Test of tasting: Coffee of Elf

I went to Elf Cafe a month or two ago, but just now got around to writing about it. Here's some of my review from the Los Feliz Ledger.
Out front on Sunset Blvd., a punked-out young couple enjoy a leisurely dinner while their infant slumbers away in a designer stroller. Several parties show up with wine bottles in hand, taking advantage of the $5 corkage and quickly filling the restaurant's nine tables.
Right now, Elf is the quintessential Echo Park restaurant: no sign in front, deer line drawings on the front of the organic menu, no reservations, cash only. The owners also have a band, Eastern music-meets-electropop act Viva K. Despite the rather precious trappings, the service is genuinely friendly and attentive and the food is clearly made with care as well. Chef Timothy Maloof, who also runs a packaged raw food business out of the space, is from a Lebanese background, but the menu ranges beyond the Middle East to a few Greek-inspired dishes, Moroccan vegetable tagine and French vegetable tarts. It's homey food, like you might have whipped up in your kitchen if you had all morning to spend at the farmer's market. Some dishes have a hint of hippie cooking, like a sturdy brown rice pilaf with the roasted fennel and beet plate. Others are light and modern, like the cool Greek cucumber and dill-laced yogurt soup that helps cool off a warm summer night. Elf's Greek white lasagna, a version of pastitsio, is satisfying with garbanzo beans and potatoes standing in for the usual ground lamb, a good choice for those used to meaty dishes. Confirmed greens lovers will like the kale salad with avocado, hemp seeds and a bright citrus dressing, although it might be easier to eat with smaller pieces of kale. As the restaurant evolves, the chef might try varying the ingredients more with the seasons (an autumnal pear tart stays on the menu even in prime summer fruit season) and creating some more imaginative presentations, but for now it's enough just to have a pleasant restaurant in the neighborhood. And it couldn't be more adorable, from the elfin band member/servers to the pierced parents on the sidewalk.
Dinner for two with two starters, two mains and one dessert ran about $60, reasonable enough for the organic origins and attentive service.
Elf Cafe, 2135 W. Sunset Blvd., Echo Park (no phone)
Estrella
where the wild things are...

Redux de Jitlada: a southernmost Thai taste larger

curry soft shell crab

After our first time trying the Southern Thai menu at Jitlada (report here), we wanted to try a lot more dishes...so we needed to assemble several more people. Seven proved to be just right -- more than that can be unwieldy when trying to share lots of plates. We concentrated on the seafood selections mostly, and John said it was one of the best meals he's had anywhere lately -- and this guy eats everywhere. First Jazz brought us a little amuse (how do you say that in Thai?) of haw mok -- the steamed seafood custard was perfumed with kaffir lime leaves and filled with chunks of scallops and more -- a lovely start. Also on the menu were the wonderful blue crab salad, showered with lemongrass slices in a piquant, spicy sauce; fat steamed mussels in a delicate broth; amazing softshell crab curry, one of the milder dishes; zingy rice salad with a similar flavor profile to the blue crab salad, but sweeter and less spicy; clam curry with betel leaves which gave an earthy flavor to the soupy curry; a whole bass showered with fried garlic and a multi-layered chili sauce to go on top; and fishballs stuffed with egg in yellow curry sauce. fish balls in curry stuffed with duck eggs

This was the only thing remotely "wierd" that we ordered but it was actually great -- I was skeptical of fish balls since it seems most Thai restaurants use the bouncy, premade Superball variety; but Jitlada's seem housemade and cleverly formed around hardboiled duck egg yolks, served in fragrant curry sauce. John was a little disappointed that we ordered everything just slightly spicy, so he had them make their incendiary beef curry just for him, and we were all happy. raw blue crab salad

We were thoroughly stuffed, but couldn't resist the sticky rice and mango, which one of our party said was the best they've had; the fried bananas, which were crunchy bits of freshly fried pleasure unlike any lame versions you've had before; and housemade coconut ice cream, which in the Thai style is just coconut milk with no dairy.
This has got to be one of the most exciting, centrally located, reasonably priced dining experiences in the city right now, so don't miss it, and try some of the unusual Southern Thai dishes from the menu on the back page.
we all are insane...
missed

L.A. Times make the daily dish

New the blog of food of L.A. Times where the daily dish debuted
today and this seems like a pretty full effort up to now
-- a mixture of the news of restaurant, daydreams on various
ingredients and dishes, mixtures like the sushi of toy, etc... Still
better, it is marked on the homepage of times -- just a few months
ago, I would have clicked probably around during 15 minutes trying to
find it. I am sure that they will work on their rather idiosyncratic
list of bond -- I like to be informed of the farms in Monterey and the
Chinese kitchen, but contents little more local would be nice (cough,
cough).
Estrella
we all are insane...