May All Your Dishes Come True

Legendary French gastronome Brillat-Savarin once wrote, “The discovery of a new dish does more for mankind than the discovery of a new star.” From a food critic’s perspective, he couldn’t have been more right.

Restaurants come and go every year--as evidenced by the passing of local institutions such as Burrell’s Rib Cage and Mezzaluna--but good dishes remain in the memory forever. This was a year of ethnic-eatery triumphs, and classic French and rustic Italian epiphanies.

As always, this year’s Top 25 list makes no effort to be balanced in terms of courses of the meal or types of cuisine. But, looking over the list, I’m impressed by just how much culinary diversity there is.

I would gladly eat every one of these dishes almost any day of the week. Which makes them all stars in my book.

* SCALLOP AND ROCK SHRIMP CITRUS NAGE: Chef Pascal Olhats has been adding to his already considerable repertoire, from a warm Brie salad with rosti potatoes to one of O.C.’s best rotisserie chickens, a crisp-skinned bird perfumed with fennel and coriander seeds. But his best new offering is an intense vegetable broth (nage) in which scallops and shrimp are poached, a spa-style dish rich in flavor and light on the palate.

Pascal, 1000 N. Bristol St., Newport Beach. (714) 752-0107. Scallop and rock shrimp citrus nage, $22.95.

* SZE MA DA BING: Nearly everyone who eats at Tustin’s Jamillah Garden orders this masterpiece round of puffy bread, whose name literally translates as big sesame flat bread.

This is the most impressive bread served in any Southland restaurant: 14 inches in diameter, as thick as three double-crusted pizzas, with a puffy interior layered with green onions and a crunchy top dotted with sesame seeds. Feed your whole family for around five bucks. No kidding.

Jamillah Garden, 2512 Walnut St., Tustin. (714) 838-3522. Sze ma da bing, $5.25.

* QUENELLES DE BROCHET: One never knows what surprises an old pro like Edmund Sarfati is going to have in store. At Sarfati’s LaFayette, the best dishes are always specials, such as cassoulet, seven-hour leg of lamb, and salmon quenelles. The last are feather-light fish dumplings bound together magically with whipped eggs.

In January the chef procured some fresh walleyed pike (brochet) and was able to reproduce the dumplings the way they are traditionally done in Lyons, blanketed with the lobster-based sauce Nantua.

LaFayette, 12352 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove. (714) 537-5011. Quenelles de brochet, $20.

* SUGAR-CRUSTED BUTTERMILK SCONE: Gina De Michael’s passion for baking shows at her fledgling Pacific Whey Baking Co., a quasi-industrial cafe serving some of the best pastries in the county. De Michael’s seminal scone is the star of the pastry case at breakfast. This vaguely spherical object is half again as big as a normal-size scone, and loaded with butter, peaches, blackberries and other seasonal fruits. Don’t plan on a big lunch.

Pacific Whey Baking Co., 2622 San Miguel Drive, Newport Beach. Sugar-crusted buttermilk scone, $2.50.

* TIMPANO: One of my plum assignments in ’96 was to get half a dozen Italian chefs from local restaurants to prepare a timpano, or pasta drum, the dish depicted in the hit film “Big Night.” The dish is reputed to be Sicilian in origin--at least, the two restaurant-owner brothers in the film were Sicilians--and the contents can vary. In the end, it was Sicilian-born Pietro Cefalu of Mangia Mangia in Huntington Beach whose version won my heart. Cefalu made his timpano with ziti pasta, tiny meatballs, peas, hard-boiled eggs and fresh tomato sauce. It is now a fixture on his menu.

Mangia Mangia, 16079 Golden West St., Huntington Beach. (714) 841-8887. Timpano, $13.95.

* GOAT CURRY: Now that we’ve grown conscious of Jamaican cuisine (thanks largely to the jerk chicken craze), the notion of goat is not quite so unfashionable as it once was. But this gamy, savory meat has been eaten for centuries in northern India, so it’s no surprise to discover that our best Indian restaurant, Mayur in Corona del Mar, serves the ne plus ultra of O.C. goat dishes. The tender goat ribs come in a natural gravy, stewed with a special blend of aromatic spices. Owner Anju Kapoor doesn’t make them every week, so call for an order.

Mayur, 2931 E. Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. (714) 675-6622. Goat curry, $16.95.

* NORTH KOREAN-STYLE DUMPLING SOUP: At the tiny Hwang Hae Do cafe, the Korean dumplings known as mandu are prepared in the North Korean style, meaning they’re the biggest dumplings you’ve ever seen. Each one is about five times the size of a Chinese pot sticker, stuffed with minced beef and leek. You get an unfinishable five in a bowl of the home-style soup here.

Hwang Hae Do, 9567 Garden Grove Blvd., Garden Grove. (714) 530-1276. North Korean-style dumpling soup, $7.50.

