Asian Ribs, The Sequel

L ast week’s survey included ribs from China and Hawaii. This week we explore the best of Korean, Thai, Filipino and Vietnamese ribs in Los Angeles.

Korean

With all the good Korean barbecues in Los Angeles County, tracking down the best is like searching for the ultimate French fry. But Pete Wood Korean Barbecue is in a class by itself. Forget the table-top gas-jet stoves you find at most places. Here your meat sizzles over live-oak coals under a grill in the center of the table. The even heat cooks the ribs to perfection while flavoring it with gentle smoke.

Pete Wood offers a variety of meats to barbecue, but if you’ve come for ribs, order kalbi. The beef ribs are sliced thin and they really soak up the barbecue marinade. And Pete Wood’s marinade is a perfect balance of soy sauce and garlic with rich undertones of roasted sesame seeds.

Koreans understand how delicious ribs are as finger food, so they serve a huge basket of lettuce leaves for wrapping up bites of cooked meat with a little kimchi. Along with the ribs, Pete Wood brings on a generous spread of side dishes: including sauteed spinach, potato cooked in a soy based sauce, mung bean sprouts flavored with sesame oil and soy bean sprouts with a light sprinkling of red pepper. A red-leaf salad, a seaweed soup and rice also come with the meal--all for $7.95.

Pete Wood Korean Barbecue, 910 E. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park. (818) 571-6950. Open Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

Thai

In Thailand, everyone knows the best barbecue is at the Kai yang (barbecued chicken) shops. The proprietors do their barbecuing in front of the stores, luring passers by with the aromatic smoke from their grills. At Thai ‘n’ I Barbecue on Ventura Boulevard, the barbecue area is enclosed in glass but the sight of those succulent Thai-style ribs and chickens on the grill attracts a steady stream of customers.

The ribs have an irresistible garlicky-salty taste heightened by a sweet-hot dipping sauce. Their characteristic Thai flavor comes from fish sauce mixed with a touch of sugar in the marinade. The “fish” taste disappears on the grill melding into complexity of seasonings and slightly charred taste of the grill.

We watched customers consume whole slabs of the crispy ribs in one sitting. Ribs come “straight up” or as a combination dinner with various side dishes. The restaurant also serves a few good basic Thai dishes including spicy stir-fried glass noodles, and chicken with string beans in a hot chili sauce.

Thai ‘ n’ I, 17544 Ventura Blvd., Encino; (818) 783-8424. Open Sunday-Thursday, 3-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon-10 p.m.

Filipino

Since Asian, Spanish, and American influences have all shaped Filipino cooking, it’s hardly surprising that every Filipino rib dish we tasted had a different style. Some restaurants simmer beef ribs with vegetables to create a homey boiled beef and soup dish. Others serve huge, crisp, slightly tart, breaded and deep-fried short ribs. One restaurant cuts pork ribs crosswise creating a strip of meat with five or six pieces of bone and serves it broiled with American-style tomato-based barbecue sauce.

But the most interesting Filipino ribs we tasted were at Manila Food Bowl, a small take-out, eat-in restaurant in a mini mall. The beef ribs are cut Korean style, coated with a delicious slightly sweet, slightly salty marinade and broiled. Their homemade dipping sauce is the pride of the house. It’s similar to the Thai and Chinese sweet dipping sauces and this version has just enough chile to give you a nice, delicate, slightly burning feeling on the roof of your mouth.

Lunch or dinner for one person consists of four strips of meat, rice, coleslaw in a better-than-usual dressing, and excellent tart shredded vegetable pickles, all for $2.93.

Manila Food Bowl, 309 N. Virgil Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 669-2769. Open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

Vietnamese

Goat is one of the specialties here, and the menu is a tribute to its versatility. Goat steamed with red wine, or stewed in curry are among the offerings. But it was the barbecued goat ribs that immediately caught our fancy. These are either barbecued plain (No. 143), or with a red bean curd sauce that is cooked into the meat (No. 142). The tender ribs are gamey tasting and just slightly crisp. They come surrounded by palate-cleansing sweet-and-sour marinated carrot and white radish sticks. With either rib dish we recommend the excellent chicken sour salad--a brilliant toss of vegetables and shredded chicken garnished with fresh coriander and peanuts.

Hue Lien, 301 N. Garfield Ave., D, Monterey Park; (818) 288-0939. Open daily, 8 a.m.-11 p.m.