Thai Pepper

Located in the middle of nowhere, known as Newhall, is a hole in a wall Thai place that I had been dying to try out---Thai Pepper. I had only heard good things about this family-run restaurant and wanted to see what they were all about.

The one thing I was looking for was the menu and their selection. I wanted to get that feel like I was out of the country, meaning that I wanted to see dishes on the menu that weren't generic. Everyone knows about Pad Thai. I wanted something deeper than that. And their menu did not disappoint.

So this is how the meal went..

Nicole really recommended that we get the Tom Kha.



We had the choice of chicken, beef, or tofu. We went with tofu since she is a Vegetarian (Don't worry--I'm trying to switch her back to meat!!!) I am not complaining though because I do like tofu as well. The soup was made up of tofu, mushrooms, herbs, baby corn, cabbage, lemon, and coconut milk in a spicy and sour soup.
The soup was quite savory, slightly tangy, and just wonderful. The flavors were doing the rhumba in my mouth. Enjoyed the flavor of the lemon in the soup. Everything paired extremely well.

There were only two things I must say about the Tom Kha---one, it was not spicy at all and my tongue could not grasp what they put in it to make it spicy. And two, which had Nicole slightly fired up over, was the fact that there was no lemongrass in the soup. She was wondering how the one time she finally showed me Thai Pepper, the owner did not put lemongrass into our Tom Kha.



Yes, we looked and smelled carefully. Just in case we could have missed it, but we both knew there wasn't any lemongrass. I would definitely be able to tell if it had been in our soup because I will NEVER forget the scent of lemongrass when we smelled it in a cabaclo village off the Río Negro, in the Amazon----JUST SO ENTICING!

Lemongrass in the Amazon:

Brings back memories! So much better to smell it out in the open than at any market or restaurant!

Nevertheless, Tom Kha without the lemongrass was still satisfying and I was not disappointed.

Next up was our meals. Nicole settled with the Red Curry.



The Red Curry was made up of tofu (again!), bamboo shoot, basil, and bell pepper in red curry, with coconut milk. Steamed rice served along side her dish, as well as mine. The bamboo shoot was crunchy. Nothing soggy about that dish. I tried it and enjoyed it, though found it to be quite spicy, of course! She enjoyed it and said she felt at peace, healthy, and the whole meal was just refreshing.

There were a couple dishes I wanted to try out but I settled with the Panang Curry. I chose to try it out with the beef. Same flavors as the Red Curry but had more of a sweet, yet just slightly spicy taste to it. Seriously, I fell in love with this and my mouth is watering just thinking about it!



I thoroughly enjoyed this dish. Was quite spicy at times but it wasn't overbearing. I dealt with it! The beef literally melted in my mouth. Perfect, savory, and delectable. One thing that also really made my heart happy was---there was LEMONGRASS in it! The second I smelled it, I knew it was in there! This definitely brought this dish to higher intensities. Overall, I was completely satisfied.



I took my meal to-go, in which I just ate the rest of it 2 hours later!



In the end, we felt at home there, food was definitely satisfying, and prices were very reasonable. Not expensive at all. I give it 5 hearts ♥♥♥♥♥. Like I said before with India, if you cannot make a trip out to Thailand, this will do for now!