The Find: Hoang Yen in Westminster serves up homestyle Vietnamese favorites

There's an unquestionable comfort in Hoang Yen's chao. The Vietnamese congee is a homey, hearty meal of rice boiled down until it takes on a consistency somewhere between that of oatmeal and Cream of Wheat. Even for those whose childhood memories revolve around grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, the porridge possesses an innate familiarity.

All of Hoang Yen's dishes share that fundamental comfort. Simple pleasures define the year-old restaurant, which replaced a Mexican eatery that was awkwardly grafted onto the backside of late-night standby Luc Dinh Ky. Hoang Yen's succinct menu of Vietnamese family classics better occupies the narrow space.

The Westminster restaurant is decidedly modern: deep blue tiles climb one wall as if to draw a high-water mark; a flat-screen TV recedes elegantly into the back of the dining room. It's a clean style cultivated by the Chau family, which runs Hoang Yen with a welcoming air. The result is an open and inclusive space where uniformed electricians lunch alongside young mothers, and businessmen pop in for takeout as they pass through Little Saigon.

To read the rest of Miles Clements story, click here.

Photo: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Mantee in Studio City, Lebanese-Armenian fare done right

Like a classic storybook bistro, with smart burgundy awnings, lacy curtains and flower boxes at the windows, Mantee exudes a warm and welcoming aura. So why is the small dining room so empty?

Because most diners at this diminutive Lebanese-Armenian restaurant are eating out back in the impossibly romantic leaf-shaded patio, where lush potted plants are massed in every corner under the golden light of Parisian-style iron street lamps. And the guests? They're partying like there's no tomorrow.

Laughter floats through the air. Tables are spread edge to edge with mezes and other small plates: the best hummus you've ever tasted scattered with sautéed pine nuts; stuffed grape leaves with garlicky yogurt sauce; muhammara, the spicy dip of crushed walnuts, pomegranate and Aleppo pepper; and plates of bubbling feta baked in tomato coulis.

It turns out Mantee has a bit of a pedigree. The proprietor's family owns several internationally known eating places in the Near East. The family's Beirut restaurant, Al Mayass (they are proud to tell you) made it onto Food & Wine magazine's prestigious "Go List" of outstanding recommended restaurants worldwide.

To read the rest of Linda Burum's story, click here.

Photo: Baguette rounds are topped with thinly sliced basturma and a quail egg. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Amalia's Restaurant in L.A.

Just north of the traffic-tangling intersection where Beverly, Temple, Virgil, Commonwealth and Silver Lake merge sits Amalia's Restaurant. Secreted away in a refurbished bungalow on a shady stretch of Virgil, it's a surprising oasis where Amalia Zuleta's longtime dream, one that began with her arrival from war-torn Guatemala in 1984, is finally being realized.

The little house has been opened up to create an airy dining room. There are fine wood tables, a modest chandelier over the long service bar and specialty herbs growing outside the kitchen. On the adjacent leaf-shaded patio, tables draped with Guatemalan weavings under glass give a hint of the cuisine's Mayan origins.

Zuleta owned a small catering company in her homeland, but here in Los Angeles, as a kitchen helper at Mi Guatemala, she made little use of her skills. Later, her talents blossomed as head cook at Rinconcito Guatemalteca. There she attracted a loyal clientele that followed her when, in 1995, she opened a simple cafe (not far from her current one), Antojitos Chapines Amalia's, which has since closed.

Those familiar with Guatemalan food won't find Amalia's menu unusual. It's Zuleta's elegant refinements, her talent for fine-tuning mole-like sauces and her selection of good ingredients that turn what is basically rustic cooking into an urbane cuisine that's a magnet for her longtime devotees.

To read the rest of Linda Burum's story, click here.

Photo: A chile relleno at Amalia's Restaurant. Credit: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Rio Brazil Cafe in Palms

The menu at Rio Brazil Café seems a relic of restaurant protocol, a vestigial document that exists only to fulfill standard expectations. There has to be a menu, right?

