Gossiping Gourmet: Finally, Wokcano comes to Orange County

Wokcano is an Asian restaurant chain that has many branches in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, and one has finally come to Orange County.

The recently opened business in Huntington Beach has an extensive menu as well as take-out and delivery service.

An outdoor patio features a burning fire pit. Inside are soft lights and cement floors, a high ceiling, clean, simple lines, booths, nice wood tables and, as expected, several TVs. A long bar area faces an open kitchen.

The menu offers 16 categories with lots of choices. An additional menu at lunch has Chinese food and sushi.

If you want to start with something light, try the spicy seafood soup with fish, green mussels, shrimp and a Thai-style lemon grass broth. Or if you want a cold appetizer, consider seared salmon in white truffle oil with micro greens and pozu.

My companion and I began with the pork dumplings at the suggestion of our very pleasant waitress. Six dumplings were each wrapped in a thin, crispy crust and served with a light sweet sauce. They were excellent. You can get chicken or vegetable dumplings if you prefer.

We skipped the cold appetizers and went on to the hot appetizer listing. There are so many interesting items on the menus that we felt we had to choose carefully.

The Peking duck wrap featured well-seasoned strips of duck, bits of scallions, cucumbers, avocado and cilantro, all wrapped in lettuce. The finishing touch was the hoisin sauce. The dish was a very tasty mixture of meat and vegetables.

The baked crab rolls with spicy mayo were equally good, very fresh tasting, meaty and clean flavored, with a bit of a kick.

Our other choice from the roll offerings was spicy tuna with onions and avocado. This was our least favorite because the tuna was almost pulverized to a mushy texture.

Wokcano sushi rolls come in a small and a large sizes. Of course, the restaurant has California and Philadelphia rolls as well as several other varieties. The 13 different larger rolls include the Black Pearl with salmon, tuna, yellowtail and cream cheese, deep fried in tempura and topped with black sesame seeds and garlic butter.

From the seafood entrees, we selected the spicy garlic shrimp — a combination of very tasty shrimp with ground garlic, wok-tossed with broccoli, white onions, ginger and spicy soy sauce.

Grilled seabass, grilled salmon and white fish fillet, as well as three other shrimp dishes, are available too.

Last but not least was the Garlic Black Bean Pork Belly. This consisted of excellent crispy chunks of pork belly, very meaty without too much fat, all sautéed with garlic, bell peppers, jalapenos and ginger in a delicious black bean sauce. The jalapenos added the heat, and the ginger provided a subtle underpinning.

You will find a nice list of beef and pork dishes as well as six varieties of poultry, another of noodle dishes and yet another of rice.

Vegetarians will also find a column of vegetable side dishes, and vegans can go with the vegan kung pao chicken.

Wokcano has four desserts, and we chose the green tea ice cream, which I love. The presentation was pretty and inviting. A large ball of ice cream rested on a low mound of crunchy bits of something sweet, along with drizzles of red jam, blueberries, blackberries and a sliced strawberry, a nice refreshing finish to a spicy meal.

TERRY MARKOWITZ was in the gourmet food and catering business for 20 years. She can be reached for comments or questions at themarkos755@gmail.com.

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WOKCANO

Location: 7311 Edinger Ave., Huntington Beach

Hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily

Prices:

Appetizers: $2.50 to $14.95

Rolls and sushi: $2.50 to $17.95

Entrees: $12.95 to $24.95

Desserts:$6 to $7

Wine:

Bottles: $25 to $50

By the glass: $7 to 15

Corkage: $15

Information: wokcanorestaurant.com; (714) 892-1700