At Formosa, a Menu Brief and to the Point

Perhaps it isn’t too surprising that a Chinese restaurant at which the musical selections switch blithely from “Danny Boy” to contemporary Hong Kong pop should offer a dish called New York-style cold noodles.

Just what makes this appetizer specific to the Big Apple is hard to discern, but there’s plenty of flavor in it--a peanut butter-like sauce thinly coats the chewy strands of Chinese macaroni--as well as pleasing texture variations brought by bean sprouts and cucumber, the latter cut in wavy slivers that mimic the pasta.

The server will bring a dish of chili oil on the side and suggest drizzling it over the dish to taste, and, as it happens, these noodles can take the heat. For the best effect, toss the noodles with the oil and then dive in with chopsticks.

Rancho Bernardo is by no means poor in quality Chinese houses, but since there’s always room for another good one, Formosa should be regarded as a welcome addition to one of RB’s numerous restaurant rows. The restaurant takes its name from the Spanish name at one time given to the island of Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, at odds with mainland China ever since Mao raised the red flag over Shanghai. The island has a local cooking style, but also has borrowed considerably from mainland cuisines, and it is these that are represented on Formosa’s menu.

This menu has the merit of relative brevity; there is sufficient choice, but, unlike the menus at some Chinese restaurants, you shouldn’t have aged considerably by the time you’ve finished reading it. There is, in fact, no need to read beyond the soup, appetizer and house specials listings, because these three categories encompass the choicest dishes.

If for no other reason than they present a less-common choice, the New York-style noodles make as good an opener as any; they are quite good. The steamed dumplings, once a rarity but now found everywhere, are juicy and have a good, fresh flavor. (As happens in this country, some places have started using frozen dumplings, which simply don’t taste the same.) The other offerings are fairly standard, with spring rolls leading a list that includes paper-wrapped chicken and barbecued ribs.

Among the soups, the crab meat with asparagus is the most delicate and elegant. If someone in the party wants hot-and-sour, Formosa offers it in a meatless version, somewhat overly thickened, easy on the hot stuff and, oddly, a bit sweet. It isn’t bad, but anyone who orders this soup for the big, spicy and pungent effects some hot-and-sours produce will be disappointed.

The specials list includes some ingredients, such as pistachios and pine nuts, that we may not readily associate with Taiwanese cuisine, although pine nuts happen to be grown on the island. At Formosa, these are dipped in honey and arranged over fried shrimp in a spicy Hunan-style sauce--the play of sweet and hot flavors and crisp and tender textures is quite enjoyable.

The pistachios enter a dish called, simply enough, pistachio pork, for which the kitchen, without warning, substituted sweetened cashews on a recent visit. The reason was simple enough: This is a new restaurant and the kitchen had run out of pistachios; the substitution by no means hurt this finely savory dish of shredded pork and vegetables in rich, slightly tangy brown sauce.

Some restaurants, Formosa among them, now offer Peking duck without advance ordering. This was one of the better such birds in memory, presented whole at table and then returned to the kitchen to be carved into segments of meat and strips of fine, crunchy skin. Back at the table, the server wrapped these, along with a smear of plum sauce and some slivered cucumber, inside rice pancakes, and the bundles--the only sane way to eat these is by hand--were quite delicious.

Also among its specialties the restaurant lists a southwestern Chinese dish called yee-lan shan ding that stir-fries chicken, shrimp, miniature ears of corn and green peas with brown sauce, and tops the serving with lotus seeds.

Somewhat unusually, the list also presents what might be called mix-and-match options, such as a choice of meats deep-fried in sesame seed coatings or cooked with vegetables in a bamboo steamer or in the house “red chili” preparations. This last was not attempted, but although the menu stars it as notably hot, other dishes so marked tended to be quite mild. The kitchen presumably will adjust the heat to suit.

Formosa

16769 Bernardo Center Drive in The Plaza shopping center, Rancho Bernardo

Calls: 487-8999

Hours: Lunch and dinner daily

Cost: Most entrees $6.75 to $10.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $25 to $45