Good Lunch

BARBECUE

by David D. Kim

No one would mistake L.A. for Memphis — or Texas. And it sure ain’t Seoul. Yet L.A.’s best barbecue joints give off that unmistakable whiff of down-home cooking, wherever home may be. Tony Roma’s and Chili’s try to mass-produce this idiosyncratic cuisine, but they can’t duplicate the kind of roll-up-your-sleeves atmosphere that tells you that where there’s smoke, there’s barbecue.

PHILLIPS BAR-B-QUE (4307 Leimert Blvd., 323-292-7613). Wiser souls call in orders up to an hour before making the pilgrimage to this takeout-only mecca, located in the heart of Crenshaw’s artsy Leimert Park area. Others wait in line at Phillips’s corridor-entrance, dead-ending at a lone take-out window. It’s a gustatory confession booth where sinful cravings for smothered, smoldering meat are guiltily blurted out. Suddenly, all that damning evidence about red meat seems a cruel hoax. Pork ribs — long, succulent slabs bathed in a dark, smoky-sweet sauce — are the first step down this primrose path. Following close behind are beef ribs, cooked to a slight chewiness rather than falling-off-the-bone. The mild-sauce version of baby backs is surprisingly subdued, so kick up the heat if necessary. Sides — collard greens, potato salad — are decent, not inspired, and every order comes garnished with a spongy slice of white bread. And just when you’ve blasphemed every dietary god, dessert rears its shrink-wrapped head. Peach cobbler doesn’t quite live up to its reputation, but the 7-UP cake is devastatingly moist, betraying its key ingredient, cream cheese. Phillips may be hell on your waistline, but what a way to go.

RIBS U.S.A. (2711 W. Olive Ave., Burbank, 818-841-8872). Some people gauge a ’cue joint by the wood in its grill or the heat of its sauce. A better gauge may be right under our noses: peanut shells on the floor. Their aw-shucks informality virtually guarantees an unpretentious menu, friendly waiters, and big heaping platters of meat. Such is true at Ribs U.S.A., where drinks are self-serve, and diners sit on hard wooden benches amid mid-cent-ury-shack decor. The deceptively titled Junior Bob’s ($16.45) is a sampler platter boasting two beef ribs, three baby-backs, one hot link, a quarter chicken, a side, and cornbread. What you get is all that meat, drenched in a tangy, peppery sauce with a hint of sweetness. It’s not particularly subtle on the palate, or delicately splayed on the plate, but that shouldn’t curb the tendency to gobble everything in sight, cornbread included. A more modest Tri-Tip Special ($9.95) offers a mere 10 oz. of tender sliced beef in the same sauce, with only one side to tip the scales.

Soot Bull Jeep

Larger appetites — you know who you are — opt for heftier combo entrees, or half and full slabs of ribs, a la carte. Ribs U.S.A. doesn’t deliver (unless catering), but it does do takeout, in which case you provide the peanut shells.

SOOT BULL JEEP (3136 W. 8th Street, 213-387-3865). Korean barbecue, like its American counterpart, is a macho cuisine, born of fire, sweat, and the driving impulse to guzzle brewskis. Soot Bul Jeep is a classic in this sense, a down-and-dirty joint where diners grill their own meat on wood-flamed stoves embedded in each table. Menus are in Korean and English, and, unless you have a particular hankering for tripe, start with the basics: kalbi (beef ribs, $16.99) or bulgogi (flank-steak strips, $15.99). The flavorful marinade used in Korean BBQ contains soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar, resulting in a tasty but mild flavor; you add the heat. First, however, comes the panjun, small appetizer plates accompanying every meal. Most feature different types of kimchee – spicy pickled cabbage and daikon — arriving with small bowls of hot broth and rice. Additional condiments — lettuce leaves, chili paste, soy dipping sauce, garlic cloves, scallions — may confuse the uninitiated, so here’s the drill: Cook meat. Wrap said meat in lettuce, adding chili paste, garlic, etc. Dip in soy, devour, and repeat. It’s worth the trouble, even if the lingering aroma of grease follows you home.