Southern Thai Cuisine at Jitlada of Hollywood
Jitlada specializes in southern Thai style cuisine. Arguably the best Thai restaurant in Southern California, Jitlada can also be found at some of summer Food & Wine festivals. Several LA food writers and bloggers have exuded similar positive sentiments about Jitlada over the last few years.
Southern Thai cuisine is known for a diverse array of seafood, dried chilis, and coconut. With northern, you might find more beef, chicken, and curries. An excellent description about the different Thai regional dishes can be found here.
Back to Jitlada, the matriarch of the Jitalada, Jazz Singnasong, is always running around greeting guest and making sure everyone is having a good time. You can miss the bubbly Jazz making her rounds making sure each and every detail is at her attention.
On this night, Miss B and I were quite lucky to grab a table on this crowded evening. And before we could even study the menu, Jazz was at our table helping us with our order. The bombardment of flavors from the Morning Glory salad was amazing. There were fried bits and pieces scattered all over the salad. The raw slices of the red onions divide the heaviness of the salad and made it refreshing. Next we had the steamed mussels, with it own flame bowl keep it hot. Though I am not a mussel kind of guy, I did have a few more than I thought. Mussels to me are a bit intimating. I know I have had bad experiences with briny and sandy ones. Yet, Jitlada’s were done almost as perfect as I have ever had them. Next up was the Coco Lotus soup. I am a really big fan of all types of Thai soups. I know I can expect something sour, spicy, and sweet all in one spoonful. The Coco Lotus did not disappoint. The sliced fish, boneless, was nice to have after the hearty mussels.
Then came the Sea Bass Meuniere, which was definitely too big for the two of use to finish. This highlight of the night, which occupied most of our small table, had onlookers drooling as we were still working on our salad. Colorful with green peppers and red ones, red onions and carrots littered the plate on top of this huge fish. Unbeknownst to me, they slipped in this mini round sauce for our enjoyment – which was light tan in color with little minced green and red peppers. I thought it was some sort of sweet sauce. So, I doused some of this sauce on the fish on my plate and proceed to enter a zone of pain. This was one of the hottest sauces I have ever had in my life. It was painful. Once I was able to cool my mouth with some Thai Ice Tea, in which she only makes a limited batch each day – which might be the best in LA – with her Thai Ice Coffee, I was able to actually enjoy the fish – sans the sauce. Though with fish bones, the fish had lots of meat and was enhanced with bold flavors. It would have been better if we had a couple more people with us to enjoy the food, since we ordered so much.
Anyways…It was good times with good people at Jitlada.
Secret Thai Burger by Jonathon Gold I hope to try this next time.
What to Order: Morning Glory Salad, Sea Bass, Coco Lotus, Thai Ice Tea/Coffee What not to Order:
Rating 3 Pigs $$
Jitlada 5233 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90027 (323) 663-3104 JitladaLA.com