But on it are dishes that are hardly reflective of the Palms restaurant's best offerings. Rio Brazil Café is governed by the caprices of the kitchen, run by chef-owner Luciene Peck, who deftly cooks her way through Brazil's regional recipes. These don't always show up on the menu.

As a result, Rio Brazil Café can feel in flux. Even the restaurant's name is up for revision, as a recent change is yet to be reflected on the sign, cards and website that are all still emblazoned with the old Brazilian Exotic Foods moniker.

The only constant is the cafe itself: half a dozen tables, lime-green walls and a flat-screen TV broadcasting high-definition diversions.

There is a regular lineup of salads, sandwiches and wraps, but those only obscure Peck's Rio-bred talent. And though the menu lays out a schedule of daily specials, in reality, they may or may not be available -- each day's dishes can be confirmed only by asking.

To read the rest of Miles Clements story, click here.

Photo: This hearts of palm moqueca includes tomatoes, onions, peppers and coconut milk. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Zaatar Factory in Burbank

Sunny-side-up eggs with flowing yolks and house-made Lebanese beef sausage top the khachapuri at Zaatar Factory in Burbank.

Made to order and served warm from the bakery's oven, the boat-shaped flat bread with high-fluted edges has the look of a chalupa. Your topping choices can vary: cheese or sautéed potatoes instead of sausage, or any combination of these. However you order it, khachapuri ranks up there with eggs Benedict or a smoked salmon omelet as a luxurious morning meal (although this 8-month-old bake shop serves it any time of the day).

The tiny shop's repertoire, a mixture of flour, yeast and family baking tradition, is tightly focused on seasoned and stuffed Lebanese-style breads. Pastries, cakes and even basic breads are left to others.

"Baking is in our family's blood," Zaatar Factory co-owner Silva Haroun says as she stacks beef and mushroom-stuffed breads called burek into a sparkling new display case. "Back in Lebanon, our relatives have owned six shops like this one."

Although the Harouns have lived here since 1979, Zaatar Factory is their first foray into the food business. It took their 23-year-old daughter, Annemarie, to get the ball rolling.

To read the rest of Linda Burum's story, click here.

Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Bo De Tinh Tam Chay Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant in Westminster

Bo De Tinh Tam Chay is so serene it can transport you to a meditative state. The sound of trickling water flows through the dining room, a peaceful backing-track that blocks out the occasional clangs and whirs that erupt from the kitchen. A forest of fake bamboo surrounds the dining area, and Buddhas are placed throughout the room

The Westminster restaurant is not reserved about its Buddhism (the restaurant's name is derived from the sacred Bodhi tree, and Buddhist brochures and texts are strategically stationed near the doors), and with that comes a boundless menu of vegetarian Vietnamese cooking.

Although Bo De's Beach Boulevard branch is a mere 3 months old, the restaurant's roots are far deeper, having outgrown a long-standing location near the Asian Garden mall on Bolsa Avenue. There, the restaurant operates in a comparatively cramped space that, by virtue of both size and reputation, is constantly crowded.

That original location remains, but the second Bo De is even better -- the expansive Beach Boulevard restaurant brings all of Bo De's 100-plus meatless meals into a significantly more upscale and impressive setting.

To read the rest of Miles Clements' story, click here.

Photo: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Khybar Afghan restaurant in Reseda

"What about the kala pocha?" asks someone at our table at Khybar Afghan restaurant in Reseda. Our waiter, dressed in black track pants and a Nike soccer shirt, shakes his head. "You don't want that," he assures us. "It's for breakfast."

The soup, made with boiled lamb's head and feet and a few innards, would undeniably be an eye-opener.

But we decide instead on qabili palau, which our waiter says is "Afghanistan's most fabulous rice dish."

What else to get? The menu lists but doesn't describe the dishes offered (the regulars probably already know their favorites), but fortunately our waiter -- who we later discover is Khybar's owner, Mohammad Safdari -- gives detailed answers to even the most arcane cooking questions.

