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Try Pie--Northern Chinese Style

Fistfuls of oozy goodness. That's what you get at the Beijing Pie House in Monterey Park.

Don't drop in clueless, expecting Mom's apple pie or Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. These are northern Chinese pies, big round packages of golden dough filled with meat and vegetables. The only sweet pie, if you must have one, contains sweetened sesame paste. 

That's a lamb pie at the top. It's number one on the menu, indicating either it's the most popular or else the most expensive. Still, for $7.99 you get four pies, which shows how reasonable the prices are.

Packed with finely minced meat, the lamb pie tastes pretty gamy.  If you want milder flavor, try the leek and pork pie (above). The dozen pies on the menu all contain meat except for a couple of vegetable options and a leek and egg pie.

Order a couple of these, then explore the rest of the menu.  The beef roll (above) is really tasty. The filling is marinated meat, onions, cilantro and hoisin sauce. 

The fried dumplings are just as good. The pork, shrimp and leek dumplings in the photo above were to me as appealing as the pies. The crunchy stuff that oozed out (at the right) was almost the best part. You'll want to dip these in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and hot chile, all of which are on the table.

To relieve all the meatiness, order a couple of sides such as crunchy cold pickled vegetables or tofu with green onions and thousand year eggs (above). 

You could drop in just for a bowl of wonton soup, but pies are the main thing, dripping with savory juices and brought to the table so hot the menu warns you to be cautious. Otherwise, you could end up with a blistered tongue. 

Beijing Pie House, 846 E. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park, CA 91755. Tel: (626) 288-3818. 

Copenhagen Pastry Hosts a Party

If Christmas makes you think of Scandinavia (it does me, because I'm part Danish), the place to be today was Copenhagen Pastry's annual holiday party.

The bakery's small sunny parking lot in Culver City (at top) was crowded with people and kids eating wonderful, buttery Danish treats.

Owner Karen Hansen (above) handed out cookies in the buffet line. The assortment included crackly crisp ginger cookies, orange cookies partly frosted with chocolate, plain vanilla rings and thin, crisp cinnamon cookies, each so good that I wouldn't have blamed anyone for sneaking through the line a second time.

First up on the buffet was the bakery's own nutty, delicious rye bread, sliced thin and topped with havarti cheese or nutella. (You didn't have to choose. You could have both.)

And then that quintessential Danish pastry kringle (above), cut into generous slices.

Here's how a fully loaded plate looked. 

The party was  breakfast, with orange juice and coffee. If the line for the buffet was long, so was the line inside the bakery. One taste of Danish baked goods like these, and you wouldn't forgive yourself if you didn't buy some to take home.

Copenhagen Pastry, 11113 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232. Tel: (310) 839-8900.

South African Food, Wine Come to L.A.

Sosaties, roosterbrood, Boerewors--this isn't the sort of food you find in Los Angeles, and it was here for only a day, when the Wines of South Africa--USA Brai Tour made a stop at Raleigh Studios.

This was such a rare happening that tickets were sold out, and people were turned away at the gate. Too bad for them.

Those that got in filled up on barbecue--that's the meaning of brai--including sosaties (kebabs), grilled sausages (Boerewors) and grilled breads (roosterbrood), accompanied by chutneys, salads and plenty of wine.  

Chicken sosaties (above) were strung with apricots, onion and red pepper, marinated in a curry sauce and served with a curry grain salad. Spicy flavors like these appeared in dish after dish, showing the influence of the Cape Malays--Indonesians whose ancestors were brought to South Africa as slaves. 

The chef for the tour, Hugo Uys, was born in Johannesburg but now lives in New York. He travels with a battery of spices, many of them for Asian/Indian cooking. There he is at the top, directing work on the grills. 

Uys adapts what he cooks to each tour stop. For Los Angeles, the third stop, he turned ostrich meat into tacos complete with avocado, tomato and cilantro (above). 

Cape Malay seasoned sweet potato frites (above) tasted of cinnamon, ground chili and possibly a touch of curry.  

