FEW MODERN restaurant legends have endured like the story behind Jitlada: Chef Suthiporn “Tui” Sungkamee, who died in 2017, and his sister Sarintip “Jazz” Singsanong took over the long-running restaurant and introduced a then-untranslated back page full of radically spicy Southern Thai specialties. Those dishes have been incorporated into its 10-page English menu for a while now, but their written accessibility doesn’t mean the kitchen has diminished their incandescence. As a masterclass on regional Thai cooking, Jitlada is indispensable. The choices can overwhelm, true, though reconnecting with an old favorite can feel like rediscovering a beloved novel. It happened for me recently after ordering kaeng kung yawt khaam awn, shrimp and young tamarind pods in a soupy curry lit up with turmeric. There were shadings in its fiery, fruity-sour intricacy I’d missed before. I never forget the effect of the herbaceous jungle curry with lamb; it’s so visceral with capsicums that its ingestion borders on supernatural possession.

• 5233 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 667-9809, jitladala.com