Jitlada, Los Angeles Southern Thai Cuisine Review
Sometimes in life and in food, the things that are best for you maybe so close to you, that you fail to recognize it. Such is the case with Jitlada, the southern Thai specialty restaurant located less than a mile of where I’ve been living in LA for the past year but wasn’t able to experience until recently. Bonded by more then just the common love of food and blogging, but also friendship, I met up with Cathy and Vern of Gastronomy and Stellar Recipes, Mike of Pepsi Monster, Bill of Street Gourmet LA, and Danny of Kung Food Panda to enjoy a great southern Thai meal and dishes that I’ve never had before in any traditional Thai restaurant. The dishes below encapsulate that meal as as another visit with Kim.
The spicy soft shell crab was lightly breaded and crispy and came with a bevy of interesting veggies such as small round Thai eggplant. This dish had a delayed type of heat that really hit you a few minutes after eating it.
Spicy shrimp curry was delicious and became a fantastic topping in our lavish pizza!
Minced fried catfish is interesting texture-wise but the taste of catfish was was lost as the bits tended to be small.
Fish ball soup, whose name just invites giggles and jokes, is nothing to laugh it. Fish paste stuffed with duck egg bathed in a light curry. This dish just blew all of us away with the execution as well as the flavor.
The coconut, lotus, and red snapper soup was amazing. This soup was so delicate and well balanced and had us scrapping the bottom of the bowl quickly.
Morning glory is prepared like nothing else we’ve seen before in the Crispy morning glory salad. Lightly battered strands of morning glory fried and then mixed with shrimp and perfect dressing of fish sauce, lime, and chili.
