Good Food to Sink Your Chopsticks Into

There are two things I look for on a Chinese menu: Chinese characters and a lot of innards. I never really trust a Chinese restaurant where all the dishes are written in English and there aren’t any kidneys or tripe--or at least some sea slugs--scattered about the menu.

Having said all that, I’d like to report that the recently relocated Chi Dynasty, 2112 Hillhurst Ave., (213)-667-3388, is a very pleasant restaurant. It’s one of those pretty places with great big red menus where the waiters earnestly portion out the dishes using two big spoons. Look up and you’ll see a great deal of table-side cooking being performed all around the dining room. Watch while the food is artfully arranged on great big black plates.

But despite the fact that squid, which Chi Dynasty calls calamari , is the most exotic item on a menu that is written entirely in English, the food seems quite interesting. There are the expected sizzling soups and lemon chicken and Mongolian lamb, but there are also unusual dishes like veal Mandarin and baby eggplants stuffed with water chestnuts, minced shrimp and chicken--there’s even a vegetarian Peking duck. It’s easy to see why so many of the restaurant’s Glendale customers are already flocking to the new location.