Hungry for Hungary?

This is officially the Year of the Pleasures of the Palate in food-obsessed Hungary. If you can’t make it to Budapest in 1999, though, try Laszlo’s Cuisine (at the former Hortobagy location), the Southland’s best Hungarian restaurant.

Laszlo is chef Laszlo Bossanyi, a chatty sort who had a restaurant at Washington Boulevard and Vermont Street back in the ‘70s. His rustic dining room is gladdened by carved wainscoting and primitivist Magyar folk paintings.

Traditional Hungarian cooking relies heavily on lard, which Bossanyi has replaced with heart-smart vegetable oil. Perhaps in compensation, the restaurant serves a Friday-through-Sunday goose menu, of which your internist might not approve.

But I do. You can get excellent crisp goose cracklings, creamy pa^te de foie gras, delicious braised goose leg and, best of all, a traditional roast goose with braised red cabbage and mashed potatoes.

Popular dishes here include gulyas, a beef-and-potato soup that’s blood red with paprika, and wienerschnitzel, a wafer-thin breaded veal medallion.

But those dishes, while nearly perfect, can be had at any Hungarian restaurant.

For something unique, try halaszle, a kettle of sea bass, chicken, noodles and vegetables in a light, sweet fish broth. It’s delicious, and probably disgustingly healthy.

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The best grilled dish is fatanyeros, a wooden platter of meats meant to be shared. (The menu says by two, but three or four is more like it.) It’s a foot-high stack of veal, pork, liver, sausage, mushrooms, potatoes and red cabbage, all good.

One of the menu’s best new dishes is kapros rakporkolt, something Laszlo has unabashedly copied from Hungary’s most celebrated restaurant, Gundel. It is giant prawns in a paprika, dill and onion sauce, served with a light vegetable risotto.

There’s a large selection of Hungarian wines--the quality of which has been improving by leaps and bounds. Where once the only Hungarian red you could find was Egri Bikaver, the Eger region now makes quite decent Cabernet Sauvignon. And don’t forget the light amber dessert wines from Tokaj, with their raisiny sweetness.

The best of the rich desserts are chestnut puree, a terrific cherry and walnut strudel and yeasty plum dumplings (szilvasgomboc), served hot. Think Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Austro-Hungarian Empire style.

Laszlo’s Cuisine, 11138 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 980-2273. Open 5-10 p.m. Monday, 11:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Beer and wine only. Parking in rear lot. All major credit cards. Dinner for two, $26-$39.

Suggested dishes: goose liver pa^te, $8.95; roast goose, $15.95; halaszle, $9.80; wooden platter for two, $24.95; kapros rakporkolt, $13.80.