Which is a good thing, because, despite Afghanistan's present poverty, the country's cuisine is richly layered and complex, interweaving elements from its Persian, Indian and Chinese neighbors, who contributed centuries of culinary innovation via the Silk Road.

For the rest of Linda Burum's  story, click here.

Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Ning Jie in San Gabriel

You might feel a momentary sense of dislocation when you first stumble across Ning Jie, in the San Gabriel Mission District. Ning Jie is next to the centuries-old Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, in a preciously faux-adobe shopping district. It's probably the only place in San Gabriel you wouldn't expect to find a Chinese restaurant, but here it is -- a pure Beijing outlier, serving distinctive regional specialties and street food.

It's where owner Raymond Ning makes his rich lamb noodle soups, fragrant wine-filled fish casseroles, cumin-encrusted grilled quail eggs on a stick and the beefiest crispy pancake this side of Beijing.

Ning's is a small, clean, relaxed restaurant. The walls are covered with cat-themed decor. Ning cooks, and his wife, Shirley Xiang, runs the front, though a lot of late nights, it's just him.

He'll be smoking outside when you show up. He follows you in, takes your order, then wanders back into the kitchen and starts chopping and sizzling, bringing out the dishes one by one.

The skewers come out fast, listed under "B.B.Q." on the menu: all manner of meat, encrusted with cumin and chile powder, stuck on a stick, and grilled. There are crispy chicken wings, wonderfully crinkly, creamy mushrooms and more. Grilled quail eggs are firm on the outside and still gooey at the yolk. The best B.B.Q. item may be something called "chicken frame" -- a whole, small bird, chopped up into little bits for maximum nibbliness and covered in a second skin of toasted cumin.

For the full story by C. Thi Nguyen, click here.

Photo: An egg-and-spinach dish at Ning Jie. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

The Find: Michelle's Pancake in San Gabriel

No, this is not a story about breakfast food. It is a story about Chinese pancakes, which are distinctly different from the fluffy American variety that we so lovingly drench in sweet maple syrup. In this week's Find, Linda Burum describes them as "griddle-baked Chinese savories ranging from flat, crispy-edged breads and tiny stuffed pillows of handkerchief-thin sheets of dough to flaky rounds enclosing a meaty filling."

Being a savory girl myself, I think I might enjoy these better than regular pancakes. Michelle's Pancake's menu has 38 items and focuses on "specialties of northern China's wheat-eating tradition."

To read the full story with all its juicy details about "thick slabs of lean meat rimmed with a generous border of translucent, quivery fat that anoints every bite with smokiness," click here.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: A smoked pork and scallion pancake at Michelle's Pancake in San Gabriel. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

The Find: An Indonesian banquet, swathed in banana leaf

 

The nasi bungkus at Java Spice is a magnificent Indonesian meal, a picnic banquet swathed in fresh-cut banana leaf that looks something like a pregnant shoe box.

Inside are generous chunks of coconut-infused chicken,smoldering chile-laced beef rendang, brightly spiced jackfruit curry, chunky fish cake, tofu nuggets and a blazing scarlet sambal-topped egg. You can amplify the gentle heat with dabs of the volcano-hot fresh green sambal that’s tucked into one corner. Amazingly, the rice plateau underneath it all soaks up the luscious juices in a way that allows the flavors of each item to remain distinct.

Java Spice serves nasi bungkus only on Saturdays and Sundays, when the modest cafe -- a modern storefront in a typical sun-baked Rowland Heights mall -- can seem like some sort of reunion party. People greet one another with hugs. The happy chatter of multigenerational families fills the place and the occasional curious toddler will roam the room to check out other families. Read more here.

RECENT & RELATED

The Find: Your guide to dining off the beaten path

More L.A. Times restaurant reviews

Join us on Twitter @LATimesFood

Photo: Jamie Rector / For The Times