Choice Morsels
I ate extremely well in 1997, as I have during each of the nine years I have been reviewing Valley restaurants for this newspaper.
In the past, it has been the practice to profile the top 10 restaurants of the previous year, but this time out, we are doing something different. There has been so little movement at the top over the years that the editors and I decided it might be a better idea to write instead about the 10 best dishes.
In fact, this format makes greater sense. Even the best of our restaurants have only a handful of dishes that truly excel, and the overwhelming majority of restaurants out there, sad to say, have no excellent dishes at all. So without further ado, and in no particular pecking order, here are my 10 best dishes of 1997, plus a few pertinent facts about them.
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1. Anta kali kebab
Mihran Ghadanian is a Lebanese Armenian who learned to cook when he was a small child. His modest Tarzana restaurant, Mihran’s, combines the sensibilities of his two native cultures, expressed through a flawless, sensual interpretation of Middle Eastern cooking.
Mihran is a master of the marinade and the grill. His meats are just about perfect, charred, juicy and infused with flavor. Anta kali kebab is named for the ancient city of Antioch, and just about everyone who eats at Mihran’s orders it.
The dish is composed of a giant cylinder of exquisitely peppery minced beef smothered in parsley, chopped tomato and sliced onions. The whole shebang is crowned with wedges of grilled pita bread, which turn reddish brown absorbing spicy juices from the meat.
* Mihran’s, 19560 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana; (818) 342-2290. Anta kali kebab, $8.
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2. Bigos.
A small deli named Krakus specializes in Polish comfort foods, such as borscht, (spelled barszcz in Polish,) the meat-filled dumplings called pirogi, and all manner of smoked meats and sausages, most of which are sold either by the piece or the pound.
The best dish at Krakus, and a remarkable bargain to boot, is bigos, a back-of-the stove stew that I first ate in the dining car of a Polish train lumbering between cities.
It is a hearty bowlful loaded with scraps of leftover sausage, beef, pork and a mildly seasoned sauerkraut. The only way to cook it is the way it is prepared here, very slowly. This bigos is redolent of caraway and garlic. One bowlful should keep you warm for an entire afternoon.
* Krakus, 16226 Parthenia St., North Hills; (818) 893-9122. Bigos, $3.50.
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3. Figs, dates, Manchego cheese, arugula and pistachio oil.
Pinot Bistro is one of the restaurants that would merit an honorary membership to the now defunct top 10 list. Under the tutelage of chef-owner Joachim Splichal, the gifted chef Octavio Becerra is always coming up with new creations, most of them seasonally inspired.
The winter menu introduced a salad that can only be described as magical. The combination of fresh figs, long pieces of chopped dates and the pungent, Parmesan-like Spanish import called Manchego with mildly bitter arugula and subtly smoky pistachio oil teases four of the five senses. Now if they could only get it to sing.
* Pinot Bistro, 12969 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; (818) 990-0500. Figs, dates, Manchego cheese, arugula and pistachio oil, $7.25.
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4. Shrimp and scallop fricadelle.
Bistro by the Water was the most surprising restaurant experience of 1997. It is owned by Japan-born Masao Itakura and his American wife, Heather. I’d describe the cuisine as Pacific Rim eccentric, with distinct touches of Japan permeating all sorts of dishes.
Itakura’s shrimp and scallop fricadelle is a hot appetizer that showcases his many talents as a chef. It is rather like a crab cake gone ethereally light and delicate, and here it is served with a puree of peas and a nicely tart vinegar sauce. The only drawback is that it is tiny. Like all things ethereal, it leaves you with a feeling of longing, in this case simply for more of it.
* Bistro by the Water, 860 Hampshire Road, Westlake. (805) 381-0094. Shrimp and scallop fricadelle, part of a prix fixe menu the restaurant serves for $19.50 Friday and Saturday only.
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5. Sauteed mushrooms.
The restaurant business is a fickle mistress. Just when it looks like retro is finally about to disappear, it comes back with a mighty vengeance.
That is good fortune for Steak Joynt. Half the place is your basic neighborhood watering hole; the other half serves USDA Choice beef cooked on a char-broiler--good roll-up-the-sleeves fare.
