Elephant Jumps

2012 Fall Dining Guide
By Tom Sietsema
Sunday, October 21, 2012

Ask for spicy at this mom-and-pop and spicy you shall receive: Tears streak my face when I spoon into a bowl of “Thai hot” seafood soup and encounter serious flames along with the scallops, squid and basil. No less intense is the signature salad, sweet little shrimp tossed with batons of green apple, lime juice and cilantro. Milder but no less pleasing are Thai-style beef jerky, fish cakes set off with fried basil and vegetables draped in ginger sauce. The point is, you can pretty much get what you want at Elephant Jumps, a modest storefront in the Yorktowne Shopping Center that’s easy to miss but likely to become a habit once you make its acquaintance. The contrasts -- Sarah Brightman on the soundtrack, a beef-stuffed croissant -- give the place character. Checking in on my party during a recent feast, owner Songtham Pinyolaksana asks if we care for anything else, and a companion playfully shoots back, “How about a fire hose?”