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To me, all fortune cookies bring good fortune. Even though they’re an American invention, they come with food from the East — at least as valuable a contribution to the world as Eastern wisdom. Luckily for those of us who live in proximity to the Pacific, immigrants from China and other parts of Asia settled here, and brought their cooking with them. Some of my favorite Asian cuisines are practiced with high style and great skill far from their countries of origin, but close to where most of us work. CHANDRA (4017 Riverside Dr. at Pass Ave., Burbank, 818-567-1331) Chandra’s the most convenient and tastiest place for Thai near many Valley studios. Yum Neau (Spicy Beef Salad) is a fiery beginning to the meal: grilled, sliced steak, a bit on the chewy side, is tossed with lettuce, cucumber, red and green onion and tomato, all coated in wickedly hot chili lime dressing. Cold cucumbers and lettuce are much needed to cool things down. Classic Pad Thai comes with all its ingredients — shrimp, chicken, egg, rice noodles, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts — elegantly displayed in separate, neat piles on a big plate, so you can mix to your taste. The noodles have just the right mouth-feel: they pull back a little when you bite. Thai BBQ Chicken is one of the most flavorful items here; you’d be remiss not to try it. Chicken is marinated in garlic, cilantro and coconut milk, and grilled to a bronze shade. A honey-sweet dipping sauce accompanies the bird, served in its own china boat. The atmosphere at Chandra’s is nothing special, and a note to the staff: kill the Muzak. But the kitchen really knows what it’s doing and prices are reasonable. SUSHI MASU (1911 Westwood Blvd. between Olympic & Santa Monica, 310-466-4368) Chef Mashiko wields a skilled sushi knife at this friendly, intimate Westside Japanese minutes from Fox. It offers the best fish quality/price ratio in town, with gorgeous cuts selected each morning by the chef at downtown markets. Consider this everyday lunch special: the Nigiri Combination, which includes a steaming bowl of tofu-laden miso soup and eight pieces of sushi (salmon, sweet shrimp, egg, smelt egg, tuna, albacore, halibut — I substituted yellowtail for the latter), along with a cut tuna roll, for $10.95. I spent an extra dollar to make my tuna roll spicy; it was the first thing to disappear from my beautifully presented plate. Another lunch special, for $6.95, includes the miso soup and cut tuna roll along with crunchy but not greasy veggie tempura (green pepper, pumpkin, carrot, zucchini), leafy green salad with a creamy dressing, silken salmon and tuna sashimi, and steamed rice. If you’re a regular, the chef may treat you to dessert: ripe honeydew cut into a sailboat with a curved sail, a sliced orange in a martini glass, and strawberries dunked in vanilla cream — a delicious end to LA’s best sushi lunch deal. THE FORBIDDEN CITY (1718 Vine St. at Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood; 323-461-2300) Judging by the look of this new Hollywood restaurant, Forbidden City expects to be a “scene.” Its red-walled, polished brown-floored main dining room is dominated by a stage, speakers (playing Dylan the day I was there) and a giant, multi-headed, many-armed Buddha. At night it may be all about being seen, but at lunch, if you have to meet someone from over the hill, this is a welcome, non-greasy Chinese addition to an underserved area. The food errs on the bland side, but it’s served piping hot in good-size-for-sharing portions. Pan-seared pot stickers with sweet chili-soy dipping sauce are filled with white-meat chicken, and the wonton wrapper’s crispy on the bottom. Firm-bodied wok-seared shrimp come with your standard-variety Chinese restaurant veggies (i.e., that silly miniature corn). The Emperor’s Cashew Chicken is cooked in “secret sauce,” a lighter version of otherwise ubiquitous brown sauce. The food’s decent now and may improve with time: the place had been open less than a week when I dined there. But if you want pot stickers with atmosphere in Hollywood, it’s a pleasant choice. Fortune cookies come dipped in white chocolate, an affected touch, but a sweet one. |
