The Best of Counter Intelligence
The Other Continental Cuisine
While the contributions of South America to world culture may include the magical realist novel, Che's groovy beret and Lambada: The Forbidden Dance, the continent's role in world cuisine has gone largely unremarked. Without South America, there would be no potatoes or tomatoes; Thai food would still be seasoned with black pepper. Chewing gum, chocolate and purple-corn pudding would be unheard of. So would empanadas, ceviche and some of the best restaurants in L.A. As Ronald Reagan once said, "You'd be surprised. They're all individual countries down there."
Cafe Brasil
Mostly, you'll find grilled animals at Cafe Brasil: pork chops, lamb chops, steak, shrimp and fish, all profoundly salty and resonant with garlic, charred at the edges, fragrant with citrus and a little overcooked. Even the vegetarian plate, which consists mostly of various slivered squashes sauteed with vast quantities of garlic, has the belly-filling quality of Big Meat. With all this protein comes what seems like a truckload of rice glistening with oil, a couple of sweet fried plantains, spicy black beans and a bowl of "Cajun-spiced" bean soup. And Cafe Brasil, it almost goes without saying, serves wonderful feijoada, less offal-intensive than some versions but meat-fragrant in the best possible way, served with the traditional garnishes of fried yucca flour, herbed salsa and well-garlicked shreds of sauteed bitter greens. 10831 Venice Blvd.; (310) 837-8957. Open daily 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $14-$26. Takeout. No alcohol. BYOB. Lot parking. ATM, MC, V.
Location Info
Map
Cafe Brasil
10831 Venice Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Category: Bars and Clubs
Region: West L.A.
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Cali Viejo
7363 Van Nuys Blvd.
Van Nuys, CA 91405
Category: Restaurant > Colombian
Region: San Fernando Valley
Restaurant Ecuatoriano El Caserio
309 N. Virgil Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90004-3623
Category: Restaurant > South American
Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park
La Fonda Antioquena
4903 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029-3731
Category: Restaurant > Latin
Region: Hollywood
Carlito's Gardel
7963 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Category: Restaurant > Argentine
Region: Hollywood
El Pollo Inka
15400 Hawthorne Blvd.
Lawndale, CA 90260
Category: Restaurant > Fast Food
Region: South Bay
Rincon Chileno (Chile)
4354 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
Category: Restaurant > Chilean
Region: Hollywood
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More About
Cali Viejo
Come here for the picada, and come hungry: This is one huge ceramic platter heaped with grilled lengths of thumb-width Colombian chorizo, peppery nubs of fried beef, pungent blood sausage, crisp chunks of fried pork, and the peculiar though typical Colombian chicharrones, which are more or less grids of crisply fried pork fat anchored to sweet, ultrachewy pigskin. Garnishing the meat are green plantains that have been pounded down to approximately the size and thickness of a 3x5 card and fried to a shattering crunch, also lengths of slightly riper fried plantain, a few slices of tomato and chunks of fried cassava good enough to make you remember why yucca fries were so popular a few years ago. And though the picada is ostensibly served for one, the $10 platter will probably serve three, augmented by an order of the wonderful corn-crusted empanadas or a batter-fried plantain stuffed with cheese. 7363 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys; (818) 994-2930. Open Sun.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Dinner for two, food only, $12-$18. No alcohol. Lot parking. ATM, AE, CB, D, DC, MC, V.
El Caserio
The cornerstone of the Ecuadorian kitchen is the fresh-chile sauce aji (pronounced ah-hee), whose tart, fiery taste accents Ecuadorian dishes the way the taste of smoked chiles sparks Mexican food and the saltiness of fish sauce does Thai. El Caserio's aji is spicier than most, juiced up with onion and fresh tomato, one of the best salsas imaginable, spooned straight over big, puffy white-cheese empanadas, or over the fresh-corn tamales called humitas. There is a spicy, wonderful goat stew, sweet and concentrated; a similar stew of chicken; a nice version of the Peruvian dish lomo saltado, which involves strips of beef sauteed with onions and French fries; and a fine lentil stew, menestra, served with a thin grilled steak. The shrimp dish sango de camarones revolves around a strange, thick sauce made with green plantains and peanut butter - probably unlike anything you have eaten before. 309 N. Virgil Ave.; (213) 664-9266. Open Thurs.-Tues. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Dinner for two, food only, $12-$18. No alcohol. Takeout. Lot parking. MC, V.
If the waiter likes you, he may persuade you to order his favorite Colombian soda pop, Manzana, which tastes a little like fresh apples. If you don't understand something, he'll pull out a Xeroxed crib sheet explaining that saucocho is oxtail stew, and that bandeja is a traditional Colombian cowboy's platter of broiled steak, rice and arepa, topped with a fried egg and a strip of fried pig's hide, which the crib sheet calls "bacon (Colombian Style)." He'll insist that you order the small fried turnovers, empanadas, and you should! If you prefer meat grilled, you might consider the Ave Maria, which comes with just about everything else: a thin, plate-size marinated steak, tasting strongly of the grill; a dense, spicy chorizo; a dinner salad with a strong vinaigrette; a thick, smoky pinto-bean stew (awesome!); fried plantains; rice; arepa; and the inevitable strip of pigskin. 4903 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 957-5164. Open Mon.-Thurs. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Dinner for two, food only, $15-$25. Beer and wine. Parking in rear. MC, V.
Carlito's Gardel
The most famous dish here must be the baked-garlic appetizer, a naked halved bulb on a plate, ready to pulp onto the house's quite decent bread. There's also melted provolone cheese, laced with tomatoes and pungent Mexican oregano, for eating with the almost Vermont-style Argentine crackers in the bread baskets here, and an appetizer of butter-smooth roasted red peppers just brushed with garlic and oil. The fried squid are the tender, delicate kind, hardly crunchy, tasting more of the sea than they do of oil. Still and all, as with almost any Argentine restaurant, Gardel revolves around its parrillada, a cavalcade of grilled meats - sweetbreads, blood sausage, skirt steak, short ribs, Italian sausage - served on a smoking iron grill, accompanied only by a small bowl of well-garlicked chimichurri and a large plate of mashed potatoes. And the meat is just fine, juicier than you would ever expect such well-done meat to be, full of flavor, overwheming in its variety. 7963 Melrose Ave.; (213) 655-0891. Open Mon.-Fri. for lunch, seven days for dinner. Dinner for two, food only, $25-$45. Beer and wine. Live music. AE, D, MC, V.
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