rockin' oaxacan @ juquila

seeing as how we hadn't seen each other in weeks, dave and i made plans to meet up for some serious grubbin' (as he might say) @ juquila. to make sure we burned off some calories before we stuffed our faces, i suggested walking to the restaurant, which gave us lots of time to catch up on the latest news and debate the big topics. (ok, maybe not so much the latter, but i'm sure we talked about SOMETHING important.)

after 30 minutes of walking (and dave wondering whether i actually knew where i was going), we arrived at juquila. only to find out that he'd been there before! grrr.... i grumble only b/c i love taking my friends to new places, and the initial excitement is thereby depleted if said friend has already been to said place. i gave him the option of trying cafe 50's instead, but i have to say i was pretty relieved when he said that he'd hyped himself up for oaxacan. you know when you wait for something all day long and you get yourself super psyched about it? well, that was me.

by the time we got to juquila, we were both semi-famished. we pretty much dove into the chips, lightly covered in mole & cheese. mmm.... talk about scrumptious. (i mean, we even had to order another plate!) after getting dave a nice amber, we focused our attention on the menu. as soon as i saw the tamales, i knew i had to order one to start. i decided on the tamales de mole, which was masa w/chicken and mole in the middle, all wrapped in a nice banana leaf.

i must admit that i was a bit displeased w/how messily the tamale was put together. it seemed like masa slipped into different layers of the banana leaf wrapping, rather than staying in the center of the wrapping. this created thin sections of masa that were a bit dry, despite being slathered by the amazingly delicious mole. the chicken in the center was a bit dry as well, which wasn't too appetizing. but when you have yummy mole and good conversation going on, i suppose you get distracted enough not to care as much as you normally would.

for the entree, dave went w/the enmoladas and i went w/the coloradito de pollo. i really wanted to try different kinds of mole (which mac had JUST been talking about earlier) so i decided to start with the black mole in my appetizer and the red mole in my entree. the waitress was lovely enough to allow me to substitute the rice w/veggies. and the whole dish, chicken & veggies covered in red mole, was delicious. it was probably made better by the fact that the kitchen used dark meat chicken, which is slightly fattier and soaks up more flavor.

while both of my dishes were fabulous, i decided to save about 1/2 of each so that i'd have yummy leftovers. plus, i was really interested in trying the burnt milk ice cream for dessert. i've certainly met my match in terms of eating b/c dave was equally interested in ending on a sweet note. he went for the lime ice cream, which i have to admit that i enjoyed more. while i had to disagree w/his slightly dramatic sentiment that it tasted like "limes off a tree," i have to say that it did taste very light and fresh. on the other hand, mine tasted a bit too sweet and a bit too burnt. i couldn't take more than a few bites before i started to pick at dave's.

at the end of the meal, i decided that i still preferred oaxacan @ guelaguetza. but considering that this place is much closer, i certainly wouldn't be opposed to going back. next time, i've gotta try the yellow and green moles. y'know, gotta round out the mole experience...

juquila
11619 santa monica blvd
los angeles, ca 90025
310.312.1079