Barbara Hansen

There’s just one place where you can get genuine South Indian food served in the traditional way, on a banana leaf. That place is Southern Spice in Lawndale. ...

Guess what you’ll find at Commerson? Really good Mexican food. Don’t go expecting a Mexican restaurant, though. Commerson’s food is typically Californian, with a farm-to-table approach. You might not even notice the Mexican dishes, because there are so few. Each is a gem, though, thanks to executive chef Sal Garcia....

Imagine you’re in a cozy mountain cabin in Lebanon, eating delicious home-cooked food. But you don’t have to imagine this. You can experience it right here, at the Beirut Café in Burbank. Step inside and you are in a wood-paneled room with just seven tables. The owners are Joelle and Jimmy Awad, siblings from Faraya, a mountain village in northern Lebanon. Jimmy Awad is the chef. Joelle Awad runs the front of the house and takes over the kitchen when her brother is away. A prep cook is their only helper....

The place to taste new-wave Peruvian food is Los Balcones, which has just opened in Studio City. The menu is loaded with striking, creative and colorful dishes thanks to consulting chef Ricardo Zarate, who has promoted high-level Peruvian cuisine in Los Angeles since 2009, when he opened Mo-chica in the Mercado La Paloma....

In Artesia, Pioneer Boulevard is the place to go for weekend biryani, sweets and snacks, the latest styles from India, expensive gold jewelry, threading salons, tulsi plants, freshly made paan and any Indian spice you could need. Los Angeles has such a street too — it's Venice Boulevard, starting at Main Street in Culver City and heading three miles west...

If you want edgy Indian food, head to the north end of downtown L.A. and Kapoor’s Akbar Indian restaurant. It’s on Cesar E. Chavez Avenue in a complex that once housed a Walmart. Open since March, Akbar downtown is putting out fun dishes for a young crowd, targeting students in the nearby Orsini apartments and anyone who wants something other than tandoori chicken, saag paneer and garlic naan, although these standards are on the menu, too....

Hyderabad is the biryani capital of India, home to the finest examples of this sumptuous meat and rice dish. It’s in south India, co-capital of the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. And Canoga Park? You could call it Hyderabad East, thanks to the opening of Grand Bawarchi last December. The owners are three guys from Hyderabad: Manohar Aedma, Sudheer Pendekanti and Shravan Maddela....

There isn’t a clue, not on the sign outside or on the menu, that Oasis is Jordanian — the only Jordanian restaurant in Los Angeles. Chef/owner Ahmad Abulfeilat explains that most people have no idea what Jordanian food is and are not likely to take a chance on something they don’t know....

This crispy Vietnamese crepe isn’t hard to find. It’s in Vietnamese restaurants all over Westminster, in the San Gabriel Valley and elsewhere. And it’s eaten throughout Vietnam, from north to south. But this is its first appearance in the La Brea restaurant corridor, introduced by Nong Lá Vietnamese Cafe July 14 in a version that you may not find elsewhere....

Menudo isn't the only Mexican hangover remedy. The next time you have a cruda, head for Aro Latin in South Pasadena and ask for salmon-belly soup. It's a surefire cure from Apatzingán, Michoacán, hometown of Grecia Gomez and Teresa Tinoco, the Aro chefs who worked out the recipe. In Apatzingán,......