trogon (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} trogon) wrote,@ 2008-02-11 09:02:00 |
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Jitlada Thai: Respect the Curry
All right, chileheads.
Once you've been out to San Gabriel to have the chicken at Chung King, the next trip to LA should include a swing in to Thai Town for Jitlada Thai, which has very hot and very good Southern Thai food. (Well, mine was very good.livewire_monkey was less impressed with hers.)
No review of Jitlada would be complete without telling the story:
So back in the day, Thais and foodies dismissed Jitlada as just another mediocre strip-mall joint serving the same-old same-old generic Thai food. It got bought by new owners and started offering a specialty menu, but nobody noticed. Then one day a Thai-speaking food blogger from Chicago was in LA and noticed a block of untranslated text on the back of the takeout menu from Jitlada in his hotel. It turns out they were a bunch of Southern Thai specialty dishes, many of which he'd never seen outside Thailand.
Working with the owners over the course of the next while, he translated the menu and praised the specialty menu. Word got out, and reached Jonathan Gold, the LA Weekly's Pulitzer-Prize winning food critic. Soon Jitlada was the new favorite of Thais and foodies (and Thai foodies, presumably), known for incredibly hot specialty dishes.
Jonathan Gold's review is here, and his list of the top ten dishes in LA in 2007, including one from Jitlada, is here.
(On an unrelated note, I adore that that list juxtaposes a hole-in-the-wall taco stand, Spago (one of those insanely expensive Famous People restaurants), and a donut shop.)
We were almost the only people there when we arrived. Reviews covered the walls and the table had a helpful list of recommended dishes from various sources. I opted for one that J. Gold had mentioned and the chef recommended, the "spicy stir-fried sator beans with soft-shelled crab." L-M had a tofu curry (substituted for the shrimp that were on the menu) with young tamarind shoots, both from the Southern menu.
J. Gold says the heat at Jitlada laughs at rice, at beer, at Thai iced tea. We didn't try the beer, but can vouch for the truth of the other two statements. The plate of raw iced veggies they brought, strange as it seems, did an excellent job, however.
My crab was good. Amazingly good. It's a strong contender for the spiciest food I've ever eaten, probably coming a close second to the Pakistani food I had in London, and it was a combination of flavors totally unlike any I'd ever had. I'd never had soft-shelled crab before, either, and WOW was it good. If the mussels are even better then I have to start planning how to get L-M to agree to go back because I have to try them. Bribery may be required. The crab was crispy on the outside and sweet and soft inside and a wonderful contrast to the incandescent heat of the sauce and the hard-to-describe flavor of the beans. L-M asked me at one point if the strips of peppers were bell peppers or hot peppers, and I had to admit I couldn't tell -- the sauce was spicy enough to swamp the difference.
The homemade coconut ice cream was the perfect antidote to burning mouths and stomachs at the end of the meal, too.
Oh, and if you need one more recommendation, on our way out we noticed a drawing of Homer Simpson on the wall, saying "Mmmm, Jitlada" -- blown up from Matt Groening's doodle on the back of a receipt (also posted on the wall) from when he had eaten there. Perhaps the only "celebrity ate here" endorsement that's actually impressed me.
All right, chileheads.
Once you've been out to San Gabriel to have the chicken at Chung King, the next trip to LA should include a swing in to Thai Town for Jitlada Thai, which has very hot and very good Southern Thai food. (Well, mine was very good.
livewire_monkey was less impressed with hers.)No review of Jitlada would be complete without telling the story:
So back in the day, Thais and foodies dismissed Jitlada as just another mediocre strip-mall joint serving the same-old same-old generic Thai food. It got bought by new owners and started offering a specialty menu, but nobody noticed. Then one day a Thai-speaking food blogger from Chicago was in LA and noticed a block of untranslated text on the back of the takeout menu from Jitlada in his hotel. It turns out they were a bunch of Southern Thai specialty dishes, many of which he'd never seen outside Thailand.
Working with the owners over the course of the next while, he translated the menu and praised the specialty menu. Word got out, and reached Jonathan Gold, the LA Weekly's Pulitzer-Prize winning food critic. Soon Jitlada was the new favorite of Thais and foodies (and Thai foodies, presumably), known for incredibly hot specialty dishes.
Jonathan Gold's review is here, and his list of the top ten dishes in LA in 2007, including one from Jitlada, is here.
(On an unrelated note, I adore that that list juxtaposes a hole-in-the-wall taco stand, Spago (one of those insanely expensive Famous People restaurants), and a donut shop.)
We were almost the only people there when we arrived. Reviews covered the walls and the table had a helpful list of recommended dishes from various sources. I opted for one that J. Gold had mentioned and the chef recommended, the "spicy stir-fried sator beans with soft-shelled crab." L-M had a tofu curry (substituted for the shrimp that were on the menu) with young tamarind shoots, both from the Southern menu.
J. Gold says the heat at Jitlada laughs at rice, at beer, at Thai iced tea. We didn't try the beer, but can vouch for the truth of the other two statements. The plate of raw iced veggies they brought, strange as it seems, did an excellent job, however.
My crab was good. Amazingly good. It's a strong contender for the spiciest food I've ever eaten, probably coming a close second to the Pakistani food I had in London, and it was a combination of flavors totally unlike any I'd ever had. I'd never had soft-shelled crab before, either, and WOW was it good. If the mussels are even better then I have to start planning how to get L-M to agree to go back because I have to try them. Bribery may be required. The crab was crispy on the outside and sweet and soft inside and a wonderful contrast to the incandescent heat of the sauce and the hard-to-describe flavor of the beans. L-M asked me at one point if the strips of peppers were bell peppers or hot peppers, and I had to admit I couldn't tell -- the sauce was spicy enough to swamp the difference.
The homemade coconut ice cream was the perfect antidote to burning mouths and stomachs at the end of the meal, too.
Oh, and if you need one more recommendation, on our way out we noticed a drawing of Homer Simpson on the wall, saying "Mmmm, Jitlada" -- blown up from Matt Groening's doodle on the back of a receipt (also posted on the wall) from when he had eaten there. Perhaps the only "celebrity ate here" endorsement that's actually impressed me.
