know where to find it because it's a bit hidden. This ice cream place is unlike any other I've been to. It's really unpretentious, the ice cream is homemade everyday, and they have the most original flavors, ones that you won't find anywhere else. The owner creates different flavors every day, and he even has a suggestion board to the side where people have filled it up with random flavors they want him to make.

There are unlimited samples at Scoops, so naturally I had to try as many flavors as I could. The first one I had was the orange jasmine. When you first eat it, you immediately taste the orange, but I didn't find it to be too overpowering. Then, as you let it dissolve in your mouth, the taste of jasmine hits you last and stays with you. I love the smell of jasmine, and actually eating it and tasting it in my mouth was insane. I've had jasmine tea before, but it was always the smell of jasmine that hit me, and not the taste that I was aware of. It was kind of weird to actually be tasting jasmine, but I liked it. JM wasn't a fan; I think it's just one of those flavors that you either love or hate.

I had the strawberry and balsamic vinegar next. What is it about those two ingredients that go so well together? In Italy, strawberries and balsamic vinegar are always used together in desserts. Once again, it was the strawberry that hit my taste buds first, and then it slowly became a mixture of balsamic vinegar and strawberries. It's not the same kind of balsamic vinegar that you get at normal restaurants because this tastes like really good, aged vinegar. An amazing balsamic is a bit thick and condensed, it's been aged for a while, and while it still maintains that tart acidity, it has a certain sweetness to it that makes it delicious. That's immediately what I thought of when I sampled this flavor.

The next few that I tried were good, but not as memorable. I sampled the banana peanut butter (really sweet and comforting), peach and plum wine (tasted mostly like peach sorbet), and the brown bread (sort of reminded me of coffee cake). Clearly, I chose the orange and jasmine, and the strawberry and balsamic vinegar. Two scoops for just two dollars!! Great deal and well worth it.

Jitlada Thai

Last week, SH and I went to Jitlada Thai in the heart of Thai Town, and wow, I loved it!! I had read so many reviews about it in Chowhound, Eater LA, and the LAist, that I had some really high expectations when I went there, and they definitely did not disappoint.

I met up with SH for lunch, and the restaurant wasn't that hard to find. It was in a strip mall off Sunset, and I found a parking spot pretty easily. It wasn't that big of a parking lot, so maybe SH and I just happened to go there when it wasn't very crowded. The minute I stepped in, I felt like I was immediately back in Thailand again. The decor, the atmosphere, and even the smell instantly brought me back to the days where my family and I would visit that country nearly every year.

The service was great there. From the beginning, our waitress was really nice and informative, and she ended up advising us on what to order. The menu is HUGE there...I don't think I would've been able to pick a dish if I hadn't read all of those reviews beforehand. SH just ended up asking the waitress for a suggestion, and she recommended the Southern Curry Beef. I ordered the Catfish salad, and I had to get the Tom Yum soup with shrimp. That soup is like my test of whether or not I feel like a Thai restaurant is truly authentic. I used to eat it all the time in Thailand, and my family and I would always order it at our favorite Thai restaurant in West LA. I've tried this soup at so many other restaurants before, and it more than often disappoints. Maybe my expectations are just too high.

The soup came out first. The picture on the left is a bit deceiving though because we had actually eaten two bowls of soup before I took that picture....but just imagine how that must've looked when it was full! It was delicious and exactly like how I remembered it should be. One of the restaurant owners came out to see how we liked our food, and she told us that the herbs in their food are fresh and not the powder that other restaurants used. It was a bit sour and spicy, and full of shrimp, herbs, and mushrooms. The picture on the right depicts the soup a tad better than the one on the left since you can actually see the ingredients in this picture and not just the pot that it came in.

SH's Southern Curry came next, and it tasted like nothing I've ever had before. It's not the wet curry that most people are used to, and I guess they must really rub the curry powder and herbs into the meat to get all of the flavors to meld. Our waitress had warned us that it would be really spicy, but SH agreed to try it because she likes eating spicy food. When I first took a bite, I was waiting for the spiciness to hit me after the warnings from our waitress. It was so odd though because it doesn't hit you right away. You're chewing it in your mouth, taking in all of the different flavors, and then about five seconds later, the spiciness hits you, and you feel a little like you're about to die. Or maybe like your stomach is going to hate you in about a few hours. It was really good, but way too intense for me. Even SH had problems eating it! She kept on trying to eat the meat quickly so that the spiciness wouldn't quite hit her right away. They brought out a plate of fresh vegetables to go along with the meat, and when we asked why, our waitress told us it was there to calm our taste buds and relieve it from the spiciness. After eating as much as we could (I think SH ended up eating most of it), we finally asked the waitress on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of spiciness, what would it be? SH and I had already agreed that it was probably around a 4...but it was actually a 3. Jeez, I'll probably try that in a 1 or 2 the next time I go. (Yes, despite the fact that I nearly killed my taste buds with this dish, I'm willing to try it again.) It's funny though because midway through our meal, an older white guy sat behind us and ordered the same thing. He reassured the waitress that he could REALLY eat spicy things, despite our warnings (we felt a little compelled to tell him how spicy this dish actually was). Of course when the dish came, he couldn't handle it and had them dilute it so that it wasn't so spicy. Ha. We told him it would be too spicy....I'd think coming from 2 Asian girls that the warning would be pretty legit but I guess he didn't believe us until it was too late.

My catfish salad came out around the same time that SH's curry did, and it was pretty good. I was really intrigued by the thought of this because I had seen pictures of this dish before. It doesn't look like you can actually see the catfish because it's been dipped in this batter and somehow fried in this crazy way. I can't explain it, so I'll let the picture do the talking. The catfish came out on top of a bed of sliced mango, peanuts, and this sauce that reminds me of Vietnamese fish sauce. Despite it being fried, the catfish didn't feel that greasy as it was rather fluffy, and it went really well with the mini salad below. I enjoyed the dish, but I couldn't always taste the fish in the salad. At times, it felt like I was just eating something crispy and fried, without a hint of fish (if that makes any sense). That would be it's only drawback, but overall, I enjoyed the dish.

I can't wait to come back here. It's good food, good prices, and great service---what more can I really ask for? The menu is so extensive though that I need to do a bit more research on this place and figure out what I'm going to order next.