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What’s Hot and Cold and Red All Over?* |
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*You, after chasing Ba Ren’s stir-fried dried beef with a Tsingtao.
CRYING IN YOUR BEER may be unavoidable at Ba Ren, a Diane Avenue hot spot that serves possibly the zingiest Szechuan cuisine south of Los Angeles. From I-805, drive west observantly on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard about three or four stoplights, noting that each red light radiates a cautionary glow, as if signaling warnings like “Peligro!” and “Fools rush in” and “Think twice before ordering the fried fresh scallops with hot pepper.” As you hang a right at the final light, the crimson message “Okay, you asked for it” flashes briefly before fading to a deceptive green. There’s nothing chilly at Ba Ren except Tsingtao beer. Though white tablecloths deny it hole-in-the-wall status, booth seating can be lumpy, and the authentically no-nonsense service is sometimes annoyingly abrupt. Ba Ren is a Szechuan restaurant designed for patrons who understand and savor the cuisine, and the majority of the 303 menu items are marked with a chile pepper symbol that warns, “If you can’t stand the heat, order from the back page.” Headed “Americans’ Favorites,” this page lists nonthreatening items like sweet-and-sour shrimp and beef chow mein. Otherwise, aficionados of incendiary fare will feel like pigs in clover, especially when confronting dish No. 196, a stir-fry of dried beef, crunchy sprouts, mysterious seasonings and fire, and a sublime choreography of textures and flavors that must be experienced to be understood. A guest who returns often to swoon in its sizzling embrace has requested it both medium and mild (never “spicy”), but the dish always smolders with a handful of the dried peppers that turn up the gas under many Szechuan preparations. (Do not eat these peppers!) While mouthfuls of white rice are the traditional antidote, it’s a good idea to station a beer nearby.
MEN HAVE BEEN BITING DOGS ever since somebody tripped over the obvious ploy of sliding a frankfurter inside a fluffy bun. New York boasts of hot dog carts that feature garnishes such as sauerkraut, but Windy City blowhards insist Chicago dogs are best, and these are not people easily argued with. Frankly, the hot dogs buried beneath chili and chopped onions served at A&W (“Dog ’n’ Suds”) drive-ins throughout the Midwest were as good as it gets, at least as recalled by someone who hasn’t sunk his teeth into one for a couple of decades. Which brings us to Wolffy’s Place, subtitled A Chicago Eatery, the eponymous establishment of Bob Wolff, a former Chicagoan who, as owner of a railway engineering firm, assisted with the design of the San Diego Trolley. Finding retirement disagreeable, Wolff moved to San Diego and purchased Chicago On A Bun, a Golden Triangle hot doggery with notably good food. After expanding this business to three locations, near summer’s end he opened the somewhat dressier Wolffy’s Place at Ninth and Market. And while it’s a natural stop on the way to a game at Petco, it’s dandy at any time for well-dressed dogs (add chili for 50 cents) served with freshly made chips. Other Chicago specialties include “Italian beef” sandwiches drenched with savory juices, burgers and thin-crust and deep-dish pizzas. Wolff, who says his wife allows him three hot dogs per week, claims the big platters of ribs are his pride and joy.
NATHAN COULON finally has a menu he can call his own, some months after taking over the Ivy Hotel’s Quarter Kitchen from the mercurial Damon Gordon. Possessed of a quiet demeanor backed by a heavy whisk, Coulon has written a card that retains some of the extravagances required by the hotel’s owners but also includes such light, reasonably priced, thoroughly seductive dishes as mussels “SoCal style,” shellfish seethed in white wine and cream flavored with fennel and shallots. For fall, Coulon is serving cassoulet de Castelnaudary, a richly herbed casserole of white beans, pork, duck confit and smoked sausages that once starred at his grandparents’ revered restaurant, The Belgian Lion. He cooks 2009-style, too, with items like duck tacos drizzled with an apple-Japanese cucumber salsa, and smoked free-range chicken garnished with sweet potatoes, bacon and sautéed greens.
Side Dish
Still Driving the Corvette
IF THE SERVER HURRIES by the table to promise “I’ll be over after I dance ‘The Mashed Potato’ with the rest of the crew,” you’re at the Corvette Diner. The joint shook up Hillcrest for 20-odd years before moving in June to Liberty Station, the ertswhile Naval Training Center on Point Loma, where it occupies the 13,000-square-foot former Officers’ Club. Proprietors Lesley and David Cohn salvaged major décor items from the original Corvette and added more, and despite new accents from the 1960s, the place remains a bobby sox fantasy. Were it possible to transform the ’50s into a carbonated beverage and then shake the bottle hard, the resulting explosion would be the Corvette. The menu faithfully re-creates the Hillcrest list, including fabulous malts, shakes and sodas, which you’ll see being gratefully guzzled at nearly every table. $5.50 buys such deluxe malts as the Peppermint Twist and the CaraMel Tormé, but in keeping with the mores of the decade in which this “diner” spiritually resides, the Cha-Cha Chocolate, a steal at $4.49, is the model to order. Served in a tall, curvaceous goblet, swirled with whipped cream, dusted with chocolate sprinkles and surmounted by a coy candied cherry, the malt begs for a moment’s admiration. But most lips will seize on the straw immediately, and the rest is chocolate bliss—including the generous second helping served in the accompanying canister.
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