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Poblano, Por Favor CEMITAS ANDREA on the corner of Fifth and Hawley streets, Santa Ana, (714) 984-9587.

Dazed and Enthused

BRIAN FEINZIMER

Huntington Beach’s Pacific Hideaway is fun, breezy, delicious

portfolio. There was a cinder-block wall and a colorful mural of a Frida Kahloesque figure covered in flowers painted on brick. We sat on metal chairs that screeched when we moved them. Most important, a series of windows let in the sunshine and capitalized on the view of the Huntington Beach Pier. The place felt less like a restaurant and more like a tropical beach-side shack where I could order an umbrella drink while in flip-flops. I read later that this third-floor eatery, which used to be Zimzala, was part of a $3 million revamp of the Shorebreak Hotel. The hotel also got a face-lift. Through it all, Zimzala’s chef, JT Walker, stuck around. Now seemingly free of constraints, he’s built a menu that’s nearly all Asian, Latin-inspired or a combination of both. We ate a refreshing amberjack crudo in a tangy aji Amarillo sauce that was almost a Peruvian tiradito. Mussels were steamed in a Thai red curry, lemongrass and coconut broth, hitting the sweet spot between tom kha gai and beef panang. There were also bulgogi tacos that nod to Kogi, and a tender fried calamari served with a chipotle-honey dipping sauce so perfect I can’t decide whether to call it Latin-inspired or just inspired. I also noticed that Walker seems to delight in lettuce wraps. There were no less than three dishes supplied with lettuce leaves to cradle the featured dish. The best might be the excellent housemade Lao sausage with crispy rice that has quickly become the restaurant’s most popular. But the most show-stopping menu item is the crispy snapper, which

comes in a huge tray with a mess of Vietnamese herbs, lettuce and a bowl of warm bún noodles. At $48, the snapper is the most expensive thing you can order. It’s meant for two, and when it arrives, it does so with more flair than the starring dish at a lavish Chinese wedding banquet. A whole snapper is fileted, the meat cut into chunks, covered in a light batter, and then deepfried along with its bony carcass and head that join it on the platter. If it sounds a little like Vietnamese cha cá thăng long, you’d be right, but only slightly. Just to prove he can, Walker serves his fish with a variety of banchan (yes, he calls it that), including homemade greenapple kimchi, an addictive Thai shreddedpapaya salad and cucumbers pickled in a nước chấm-esque sauce. Not content in just paying homage to three distinct Asian cultures in one swoop, he also blends a few more by mixing gochujang, Sriracha and chipotle together in a sauce that was supposed to be the fourth banchan. I didn’t like this sauce; it wasn’t working with the rest of the dish. But I stopped short of huffing, “What is this?” and “What’s it doing here?” like that “Dazed and Confused” dad from earlier in the evening. Instead, I rejoiced that the chef, like the bartender, had the huevos to do it. PACIFIC HIDEAWAY 500 Pacific Coast Hwy., Huntington Beach, (714) 965-4448; www.pacifichideawayhb. com. Open Sun.-Thurs., 7 a.m.-11 p.m.; Fri.Sat., 7 a.m.-midnight. Dinner for two, $50$75, food only. Full bar.

GARELLANO@OCWEEKLY.COM

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here was a commotion at the table nearest the hostess podium. A man, who was with his wife and young daughter, had just discovered a still-smoldering doobie on their table. And he wasn’t happy about it. I couldn’t hear what he said to the hostess, but I imagine it was something like “What is this?” and “What’s it doing here?” Cool and collected, the hostess explained that it came with the drink he ordered. It was clipped on the side of the glass, she said, and it must have fallen onto the table before he noticed it. He calmed down after that but still asked for her to take it away. The hostess obliged and apologized for the confusion. After things settled down, I went up to the hostess. “What drink was that?” I asked. “Oh, that was the ‘Dazed and Confused.’ It comes with a sage and oregano cigarette,” she explained. “The smoke is supposed to smell like . . .” She hesitated. “Pot?” I asked, finishing her sentence. “Yes,” she smiled sheepishly. “That’s brilliant!” And I meant that. It was my second visit to Pacific Hideaway in a week, and seeing that mock ganja garnish was just the latest in a string of surprises. This, after all, was a hotel restaurant. Before I went, I had expectations of bar burgers, chicken wings, flatbread pizzas—you know, the usual suspects. But as soon as I arrived, I realized I had it all wrong. Pacific Hideaway resembled nothing I’ve seen from the Hilton or Hyatt

By EDwin GoEi

bout 15 years ago, residents from the Mexican state of Puebla looked as if they’d become SanTana’s next big Mexican community. Restaurants around town went beyond mole poblano to offer regional specialties such as tacos placeros (the original breakfast tacos—pay attention, Austinites!), tacos árabes (a mestizo take on shawerma sandwiches) and cemitas poblanas, the greatest sandwich of them all. A cemita has crunch, zing, sweetness, heat and creaminess thanks to a specific lineup: a challah-like bread, freshly fried milanesa, chipotle peppers, avocados and Oaxacan cheese. But what syncs everything is pápalo, a leafy herb that tastes like tinfoil yet has a magical, refreshing quality that makes your hefty sandwich sit light on the panza. The poblanos never took hold like, say, michoacanos and chilangos. The food not only didn’t become a regular part of the SanTana diet, but it’s also almost completely gone from the city. That’s why I try to spend as much time as possible at Cemitas Andrea, a trailer in an industrial area of the city slated for gentrification—so visit ASAP. Its menu offers just quesadillas, cemitas, sandwiches and tostadas. But here is where you get the big, robust flavors that make poblanos renowned across Mexico and earned an eternal fan in Anthony Bourdain (he once said that his poblano line cooks and chefs over the years made “most [cooking school]-educated white boys look like clumsy, sniveling little punks”). A tostada of tinga de res (beef cooked in a chipotle sauce that stings) is massive, crunchy, juicy. Even better are the quesadillas—get the one with queso de panela, which finds cubes of the moist cheese slathered in crema and salsa verde folded into a spectacular, lightly fried, handmade corn tortilla. And while pambazos are technically from Mexico City, no one complains at Andrea because the salsa-soaked thing is muy grande and muy bueno. As for the cemitas themselves? The bread could be better, but the interplay of ingredients is perfect. Especially the milanesa, the best I’ve ever had in OC—as fluffy as tempura, as filling as a chicharrón and as endangered as the middle class. Go to Andrea’s now.

mo n th x x–x x , 2 014

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