These little grilled rolls, or roosterbrood, were stuffed with fig, lemon and chili jam. They were served alongside grilled peri peri shrimp in a California green salad with a lemon, ginger and honey dressing.  

Here is another version of roosterbrood--grilled cheese sandwiches to eat with a citrus-raisin chutney.  

The Boerewors--beef sausages with a tomato-onion sauce (above)--were next to a light carrot and fruit salad.  Plates of South African cured beef (biltong) and sausages were also set out.  

And how could there not be a South African favorite, malva pudding, for dessert?  More like a cake than a pudding in the version above, it contained cut-up figs and, as Chef Uys admitted, a lot of brandy. The topping was crumbled candied nuts and whipped cream.

But this was a wine tasting, not just a place to eat. An all-over impression from the wines poured is that South African wines are friendly, easy to drink and good matches for California food. 

There were Chenin Blancs and Sauvignon Blancs that would be perfect for warm weather sipping or with Asian food. A stand-out was Mullineux Family Wines' barrel-fermented White Blend 2012. The grapes in the blend are Chenin Blanc, Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Viognier. 

The most attention-getting wine was Pinotage. This is not a blend, as in meritage, but the name of South Africa's signature red wine grape, bred from Pinot Noir and Cinsault. The 2009 from Aaldering Vineyards and Wines (at left above) is an elegant example. Whether one can find these wines at local shops is another matter.

Judging by the price list, they're affordable. A man pouring at one table observed that for the price of a single bottle of Napa red, he could buy a whole case of decent South African wine.

A Rare Filipino Night at Maximiliano

The sign high over Maximiliano in Huntington Park says "pizza," but not adobo, lechon, lumpiang or guinataan.

Yet these are what chef-owner Andre Guerrero was cooking the other night--a modern Filipino dinner based on the food he has known since childhood.

Born in the Philippines, Guerrero agreed to cook for an event arranged by Culinary Escort, a dining-out and party organization run by a Filipina, Marian Bacol-Uba.

Drawing on memories of his mother's cooking, he added new twists and contemporary techniques to five of his favorite dishes. 

Kinilaw, a sort of Filipino ceviche (at top), came out with a jaunty, chewy rice cake on top and slim radish slices around it. The fish was yellowtail, marinated with homemade vinegar and calamansi juice. "I''ve lightened it up a little bit and presented it in a different way," Guerrero said.

Then on to lumpiang Shanghai, tender, crisp spring rolls filled with shrimp and pork and accompanied by a sweet dipping sauce (above). "This is the dish everybody associates with Filipino food," Guerrero said. And he left it as is--"nothing innovative," as he said, because how could you improve anything that is already perfect?

Next up was guinataan (above), a luxurious stew of shrimp and kabocha sqaush in coconut milk. Years ago, Guerrero made this for a party celebrating his sister Monique's birthday. And Monique was on hand to eat it again. You can see what I wrote about her birthday party and get the recipe at this link.

Guerrero turned innovative with chicken adobo (above), the classic dish of meat cooked with soy sauce, vinegar and garlic. Dumping tradition, he deconstructed the chicken, cooked it sous vide and presented it as roulades topped with a thin crisp flake of the skin.

"I've taken a lot of liberty here in calling it chicken adobo," he admitted. But he followed his mom's tradition by serving on the side fresh chopped pico de gallo with patis (fish sauce) and a salted duck egg.

Next came porchetta--well no, lechon (suckling pig) dressed up like porchetta with a wrap of fatty pork belly. (above). "You won't find lechon like this in any Filipino restaurant," Guerrero said.  However, he kept the traditional liver sauce intact.

Then pastry chef Jan Purdy took over with dessert--ube flan with dots of blueberry sauce and a coconut sauce that contained tiny tapioca pearls (above). Crossed over the top were pastry "chopsticks" filled with almond frangipane. 

Guerrero (above) is often asked if he will open a Filipino restaurant. "The food is so soulful, I don't really know how to interpret it in a restaurant," he said.  That's an overly modest statement considering how well he did with a one-night stand.