When Chef Tui Sungkamee introduces new southern Thai dishes at Jitlada, the Hollywood restaurant he owns with sister Jazz Singsanong, it’s an event. After the siblings recently added ten dishes to the already expansive menu, Chowhound message boards were ablaze with praise. Inspired by tales of curry-soaked soft shell crab and deep-fried turmeric chicken, nine of us met for a massive Southern Thai blowout, ordering several new dishes. Based on two January visits, I didn’t think Jitlada had very much room for improvement. Thanks to the upgrade, they now have even less.
Once again, we couldn’t resist the Coco Mango Salad ($11.95), known in Thailand as Tam Som Muang “Pak Nang.” The salad combined sweet mango strips, crunchy cashews, firm shrimp, thinly sliced purple onions, and diced garlic. This time, the salad wasn’t quite as spicy, but it was still outstanding.
The only other dish we repeated was the cauldron of steamed green lip mussels ($12.95), submerged in a lemongrass broth with whole chilies and Thai basil. The massive bivalves were just as sweet and supple as last time, presented with a dish of green chile and garlic sauce.
#20 on the Southern Thai menu is a turmeric-flavored dry curry that normally comes with either pork or beef. Thanks to Richard Foss’ recent article about exotic eating in LA CityBeat, we knew to ask for the dish with crocodile. I’d eaten alligator on several previously occasions, and it was always overcooked and funky, whether it was grilled or fried. Those cooks clearly don’t compare to Tui. His curry-slathered nuggets of amphibious predator were tender and completely funk free, sprinkled with strands of dill.
The table hosted a fresh printout touting “Recommended Dishes by L.A. Weekly,” “Recommended Dishes by Los Angeles Times,” and “Recommended Dishes by Chef Tui Sungkamee.” As much as I respect the opinions of Jonathan Gold and Linda Burum, I’d rather entrust my stomach with Chef Tui.
Pla Thawt Mamuang ($24.95) was a whole deep-fried sea bass “smothered with spicy sweet mango chile sauce.” After clearing aside the avalanche of julienned mango and onion, we unearthed the flaky, crisp-skinned fish. The topping was eerily similar to the Coco Mango salad, but much spicier, and accented by shredded purple cabbage, which provided a nice crunch.
Poo Nim Pad Pong Karee ($15.99) involved deep-fried soft shell crab sautéed with curry powder and vegetables. The single meaty crab was juicy, blanketed with a fiery green curry and tossed with a variety of vegetables, including bell pepper, onions, celery and carrots.
Laam Talum Pook ($11.95) was the spiciest dish, stir-fried “wild curry” with cross sections of succulent catfish, Thai eggplant and green beans. My only complaint: all the tiny bones could have pierced my esophagus. Other than that, it was a fierce dish.
Papaya Mae Chan – Pork ($14.99) was a multi-faceted dish involving grilled pork and a bowl of papaya salad. The pork was fairly fatty, but had big flavor, punched up with a shower of peppercorns. The sweet hot chile sauce wasn’t necessary, since the nearly caramelized pork had enough flavor already. The tangy papaya salad was a solid version, tossed with cashews, tomato and purple cabbage. There was even a basket of sticky rice.
Kai Kamin ($9.95) featured nuggets of fried chicken with turmeric and fried garlic, served with honey chile sauce. The bone-in nubs of chicken were overcooked, but the fried garlic was completely addictive and the flavor was incredible.
Jazz disappeared into the kitchen to make dessert for a meeting of 26 Yelpers, who were having dinner in the adjacent dining room. Thankfully, she made extra, and brought us a big bowl. Tiny pearls of clear tapioca were mixed with cuts of jackfruit and young coconut shavings, then topped with a thick blanket of coconut milk. The delicious dessert was served warm and was surprisingly salty, which added extra complexity.
The glass of textbook Thai iced tea ($1.75) is pictured with a playing card printed with snippets from Jonathan Gold’s rave review in the LA Weekly. On every visit to Jitlada, Jazz tells a different part of the story about her encounters with Gold, a testament to his impact for Jitlada, and on Los Angeles in general.
We never received one of our dishes – Kua Kling Caviar ($15.95) – stir fried dry curry with Thai caviar and green beans. There were so many dishes that none of us noticed. Also, we can’t exactly complain. Jazz was feeling magnanimous and not gave us dessert, she gave us our croc for free, so it more than evened out. It also helped that almost every dish was sensational.
There’s a chance Jitlada could actually get more interesting in the coming months. Jazz said Tui plans to add 200 of their father’s recipes to the menu. 10 new dishes will appear every 2 to 3 weeks!
Until January of this year, I remembered Lotus of Siam as being the best Thai restaurant I’d experienced in the U.S. Now, without a doubt, Jitlada has passed it by, and may have even lapped the Lotus.
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