Convoy Street Eateries Offer Spicy Array of Asian Dishes

Convoy Street has come to be one of this city’s main links to the cultures of the Orient.

The process has been under way for some time but seems to have accelerated of late, and Convoy Street now has attained a concentration of Asian eateries unmatched in San Diego. Korean, Chinese and Japanese restaurants seem to predominate, with the cuisines of Southeast Asia represented on a lesser scale. A goodly number of places are noodle houses, at which guests are served enormous bowls of variously garnished noodles or noodle soups at modest prices. To complete a survey of them all would take quite some time, but certain characteristics seem shared, most notably that many are patronized primarily by their countrymen and serve in the style of the given Old Country. It thus happens that the service at many of these establishments, often brusque and abrupt, very likely will not suit Occidentals accustomed to a slower pace when dining out.

The majority of Convoy Street’s Asian eateries are housed in the strip malls that run back in series of storefronts from the street. The easiest way to sample the options is to literally just plunge in, or to park and walk to the nearest place that looks appealing, as was done on a pair of recent visits to the area. You can, in effect, let the nearest available parking place be your guide and probably not be disappointed.

One trip to this neighborhood resulted in a copious and most interesting if terribly rushed dinner at Arirang House, evidently a fairly traditional Korean establishment whose clientele seems composed primarily of Koreans.

The servers are polite but no-nonsense, and set a pace far removed from that of the relaxed dinner that many of us seek when eating out. The waitress in fact demanded the order literally within seconds of handing out the menus, and was impatient when told to come back later. Be warned that, if you wish the meal served in courses, you must order only one dish at a time (this approach is not appreciated by the staff); otherwise, everything arrives, very quickly, all at once, and the table becomes littered with such an amazing array of dishes as to make the meal bewildering.

Bewildering but not unpleasant, since much of the food is quite good. Unless you happen to have a good acquaintance with Korean cooking and know exactly what you want, there are two courses of action to take: To sit at one of the tables equipped with an electric “barbecue” grill and cook the desired selection of sliced meats, or to simply take a stab at it and order dishes that sound attractive. Korean cuisine simultaneously has much and very little in common with Japanese and Chinese cooking styles, and such menu listings as “uncurled tofu casserole” can be pretty mystifying to non-cognoscenti.

The Korean barbecue items seem the big deals, and range from fairly innocuous beef, short rib and chicken options to barbecued bacon, spicy pork, heavily salted beef (salt, as a flavor unto itself, designates a department of Korean dishes) and a combination of barbecued tripe and intestines. The chicken was sampled and found good enough, if not especially exciting.

The best moment occurs when the waitress arrives with a dozen dishes of different kim chee , the traditional pickles that are an integral part of any Korean dinner. You quickly lose track as she names the different items while placing them on the table, but the selection includes bean sprouts, cabbage (cured with much red pepper), crisply fried anchovies, fish cake, seaweed, spinach, daikon radish, yams, Korean bean jelly (it’s translucent, hotly spiced and shakes like Santa’s midriff) and other things. The tastes are variously pungent, hot, sweet, sour, spicy, salty, savory and mild; in other words, they run the gamut of the Oriental flavor chart and add incredible interest to the meal.

Since appetizers and other dishes arrive pretty much at the same time, it is hard to discuss the foods in terms of courses. But there is an appetizer list, and it offers very good, light, pan-fried dumplings stuffed with a little meat and served with a spicy sauce; grilled oysters; a grilled green bean cake, and a lovely, elaborately garnished dish of pan-fried noodles (which the menu calls vermicelli, although they are thick) mixed with snippets of many meats and vegetables.

Other menu categories include stews and casseroles, Western terms that seem loosely applied to Korean dishes. Westerners would designate the shrimp and been curd stew as more a soup, and might very well wish that the shrimp had been peeled in the kitchen; the flavor of the broth is good, but this is a difficult dish. Among choices in these categories are “stews” of seasoned tripe, bean paste, kim chee with pork, and squid; casserole offerings include Korean rice hash, dumpling soup, boiled beef short ribs, rice hash with raw beef and a ground soybean casserole. The menu concludes with broiled salmon and snipe, skate sashimi and pan-fried baby octopus and squid.

Not far down the block, the Tian Jin Chinese restaurant offers some unusual Chinese dishes in a bare bones, very mom-and-pop environment. Prices are low and the service once again gets all the food on the table very quickly. The menu, not lengthy, hits high spots with such things as the “three-flavor hot noodle soup,” which really seems to contain about a dozen flavors and is an amalgamation of fine noodles, various meats and vegetables in a lightly thickened, somewhat spicy broth of excellent flavor.

The dumplings are superb, especially the “steamed round dumplings,” hefty yeast buns filled with a succulent hash of vegetables and pork. Soaked with a little of the spiced soy sauce offered on the side, these are just dandy, and also quite filling. Noodle and rice dishes seem the best choices here, although among the limited number of entrees, the hot braised chicken--not too spicy, in truth, but quite succulent--was satisfying. An order of stir-fried vegetables was quite disappointing.

This very modest restaurant does seem more in tune with traditional Chinese flavors than many fancier places and also offers appetizers of cold jellyfish (which can be exquisite) and aromatic “five-flavored” beef.

JUST A TASTE

HIGHLIGHTS OF OTHER NELSON REVIEWS

PREGO, 1370 Frazee Road, San Diego, 294-4700. Prego translates as “don’t mention it,” which actually is quite at odds with the goals of this handsome, trend-setting Italian eatery in Mission Valley. Among the things it wishes diners to mention are the supple-crusted pizzas, the appetizers of marinated shrimp and duck salad, the wonderfully flavored, lobster-stuffed agnolotti pasta and the spit-roasted fowls and rabbit. The pastry chef creates exceptional tarts and tortes. Entrees cost from $7.50 to $17.50. Moderate to expensive.

CHANG, Costa Verde Center, Genesee Avenue at La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego, 558-2288. The golden touch that has gilded many of the new restaurants in the Golden Triangle has cast a glow upon this strikingly decorated place, which seems uniformly busy at both lunch and dinner. The menu--which while shorter and less imaginative than might be desired--does include a number of attractive specialties at night, notably the minced and seasoned chicken appetizers, the “twin delights” pairing of savory slivers of chicken and pork, and the suave honey chicken. The eggplant Szechuan is excellent, but don’t ask for it at lunch, when the menu is short and strictly business. Entrees from $5.75 to $14.95. Inexpensive to moderate.

* ARIRANG HOUSE

4681 Convoy St., San Diego 277-8625

Lunch and dinner daily

Entrees cost $7 to $10.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $25 to $45.

Credit cards accepted.

* TIAN JIN CHINESE RESTAURANT

4637 Convoy St., San Diego 560-5349

Lunch and dinner daily

Noodle dishes and entrees $3.65 to $8.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, $15 to $30.

Credit cards accepted.