* GRITS WITH DRIED CHERRIES, RAISINS AND BROWN SUGAR: At Ramos House Cafe in San Juan Capistrano, one can while away the morning in the shade of a mulberry tree, interrupted only by the whistle of an approaching train or delicious breakfast food from the hand of chef John Humphries. Grits are a staple in the American South, but here, slathered with butter and brown sugar and laced with dried fruit, the cornmeal mush becomes a sublime addition to California cuisine.

Ramos House Cafe, 31752 Los Rios St., San Juan Capistrano. (714) 443-1342. Grits with dried cherries, raisins and brown sugar, $3.95.

* POULET M’CHERMEL: The exquisitely informal Casablanca Bistro serves the sensuous cuisine of Morocco, serious first-date stuff--sugar- and cinnamon-dusted chicken pie, lamb shank with honey and almonds--that you eat with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. Hassan Haddouch was longtime chef at Marrakech down the street, and he is an expert at poulet m’chermel (chicken with green olives and preserved lemon), an expertly roasted bird thoroughly perfumed with exotic flavors. It is the county’s best chicken dish.

Casablanca Bistro, 1520 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (714) 646-1420. Poulet m’chermel, $16.95.

* MISO STEAK: The county’s best Japanese restaurant isn’t a sushi bar, it’s Kappo Sui--a watering hole where customers nibble on little dishes created as a complement for beer and sake. Owmer Shirai-san keeps a small English menu around for greenhorns, but the best dishes--including the incomparable miso steak--are scribbled in hiragana on a specials blackboard. The steak is filet mignon marinated in fermented soy paste, then blackened on a grill and cut into thin strips. The surface is smoke-flavored, but inside, the meat is as rare as fine sashimi.

Kappo Sui, 20070 Santa Ana Ave., Santa Ana Heights. (714) 429-0141. Miso steak, $7.

* AFFOGATO: What could be a simpler pick-me-up than a scoop of good vanilla ice cream with a bracing shot of espresso poured over the top? I don’t know what magic the boys at La Fontana in Huntington Beach employ, but for some reason the ice cream and coffee combination here is incredibly satisfying. Perhaps it is the tulip-shaped glass the affogato is served in; perhaps it is the rustic atmosphere of this winning little cafe.

La Fontana, 18344 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach. (714) 841-0059. Affogato, $3.95.

* RENKONMANJU: Like its more accomplished cousin, Kappo Sui, Kappo Honda is a traditional Japanese pub restaurant specializing in little snacks. This cuisine is said to have originated in Kyoto, developed by temple monks, so it is fitting that this place serves renkonmanju, a tasty dumpling based on lotus root flour, a starch that remains a staple of Japanese monks. Unlike what you’d eat in a Buddhist temple, this has a filling based on minced pork. Nonetheless, it is transcendentally delicious.

Kappo Honda, 18450 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley. (714) 964-4629. Renkonmanju, $5.75.

* ASH: Ash is the Persian word for soup, but the Afghani version served at Arya restaurant is even more pleasing than the better-known ash-e reshteh eaten at our Persian restaurants. Whereas that rather heavy soup tends to be green and redolent of herbs, this is a more austere and filling soup, loaded with translucent noodle and garbanzo bean, topped off with a float of sour cream and dried sumac leaf at the bowl’s surface. It’s a real meal.

Arya, 10330 Beach Blvd., Stanton. (714) 821-0627. Ash, $3.

* KUMAMOTO OYSTERS WITH MOMIJI OROSHI: Sushi Kura, on a quiet Costa Mesa street, could be the county’s best sushi bar. Proprietor and chef Mitsuo Okura, who hails from Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu, caters to a particularly knowledgeable and discerning Japanese clientele. So it is poetic justice that the man serves the exquisite, jewel-like Kumamoto oysters, glistening inside their shells from orange-red daubs of grated carrot and splashes of the citrus-flavored sauce called ponzu.

Sushi Kura, 2263 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. (714) 645-5502. Kumamoto oysters with momiji oroshi, $9 for six.

* SAUTEED ROASTED GARLIC SPINACH: The Capistrano Depot restaurant is enjoying a renaissance under the guidance of young American chef Dennis Burrage, a master of chops, pastas and desserts. Burrage prepares a terrific spinach appetizer, a mound of the vegetable in a puddle of richly reduced broth, laced with roasted garlic cloves and topped with Parmesan shavings. You’ll taste it for miles down the track.

The Capistrano Depot, 26701 Verdugo St., San Juan Capistrano. (714) 488-7600. Sauteed roasted garlic spinach, $4.95.

* LUON UM: Kim Huynh is part chef, part sorceress; a woman who has taken traditional Vietnamese Buddhist vegetarian cooking and made it her personal domain. Luon um, a dish made from bean curd and gluten, tastes exactly like the prized delicacy eel. It has a slippery black “skin” and a crunchy interior; it is sliced into scallop-sized pieces and served with eggplant cooked in coconut milk and lemon grass. Pure magic.

Vien Huong, 14092 Magnolia St., Westminster. (714) 898-8146. Luon um, $7.

