Jitlada in Thai Town. (Photo by Pablo Goldstein)
IT’S BEEN TWENTY YEARS since Sarantip “Jazz” Singsanong and her late brother Suthiporn “Tui” Sungkamee bought Jitlada, the longtime anchor of an East Hollywood stripmall on Sunset Boulevard. It only took them a few years to turn the restaurant, which was opened by previous owners in 1971, into one of Los Angeles’ most beloved institutions.
So much about Jitlada is famous now: the gargantuan menu, the walls covered in framed awards and Matt Groening sketches, and the dueling anxiety of its parking shortage and walk-ins-only policy. Not to mention the celebrity clientele, who are frequently featured on Jazz’s Instagram. But it’s also known for the heat index of its spiciest dishes — a reflection of the cuisine that Jazz and Tui (who died in 2017) grew up eating in in southern Thailand.
Around the time Jazz celebrated the anniversary of her March 6, 2006 purchase, she gave L.A. Material us the rundown on the restaurant’s top five best selling items — both for customers who order their food Spicy or Jitlada Spicy (the two spiciest options on their five-point scale) and those who avoid the heat entirely.
TOP 5 BEST SELLERS FOR CUSTOMERS ORDERING SPICY OR JITLADA SPICY
5. GREEN CURRY
Jazz says that her green curry is "not that bad" when it comes to spice, but she might not have the most tender palette on that front.
“We cook it from scratch. That’s why it’s so popular. Ryan Gosling loves green curry,” she says. “He loves tom yum soup too. Every time he gets sick, he orders a tom yum with fish. But after he had a baby, he disappeared. But he orders it on the website. We know because the order says no lemongrass."
A bowl of spicy green curry. (Photo by Pablo Goldstein)
4. TAEPO CURRY
Jazz says that this dish, which has been singled out in the restaurant’s Michelin review for several years running, is “not as crazy spicy” as the rest on the list. The curry is made with peppery watercress and sweet tamarind.
3. KUA KLING
The only sauce-less item on this list, kua kling is a dry curry with an insidious spice that penetrates the customer’s choice of protein and then attacks their taste buds. “No vegetables. No nothing. Just the meat,” Jazz said. “We cook with ground meat, either pork, chicken or beef. If we're cooking at home, we love ground pork. But most people love ground chicken."
2. JUNGLE CURRY
"Jungle curry is curry without coconut,” Jazz tells us. “You put herbs from the garden into the broth, that's why they call it jungle. Then we put eggplant, peppercorn, and the meat.”
“It's crazy spicy. Spicy people love it."
1. DYNAMITE CURRY
You have to be at least 18 years old to order the Dynamite Spicy Challenge and the menu item comes with a disclaimer: “Warning: Eat at your own risk! Jitlada is not responsible for any burning in the mouth or tongue, excessive sweating, stomach pain or any harmful effects caused by eating too spicy.”
Nevertheless, the dish —in which diners order a choice of protein from chicken to frog legs to eel fillets cooked in debilitatingly hot curry — is the most popular on the spice menu.
“Dynamite, we have a warning. If you order it, we cannot turn it off,” Jazz tells us. “I'll say to customers, why don't you order it regular? If you can pass, then go for the Dynamite Spicy Challenge. But people want to try it because they want to know how bad it is.”
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TOP 5 FOR CUSTOMERS ORDERING NOT SPICY
5. GARLIC AND PEPPER
Jazz says that diners who can’t take any kind of heat gravitate toward this dish. Its two key ingredients might make a Pilgrim straight off the Mayflower sweat, but the modern diner can handle it with ease.
4. CASHEW CHICKEN
Better known as a staple of Chinese-American restaurants, Jitlada’s spice-hating customers tend to order this classic stir-fry of chicken, vegetables, and the plainest of the nuts, the cashew.
3. CHICKEN SATAY
A classic Southeast Asian appetizer, Jitlada serves skewers of the non-spicy eater’s favorite protein, chicken, alongside a creamy peanut dipping sauce.
2. CELEBRITY CHICKEN
This shiny orange chicken-esque dish gets its name “because all celebrities love it” according to Jazz.
“Michael Cera, I think, is the one who started to spread it out and he wanted me to name it. Dev Patel loves it so much. He keeps coming back because of “celebrity chicken.” All celebrities love it. I can't put just one name on it. That's why I told my brother, ‘You put celebrity.’”
Asked if any celebrity diners prefer spicy food, Jazz said “Benny Blanco and Selena Gomez. We cooked for their rehearsal dinner.”
“I love Benny. He’s kind.”
Jazz Singsanong with regular customer Ryan Gosling (Photo credit: @Jazz_sing on Instagram)
1. PAD THAI
While it might seem a little basic to order pad thai — a dish that in its current form only dates back to the 1940s at the earliest, during a rice shortage in Thailand — at a restaurant with more than 400 menu items, that hasn’t stopped spice-avoidant diners from making this sweet dish Jitlada’s best seller.
Asked if she ever planned on opening a second Jitlada, Jazz says she’s constantly turning down offers. "Every month, people put up the money. $200,000. I tell them thank you but I'm happy with what I have. First, I don't like to be under anybody. Second, they invest because they saw that you're doing well. But when you don't make money for them, they don't support you and you collapse."
Jazz also added that businesspeople have inquired about franchising, which was a topic that led to arguments with her late brother. "I'd like to keep this forever. I fought with my brother. When people offered, he wanted to go. I said, ‘You go. I'm here.’ When you give people your recipes, it's not going to be the same.”
“You sell franchises because you want money but your food gets destroyed. If I want to collab with someone, I will collab with love but not money."
Pablo Goldstein is the Creative Producer at L.A. Material.