The best dish here, hands down, is sauteed mushrooms. What you get is a casserole of plump, perfectly cooked whole mushrooms glistening from a reduction of butter, garlic, rendered beef fat and sherry wine, plus a rich garlic cheese toast, a combination good enough to make Choice meat taste as good as Prime.
* Steak Joynt, 4354 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood; (818) 761-9899. Sauteed mushrooms, $6.95.
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6. Za-atar.
At Blue Pyramid in Glendale, you’ll dine under a real sumac tree, next to walls plastered with paper murals depicting the colorful seacoast of the eastern Mediterranean.
The cuisine here is an amalgam of Lebanese, Moroccan, French and Greek, but my favorite thing the restaurant serves is a complimentary appetizer called za-atar. You will mix it yourself from a red powder made from ground sumac berries, an herb mixture of wild thyme, oregano and sesame seeds, binding the mixture with fruity green olive oil. Smear on the restaurant’s hot, fluffy pita bread, and you’ll feel that, yes, the best things in life are still free.
* Blue Pyramid, 1000 E. Broadway, Glendale; (818) 548-1000. Za-atar, complimentary with meals.
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7. Raviolo of lumache and porcini mushroom.
The Valley is blessed to have Luciano Pellegrini, who I consider to be the most gifted Italian chef in the Southland. His restaurant, Posto, is an elegant stop notable for a fine wine list, sleek modern decor, service that approaches fawning and spectacularly rustic Italian cooking.
Pellegrini loves to produce specials like pheasant stuffed with chestnuts, Asian-inspired carpacios of swordfish or black bass and wonderful risotti, but he positively knocked me out with a dish that I’d never have ordered without a waiter’s insistence.
His raviolo is a large, egg yellow pasta pillow, with a smoky, savory filling intensified by the penetrating flavor of snails. And it is so light, you won’t even know you are eating a pasta.
* Posto, 14928 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; (818) 784-4400. Raviolo of lumache and porcini mushroom, $13 (appetizer,) $16 (entree.)
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8. Cajun seafood gumbo.
The ever-expanding Cafe N’Awlins is the restaurant chiefly responsible for the revitalization of the dining scene in downtown Burbank. Louisiana-born chef Mark Antoine Foster has a name straight from Central Casting, and the touch of a poet behind the range. His menu is expanding along with the seating capacity. Recently, he has added a spate of new dishes.
Foster’s remarkable Cajun seafood gumbo is still the raison d’etre. It’s tinted the color of cafe au lait from a slowly browned roux, and chock full of shrimp, shredded crab meat and spicy Cajun hot sausage. It’s also sneaky hot, and often thick enough to stand a spoon in.
* Cafe N’Awlins, 122 N. San Fernando Road, Burbank; (818) 563-3569. Cajun seafood gumbo, $4.
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9. Braised lamb shanks.
Lamb shanks used to be a humble, hard-to-find item, but the ‘90s has seen them rise considerably in stature. The best place in the Valley to find them is probably Le Petit Bistro, the restaurant on the site that was home to Jean’s Blue Room, from the Truman administration until mid-1997.
This is a distinctively colorful up-market looking place, but the food is solidly working class--sausages, duck leg confit, steak frites. The lamb shanks are as good as they are for a simple reason: When it comes to braising, no other cuisine can match the French. The dish is a meltingly tender piece of meat that has been cooked in red wine and spices, nestling on a bed of fluffy couscous. What could be a better cold-weather supper?
* Le Petit Bistro, 13360 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 501-7999. Braised lamb shanks, $11.50.
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10. Tah dig.
Piyaleh is a charming Persian restaurant with decor that could almost pass for Tuscan: burlap curtains, a stone floor and wicker dining chairs. The food is served on colorful stoneware, making it daringly atypical of a restaurant of this genre.
Tah dig is the great bargain dish at Piyaleh. It looks rather like a well-done order of hash browns, but it is actually a layer of rice cooked crisp and golden brown in an iron pot. What makes this tah dig really special is the option of having it topped with any one of the Persian-style stews the kitchen has prepared that day. It is best topped with gheimeh--lamb and yellow split peas perfumed with dried lime.
* Piyaleh, 15030 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; (818) 783-9119. Tah dig, $2.95