New To the List

iSanta Fe Station.For four and a half years, the faithful have been going to Santa Fe Station, just north of the Long Beach Airport and which supposedly goes through Hatch chiles the way McDonald’s goes through McNuggets. You will find fajita platters on the menu, and fried zucchini, and Cajun shrimp. Stacked enchiladas, tortillas piled on one another like LPs on an old phonograph spindle, are awash in chile and molten cheese, and garnished with a couple of fried eggs in case the bulk of the dish isn’t quite enough. But the green chili, a fairly magnificent bowl of earthy, pungent, roasted Hatch peppers, coarsely puréed, stewed down with pork and thinned with a little broth, and served with a couple of sopapillas, is the real stuff. The musky, gravylike red is fine in its way, but Santa Fe Station is all about the green. 4101 Lakewood Blvd., Lakewood, (562) 429-8700. Lunch and dinner, Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m.–10 p.m., Sat.–Sun. 7 a.m.–10 p.m. Beer and wine. Takeout. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. Food for two: $14–$30. New Mexican. JG $*

iSimpang Asia.With a huge selection of Japanese candy and boxes piled neatly to the ceiling, this small Indonesian grocery, with a Web site, is what I’d imagine a 7-Eleven in Sulawesi might look like: immaculate shelves of chile peanuts, dried squid and juice boxes of starfruit drink, kilo bags of fried shallots, and more flavors of instant noodles than you may have known existed. Neighborhood kids drop in, carefully counting dimes for their rations of Pocky sticks or Japanese bubblegum. UCLA students haul off caseloads of ramen. Simpang Asia is almost exotic in its nonexoticism. 10433 National Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 815-9075,www.veryasia.com. Lunch and dinner, Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m.–10 p.m., Sat.–Sun. 11 a.m.–10 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Lot parking. D, MC, V. Food for two: $10–$13. Indonesian.JG ¢*

iSushi Tenn. The basic sushi platters at Sushi Tenn are pretty good, and a decent value. The first pass at an omakase menu is also good (though quite expensive), a run through the selection of fish, including their extraordinarily mellow yellowtail, aged like a fine steak, the very decent chu-toro, tuna belly, and the crunchy, briny wedge of pale-yellow herring roe. But the crab sushi is probably the best I’ve ever had — a single, uninterrupted slab of meat laid across a faintly sweetened lozenge of warm sushi rice, no soy sauce, no yuzu, no wasabi, garnished only with a single lentil-sized glob of pea-green crab innards, possibly a sweet bit of liver, possibly the esteemed kanimiso, or crab brain. 2004 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 473-2388. Lunch Mon.–Fri. noon–2:30 p.m., dinner Mon.–Sat. 6–10 p.m. Beer, wine and sake. No takeout. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. Lunch for two: $20–$60; dinner for two: $50–$150 and up. Japanese. JG $$*

iLa 27th. The fritanga plate, in all its magnificence, is a crunchy tower of protein and shaved green bananas reaching almost halfway to heaven. You will find the well-marinated Nicaraguan-style carne asada on the plate, slivers of pork, and perhaps a few spareribs, rubbed with chile and deep-fried to a spurting crispness. At La 27th, a family-owned Nicaraguan restaurant, there are also chorizos, a skein of plump, peppery sausages that half encircle the plate like a retaining wall, the requisite pickled cabbage, and fried bricks of salty cheese that squeak like Wisconsin Cheddar curds when you bite into them. But La 27th’s fritanga is a formidable plate of food. 1830 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 387-2467. Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m.–10 p.m., Sat.–Sun. 8 a.m.–10 p.m. Beer and wine. Takeout. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. Food for two: $12–$22. Nicaraguan. JG $*