99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die

When Nobu Matsuhisa's "new-style" sashimi first made its appearance, the preparation seemed almost barbaric — thinly sliced fish dribbled with a warmed, ponzu-laced blend of sesame and extra virgin olive oils. Nobody had ever heard of Italian crudo at that point — the tide of oil seemed antithetical to the soul of sashimi and the blast of garlic and ginger was overwhelming. Sashimi: ice-cold, end of story. But as is true with so many things, Matsuhisa proved his critics wrong. The Nobu brand name seems more resilient than that of Toyota or Sony these days. Matsuhisa, 129 N. La Cienega Blvd., Beverly Hills. ( 310) 659-9639.

You know the gnocchi on the Thursday menu of every trattoria in Rome? These are not those. There is a taste to centuries of inevitability — maybe it's in the spoons. But ricotta gnocchi follow salad at Angeli like green grass follows the rain, and although they only show up as an occasional special — if gnocchi were on the regular menu, nobody would ever order anything else — your chances of running across them are pretty good. You can get the gnocchi with tomato sauce, but there isn't a foodstuff in the world that doesn't taste better with brown butter and sage. Angeli Caffe, 7274 Melrose Ave., L.A. (323) 936-9086.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

The Kogi kalbi taco: really freaking good

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

Fab Dogs: when you want all of the flavor and none of the salmonella

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Casa Bianca Pizza Pie

1650 Colorado Blvd.
Eagle Rock, CA 90041

Category: Restaurant > Italian

Region: Northeast L.A.

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Nothing furnishes a room like books, they say. And nothing furnishes a party like a big, shiny roasted pig from the Filipino roasting house Eva's, plopped whole in the middle of the table. Men will fear you. Women will admire you. Your vegetarian friends will feel entirely justified in their contempt. Everybody wins. But the apple in its mouth is strictly up to you. Eva's Lechon, 4252 W. Third St., L.A. (213) 383-3179.

If you wanted to track the progress of Mexican cooking here in the last few years, you could do worse than look at the state of the tortilla — the phrase hecho a mano is now more of a starting point than an end in itself. But even within the world of handmade tortillas, the gradations of quality verge on the infinite, and as much as we appreciate the toasty examples from Los 5 Puntos, the chile-flavored ones from La Casita Mexicana and the brawny ones from Lenchita's in Pacoima, the delicate, fragrant, almost mousse-light discs from John Sedlar's restaurant Rivera, herbs and flowers pressed into them like wildflowers preserved in the pages of a diary, are tortillas raised to the level of haute cuisine. It is not accidental that Sedlar's tortillas are served as a separate course of their own, needing no more embellishment than perhaps a few grams of guacamole. Rivera, 1050 S. Flower St., dwntwn. (213) 749-1460.

Apple pie without the eel is like a kiss without the squeal — isn't that what they say in New England? Maybe not. Still, the combination, a regular on the post-Matsuhisian specials board at Wa Sushi, makes a certain sense when you think about it: a pairing of savory and sweet, melting richness and acidic fruit that is the basis of most of the foie gras or duck preparations you are likely to run across, and the warm, soft slabs of sea creature really do taste good laid across the pie. That said, if Wa is ever tempted to reimagine the dish with writhing masses of the baby eels Spaniards are so fond of, I am so out of there. Wa Sushi, 1106 N. La Cienega Blvd., No. 201, W. Hlywd. (310) 854-7285.

First off, this is a California interpretation of thin-crust Southside Chicago bar pizza, so if you didn't grow up rooting for the White Sox, back off: It doesn't resemble the pizza from Taconelli's or any place named Ray's because it's not supposed to, and it's cut into diamonds instead of slices because that's the way it's done. Secondly, you don't like canned mushrooms? Don't order it with mushrooms. You're offended by the idea of pineapple? Don't order the Hawaiian. The pasta isn't al dente? Go to one of those fancy places where the valet charge alone is more than the cost of feeding a family here. But if you're in the mood for dense, crunchy, chewy, half-burnt, family-cooked pizza with fried eggplant and homemade sausage, nothing even comes close. Casa Bianca, 1650 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock. (323) 256-9617.

A huarache, the definitive unit of Mexico City street food, is a flattish, concave trough of masa shaped like a size-12 sandal, pan-fried or deep-fried, then smeared with beans, sprinkled with meat and layered with lettuce, grated cheese and cream. Part of the fun is eating the thing — a huarache is too brawny to attack with a flimsy plastic fork, and you will either burn your fingers or wait for your lunch to cool into corn-flavored cement. Emily Post provides no guidelines for eating a huarache. You can have a huarache topped with almost anything, from the black corn fungus called huitlacoche to standard-issue steak, but I like it best with cabeza — rich, gelatinous meat pulled from a cow's head and cooked down into an ultraconcentrated essence of beef. El Huarache Azteca #1, 5225 York Blvd., Highland Park. (323) 478-9572.