Korean Pine Tree: Wild Meals in Bland Land

Northridge Fashion Center is just about a shopping paradise, but there’s one thing you can’t get there: abalone porridge.

Even in the little restaurant row that has grown up nearby, on Nordhoff and Tampa, the food ranges cautiously from burgers to Greek. Some of it is quite good, but if you want a meal on the wild side you’re out of luck.

Except for one place: the Pine Tree Restaurant. It draws customers from the local Korean community plus the occasional mall shopper and students from Cal State Northridge whose dining universe does not end at Reseda Boulevard. And, I’m sure, abalone porridge lovers from all over too.

Now, “abalone porridge” is not really what I’d call this particular dish. The name brings to mind oatmeal mush, and in fact when you ask the waitress to describe the dish, that’s unfortunately what she compares it to: oatmeal. It sounds like the worst English breakfast idea you’ve ever heard of.

Wrong. This is a rice dish. It has the consistency of risotto and a clean flavor from the strips of abalone that swim in it and the dried seaweed floating on top. There are also a few jolly spots of color (squash and carrot chunks, a tiny raw quail egg) that don’t suggest the breakfast tray either. Call it risotto de abalone a la nouvelle and you’d sell a million of them.

Of course, not everything is wild. Korean food cuts its own swath through the forest of culinary possibilities. It certainly includes things you might not imagine anybody would eat, starting with the rank-smelling pickled cabbage called kimchi that accompanies everything.

That is, you might not imagine anybody would eat kimchi the first time you taste it, but the stuff grows on you. In the end you’re liable to find that for all the rank smell, the principal impression kimchi gives is freshness. (On the other hand, I must say I’m still working on developing a taste for the fermented bean paste that sometimes shows up among the five or six side dishes that automatically come along with any entree.)

But there are also plain and simple meat dishes that could almost come from the Midwest. The meal always begins with an excellent beef bouillon with some mild radish slices floating in it. The short rib stew, kal bi gim , is hearty, almost supernaturally meaty-flavored short ribs braised with carrots, bits of green squash and a couple of mushrooms.

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Korean barbecue is well-known as being easy to take. The Pine Tree has a gas grill at every table for you to do your own barbecuing (as long as two or more people at the table order barbecue; otherwise it will be cooked for you in the kitchen). An efficient hooded fan removes the smoke as you play with the beef strips or chicken pieces on the grill with your chopsticks and then dip them in soy sesame sauce.

Well, to tell the truth, instead of beef or chicken you could barbecue tongue slices, or either of two cuts of intestine. But for the cautious, the barbecued beef ribs are particularly neat, the meat sliced off the bone in a single strip like an orange peel.

Sang soo back ban , confusingly described as “wrapped with lettuce and beef,” is actually some barbecued beef brought out on a sizzling platter accompanied by about half a head of romaine lettuce, a mild herb that looks like baby celery and the usual array of Korean side dishes: kimchi, radish salad, spinach, sprouts and whatever. You wrap up the beef in the lettuce, dip it in thick sweet soy sauce and eat it like a taco.

There are also noodle dishes, notably jalchap (transparent noodles with bits of beef and vegetables), which is featured in several of the bargain lunches, such as the barbecued beef and jalchap combo. Fish tends to be roasted very plainly, but there are seafood casseroles that are more complex, such as the hot crab casserole with tofu, transparent noodles and green onions in a sharp, thin red pepper sauce.

Among the appetizers, there are nice dumplings filled with a little beef and some green leaf vegetable, either steamed or fried. I think I prefer the smooth and luscious steamed dumplings ( mool man doo ) to the fried ones. There are also more familiar things like tempura in lightly cooked batter, mostly prawns but including some carrots and (I think) sweet potato as well as onion rings for the surprise factor.

What’s for dessert? A stick of Juicy Fruit, that’s what. If dessert’s what you want, pally, go back to the mall.

Recommended dishes: mool man doo, $6.50; abalone porridge, $11; sang soo back ban, $8.95; kal bi gim, $9.50.

Pine Tree Korean B.B.Q. Restaurant, 8967 Tampa Ave., Northridge. (818) 886-1512. Open Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m. Beer and wine. Parking lot. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $25 to $38.