* OXTAILS: Ruth’s Place serves up storefront soul food--peerless fried chicken, masterful gumbo--from the grandmotherly hand of Ruth Davenport, who does all the cooking in her dime-sized cafe. Oxtails are perhaps her most unexpected delight here: tender, gelatinous chunks of simmered meat, tendon, marrow and bone in an amazing broth of carrot, celery, onion and spice. Enjoy them with a square of homemade cornbread slathered in butter.

Ruth’s Place, 1236 W. Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana. (714) 953-9454. Oxtails, $5.95.

* SALMON CARPACCIO: Issay is the perfect neighborhood restaurant, but the intimate cafe is Italian to the bone. Chef Paulo Pestarino’s dishes tend to be indulgently sauced and over the top, but his salmon carpaccio is a still life in pink and yellow. It’s a plate covered completely by thin slices of salmon he cures himself, lightly glazed by a subtle mustard sauce with a sprinkle of capers.

Issay, 485 Old Newport Blvd., Newport Beach. (714) 722-2992. Salmon carpaccio, $9.50.

* CREPES SUZETTE: The Arches is the county’s oldest restaurant; it has been around since the Harding administration, 75 years. This is a restaurant for culinary relics such as veal Cordon Bleu and lobster Thermidor, but the real surprise is at dessert, when the flambe pans come to the table. Cre^pes Suzette are five thin cre^pes poached table-side in a copper pan with brandy, rum, Grand Marnier, sugar, cinnamon, butter, orange juice and fresh-grated orange peel. They make a grand show, and they taste great, too.

The Arches, 3334 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. (714) 645-7077. Cre^pes Suzette, $9.95 per person, two-person minimum.

* BRAISED VEAL CHEEKS: There are those who think that the winsome Aubergine is our best local spot for fine dining. I won’t argue. Even though the menu here is seasonal, co-owner Liza Goodell insisted that the kitchen retain the swooningly rich braised veal cheeks with baby vegetables and white truffle oil year round, and there is no better time to eat it than during the winter. The dish is composed of two perfectly braised nuggets of meat with slightly caramelized, exquisitely browned tops, and the truffle oil wafts up from them like heaven’s own perfume.

Aubergine, 508 29th St., Newport Beach. (714) 723-4150. Braised veal cheeks with baby vegetables and white truffle oil, $18.50.

* HUDSON VALLEY FOIE GRAS: Chef Yvan Goetz of the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point is Alsace’s gift to South County. His cooking is self-assured and faultlessly accomplished. Add to that a crackerjack product such as the delicious foie gras produced in New York’s Hudson Valley, and you’ve got a memorable dish, one of several this chef prepares. The goose liver is marinated in Gewurztraminer from Goetz’s own home turf, and the dish literally melts in the mouth.

The Dining Room, 33533 Ritz Carlton Drive, Dana Point. (714) 240-2000. Hudson Valley foie gras with baby leeks and truffle vinaigrette, $16.

* PIZZA WITH PATATE ARROSTITE: A big hitter named Bertolini’s surfaced at the Irvine Spectrum this year, bringing with it great pizza, good pastas and the best gelati around. Pizzas are baked in the restaurant’s white-oak-burning oven, and the best of them is papate arrostite, a deliciously thin-crusted pie topped with wood-roasted potatoes, rosemary and Gorgonzola cheese. It is a wonderful light supper before a movie, and it tastes like something you’d eat in the Tuscan hill country.

Bertolini’s, 45 Fortune Drive, Irvine. (714) 450-0600. Pizza with patate arrostite, $7.95.

* ROCK SHRIMP PANISSES: No one doubts that Michael Roberts is a fine chef, but in his big Orange County commercial venue, the flashy Twin Palms (where Cindy Costner is a majority owner), he isn’t on hand to do the cooking. When a dish hits in this Barnum-sized big top, it also may not stay around. Rock shrimp panisses are among a delicious array of appetizers the restaurant has experimented with, but are not on the menu at present. They are like the world’s best-tasting felafel, light, crisp garbanzo bean fritters laced with chopped shrimp.

Twin Palms, 630 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach. (714) 721-8288. Rock shrimp panisses, $5.25.

* SEA BASS WITH SHRIMP FUMET: Four days ago, the 18-seat Balboa Island wonder known as Andre Restaurant closed its doors. French-trained Vietnamese chef Andre Lechien prepared three of the best meals I ate anywhere on the planet in 1996, and his restaurant deserved a better fate. So you won’t be able to make a reservation for his magically light sea bass in a fragrant fumet redolent of sweet shrimp, but those lucky enough to have experienced it can still dream about it.

* BIGOS: We bid another fond farewell to Huntington Beach’s California Bistro, a California-Polish restaurant where Christopher Piotrowski spiced things up with the county’s best Eastern European cooking. The best of those dishes, which included a terrific beet borscht and fine stuffed cabbage, was the Polish hunter’s stew called bigos, a slow-simmered cabbage and potato casserole enriched with pork, beef, sausage and garlic. Piotrowski has gone back to the Midwest; we can only hope another Polish cook is waiting in the wings to fill the void.