Mariah TaugerLos Angeles TimesHayato
What has been my single most ex-
hilarating dining experience since moving
to Los Angeles? The answer is easy: Bran-
don Hayato Go’s seven-seat marvel in the
Row DTLA complex. For one seating five
nights a week, Go stands at the center of
the restaurant’s dining counter, wielding
chopsticks and knives to compose dishes of
profound beauty. He pulls inspiration from
the canonical structure of kaiseki: an em-
phasis on extreme seasonality, a show of
different techniques (fried, simmered,
grilled and so on), the use of ceramics that
harmonize with the shapes and textures of
the food. There will be soup as meditation;
there will be enough fish and rice as a sa-
vory finale to leave you wholly sated; there
will be surprises. On Fridays and Saturdays
only, Go also assembles exquisite
lunchtime bento boxes. Reservations for
dinner and the bentos go live a month in
advance; booking is a competitive sport
but entirely worth the effort.Apey Kade
“String hoppers,” thin rice flour noodles steamed into flat, lacy nests, is an Angli-
cized name for a dish known in Sri Lankan dialects as idiyappam. Ordering a plate of
them vegetarian-style brings sides of kiri hodi, a golden spiced coconut milk gravy;
pol sambol, a fluffy coconut condiment dyed peachy orange from red chiles; mallum, a
rotating vegetable, perhaps finely chopped kale with coconut, onion and lemon; and
coconut chutney dusky with chile powder. It’s my favorite introduction to the Sri Lankan
cooking of Niza Hashim, who runs the Tarzana restaurant with her husband, Lalith Rod-
rigo. Also try the crepe-like hoppers, or appam, made of a yeasted rice flour and coconut
milk batter, paired with the smoky and pleasantly sour fish curry.Joy
Vivian Ku’s Highland Park
charmer— the follow-up to her
debut, Silver Lake’s booming Pine
&Crane — is the 2019 paradigm of a
terrific neighborhood restaurant. A
general air of contentment lingers
in the dining room, inviting with its
familiar, edited scruff of brick walls
and knotty wood panels. Joy’s Tai-
wanese menu leans light and satis-
fying: cold salads like garlicky wood-
ear mushrooms and soy-braised
peanuts; shrimp wontons, lolling in
chicken and pork stock; sandwiches
built with plush sesame scallion
bread; Ku’s take on lu rou fan, a
dish of gently spiced pork sauce
over rice. The straightforward
pleasures carry right through to
dessert: Order the mochi rolled in
crushed peanut and black sesame,
a Hakka specialty.Northern Thai Food Club
“Nancy” Amphai Dunne cooks the dishes of her native Chiang
Rai, Thailand’s northernmost province. Meet her at the steam table,
the physical and spiritual center of her tiny Thai Town restaurant, to
best decide the direction of your meal. She’s constantly shuffling
ruddy, brothy stews animated by herbs and brimming with hunks of
pork or chicken; look for dishes like gaeng hung lay(sometimes also
phonetically spelled kaeng hang le), a pork belly curry fragrant with
tamarind and ginger whose flavors never stay still. Dunne’s recipe for
sai ua, Chiang Rai’s ubiquitous pork sausage, is also remarkable.
Dishes from the steam table include coconut curry noodle soup, pork sausages, stews and fish.Silvia RazgovaFor the TimesGently spiced minced pork over rice, above, and shrimp wonton soup, below.Mariah TaugerLos Angeles TimesWild Japanese sea bream and Hokkaido uni sashimi, left, and ichiban dashi, Dungeness crab in a cloudless broth, right.Mariah TaugerLos Angeles TimesDeviled chicken, which is served with a side of dried chiles and papadam chips.Silvia Razgova For the Times4
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L ATIMES.COM/FOOD THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019F3
The historic Formosa Cafe is back, and the cocktails are better than ever.
After a 2^1 ⁄ 2 -year closure and renovation, the longtime celebrity haunt reopened inJune with an updated menu and design. But it’s still the kind of Chinese restaurant your
Jewish grandmother would take you to on Christmas Day.
The drink selection leans tiki, and the clear front-runner is a cocktail called the YooMee Lee. It was inspired by the now-closed bar of thatname in Chinatown, where
co-owner Bobby Green salvaged a part of the bar and installed it as shelving under the
pagoda roof in the back of the Formosa.
The Yoo Mee Lee glows an electric teal, like the color of a friendly Disney moviemonster. But it’s not as sweet as the color might suggest. Instead, there’s a bitter wallop
of rum, courtesy of Rum-Bar White overproof rum and Clément Agricole. It’s rounded
out by the nuttiness of orgeat syrup and a hit of spice and vanilla from the crème de cacao.
Imagine your favorite tropical popsicle, melted and spiked with rum.
If you’re looking for a food pairing for this teal tipple, I suggest the egg rolls. And tomake it yourself at home, head to recipes.latimes.com.
—Jenn HarrisA tropical popsicle with a zing of rum
DRINK ME