Message: | This question about "quintessential LA" is similar to the "visiting New Yorker" post below. In fact, it's perfect for illustrating something you can only get in LA.
For something on the high end, I would also recommend Spago Beverly Hills or Chinois on Main. Not so much for the food but more so for the icon behind the two places. In my opinion, Spago could probably survive as a tourist hotspot. The fact that it serves pretty darned good food doesn't hurt any. Do lunch in the garden for that laid back Californian feel.
Aside from Spago and Chinois, I would pretty much stay away from all other fine dining establishments in LA. Granted, I'm a fan of Patina, but honestly, better French food can be had elsewhere. That cal-french label is a moot point and something that you can experience at Spago or Chinois.
LA is without peer (in the continental US) when it comes to Asian food though. New York City, for all its trend-setting, has yet to hit upon Chinese ma-la hot pot and Taiwanese cuisine. The best Cantonese restaurants in NYC (including Pings) would buckle against the seasoned heavy-weights (and even the welter-weights for that matter) in LA. Having said that, I would recommend going to Rowland Heights for current trends (trends meaning evolution into the authentic and not trends meaning chinoisserie) in Cantonese and Taiwanese food. The demographics in Monterey Park and San Gabriel have shifted from Cantonese and Taiwanese to more Vietnamese and mainland Chinese. Having said that, those would be the places to go if you're looking for Vietnamese and regional Chinese cuisine. The exception would be "Yong He Tou Jiang" in San Gabriel (on New and Valley). That dingy hole in the wall is still a family favorite. And though the managers have opened 2 sister branches (one in Rowland Heights and the other just down the street), they have yet to achieve the soulful goodness of the original.
For dim sum, you must try Hong Kong Palace in Rowland Heights. Not only do they have stellar dim sum, but the lunch special there (an entirely different concept than that soup/salad choice of entree lunch special that one typically thinks of) that is out of this world. You can get some 50 or so dishes such as delicate deep fried been curd stuffed with aromatic fish paste, the best pan fried flounder on both coasts, and a sensuous platter of thinly sliced beef tendon and jellyfish (a heavenly combination that makes you wonder why we don't see it more often) for $3.95-$5.95.
For Cantonese seafood, Guangzhou Palace (on Nogales between Colima and the 60 Freeway) is unbeatable. The seafood menu a show stopper. Tanks of live seafood line the walls in the back. Must haves include fresh steamed live shrimp at something like $4/lb. My goodness, you have not had shrimp until you've tried these guys. I have yet to see this variety of shrimp available in NYC (which has just started to carry live prawns at $16/lb). The texture is a cross between shrimp and crawfish and the flesh is so sweet, you swear that the kitchen is boiling them in sugar. But the sweetness is oh so pure. Lobster (and dungeness crab) can be had at $7/lb for the Maine variety, and a little more for the spiny variety and it can be prepared in 3 different ways--with the well known ginger with scallions, with the inevitable XO, and my personal favorite, with gao tang (a slightly smoky soup stock) that caresses ever bit of perfectly sauteed lobster meat. Live scallops and baby abalone can be had at a small fortune, but again, they represent something that is better, and cheaper here in LA. There are also these large albino crabs that look like dungeness crabs, but the meat is slightly more delicate and perhaps even sweeter. I could go on and on, after being there a dozen times, I have yet to exhaust the menu and you get the point.
Finally, there is Chinese ma-la hot pot. The idea is similar to shabu-shabu but the ingredients that go into this boiling pot of broth are completely different. The broth itself is also entirely different. "Ma-la" in Chinese means "numbingly-hot". The broth is an aromatic beef broth spiked with enough chili powder to make it an ominous red color. For those not yet into food S&M;, you get a choice of mild/medium/hot. Be warned though, I love spicy food and have a pretty high threshold for pain, but medium is plenty hot (think pouring sweat 10 minutes into the meal). What most people do, is order the Ying-Yang pot which is a pot divided in half—-one side with the intense ma-la broth and the other side with the clear, non-spicy, traditional broth. This affords one the luxury of switching off to something more tame when your vision begins to blur. Now the ingredients. There is a huge list of ingredients that go into your traditional Chinese hot pot. Certain things such as thinly sliced sirloin, tofu, napa cabbage (which comes with the broth) are bare essentials. Other must haves include: fish cake, fish paste, shrimp dumplings, cellophane noodles (added at the end), shrimp, fish, fried tofu, goose intestines (crunchy and entirely amazing), pork blood...the list goes on and on. Certain things go better in the ma-la side and certain things can go in both. The tofu (which should be placed in early on so it has plenty of time to pick up the rich flavor), beef, and fish cake should be placed on the ma-la side. Others can go on either side. My favorite restaurant for this ritual is also in Rowland Heights. It’s visible from the 60 freeway and in the same plaza as Sam Woo’s. I don’t know the name of the place but it’s the red building near the Best Western. They do both teppan and ma-la hot pot there. Stick to the latter. |