Color it exotic: black rice

BLACK rice is turning up at restaurants all over town. Mark Gold, chef at Cafe Pinot in downtown L.A., serves Chinese black rice, sometimes referred to as forbidden rice or emperor’s rice, with duck breast, braised salsify and Asian pear. Chef Suzanne Goin uses a variety from Italy at both of her restaurants. At A.O.C. it is paired with duck confit, pea tendrils and glazed cherries. At Lucques, it is offered as a side with farro, a spelt-like grain. “It doesn’t taste like any other rice,” says Goin. “It has a perfumey, exotic flavor and a nice chewiness to it.”

Goin prepares the rice like a risotto, sauteing it with olive oil, diced white onion, thyme, chile and bay leaf, then adding white wine and water. “The way we cook it is totally unorthodox,” says Goin. “I made it up and I just got lucky. On the package it tells you to cook it like pasta and drain it.”

Hideyo Mitsuno, chef-owner of 2117 on Sawtelle, uses black rice from Thailand, also called purple sticky rice. “First of all, It’s very interesting-looking,” he says. “It also feels like a very powerful food that adds energy to a dish.” Mitsuno uses black rice as a bed for a whole, deep-fried soft-shell crab. “Customers love it,” he says. “A lot of people ask where they can get black rice. Once I found it at Trader Joe’s.”

Indeed, Trader Joe’s sells two kinds: one from Northern Italy called Venere and another from the Sacramento Valley called Black Japonica. The purple sticky rice can be purchased at most Thai markets, including Bangkok Market in Hollywood. Beware of the “serious stain problem on clothing and tablecloths when the rice is fresh-cooked and wet,” says that market’s owner, Jet Tila.

-- Leslee Komaiko

Small bites

* Franco Simplicio and Rodolfo Costella, the team behind Allegria and Moonshadows in Malibu and Ca’ del Sole in North Hollywood, have just opened their first place in the South Bay. Frascati, named after the dry, white Italian wine, is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Executive chef Soerke Peters, formerly at Ca’ del Sole, is turning out dishes such as tartara di tonno rosso (tuna tartare with capers, olives and anchovies) and mezzelune di zucca (half-moon-shaped pasta filled with pumpkin).

Frascati, 1800 S. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach, (310) 698-6700.

* A few weeks ago, Melisse, Josiah Citrin’s swanky Santa Monica restaurant, debuted a $20.03 three-course lunch special available Wednesday through Friday. Diners responded enthusiastically. This week, Citrin introduced equally enticing “Discovery” wine dinners, available Monday through Thursday through the summer. Priced at $65 per person, the dinners consist of four courses, each with wine pairings. Both lunch and dinner menus change from week to week. This week’s menu begins with a shellfish fricassee paired with a 2001 Dirler “Vieilles Vignes” Pinot Blanc, Alsace and ends with apricot brioche pudding and a glass of 2002 DeGiorgis Moscato d’Asti.

Melisse, 1104 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 395-0881.