Get a Jump on Jitlada
Popular Thai place is always packed at dinner ... so do lunch there instead
By Richard Foss
Saying that a person who likes Thai food ought to visit Jitlada is rather like suggesting that, while in Paris, you should look at the Eiffel Tower: It’s insanely obvious. Even so, I’m writing about this restaurant that has been lauded by the critics and has a line out the door on many evenings. What could I possibly say that would be useful, rather than just adding another voice to the chorus?
Four words: Go there for lunch. Nobody knows the place is open. Not only can you walk right in, but also you’ll have the opportunity to plan your meal with Jazz, the charming and friendly owner. I dropped in with a friend on a recent weekday at noon, and were astonished to find the dining room empty. Not sparsely populated: empty. We looked briefly at the conventional offerings before zeroing in on the important page – the one with Southern Thai items. So many unfamiliar choices, all sounding delectable, had us in the same situation as the proverbial donkey starving between two hay bales. We decided to ask Jazz to give us the same lunch she would serve Southern Thais who asked her advice. She hesitated a moment – did we really want things as spicy as Thais like them? – but after a brief pause she headed for the kitchen, and food started coming almost immediately.
First to arrive was a green mango salad ($8.95) – thin slivers of fruit mixed with cashews, shrimp, and raw vegetables in a sweet and spicy sauce. It was deceptive, with just a hint of hot on first taste but more effect after repeated exposure. I’ve had mango salads in which the fruit flavor was swamped by powerfully sour dressings, but this was vastly better, all the ingredients equal partners in flavor.
Chicken soup with turmeric and kaffir lime leaves ($9.95) followed, the spicing more assertive this time. The roughly chopped chicken still had the bones in and was difficult to eat neatly, but was worth it. The turmeric added peppery, gingery notes to a soup that slightly resembled standard Tom Yum, but with an earthier, fuller flavor. My forehead was sweating by the end of the first bowl, but I ate a second because it was irresistible.
The heavy stuff arrived next: soft-shell crab with yellow curry ($14.95) and pork in an intense dry brown curry ($8.95). I’ve always had a soft spot for soft-shell crab, because when I grew up you couldn’t find it here – it was a delicacy reserved for family visits to Maryland. The first time I ate one in L.A., I remember people staring as if I had just bitten through a whole lobster.
(Wasn’t there a movie where someone did that?) Softies are still the only way to eat crab without picking through bits of shell, and I cherish them.
The soft-shell here had been deep-fried with a crisp batter, then laid on a bed of fragrant curry containing an elegant blend of peppers, cumin, coriander, and other seasonings. It
didn’t overwhelm the seafood flavor; I still tasted crab through layers of spice. When I tried the other dish, I could still taste pork too, but through a shimmering haze of peppery power. The big guns were out: Black pepper, red and green chilies, assaultive levels of ginger, and a volcanic blend of unidentifiable spices collaborated to blister my tongue. There was nothing moderate about this dish at all, and we loved it. We had rice and a bowl of iced raw cucumber, cabbage, and carrot for those times when the going got too heavy, and we partook thankfully.
We finished with fried banana and coconut ice cream, gentle flavors that soothed and cooled. We were energized and alert, ready for anything. After a lunch like this, I could work miracles, slay dragons, master office politics – and smilingly drive by the people waiting outside Jitlada for dinner.
Jitlada, 5233 1/2 W. Sunset Blvd., L.A., (323) 667-9809. Lunch daily except Monday; dinner daily. Beer and wine; small parking lot. Jitladathaicuisine.com.
Published: 01/23/2008
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