Fusion, Food and Fortune
7475 Beverly Blvd. (between Fairfax and La Brea)
Phone: 323-931-8588 | map | website

Buddha's Belly has sat on Beverly for the past half-dozen years, calmly meditating and projecting its logo onto the brick building next door. It maintains a cool and celebrity-attracting demeanor, yet isn't overly expensive*. The outside has a bamboo-walled patio, exotic and private; the interior is subtly lit with warm, even colors. The kitchen is open to view. Black-clad waitstaff, young and convivial, dart from table to table.

We tend to avoid Asian fusion, but were dressed well that evening and had the opportunity to drop by. We found the food ambrosial. Bianca enjoyed the two-beet salad, almost sashimi-like in texture, in a balsamic vinegar and soy reduction, with tofu cream cheese atop to gentle it. Far better visually and gastronomically than it sounds. She followed up with an elegantly rich Thai-style seafood curry soup, light on the gingergrass. I had the huge plate of Ginger Fried Rice, thick with sirloin steak, shrimp, shiitake mushrooms, and squares of red onion and red pepper wonderfully blackened around the edges. They don't skimp on the shrimp either, not for a dish that isn't much over ten dollars.

The winner of the OMG category was that night's special appetizer, the tonkatsu bao: a marriage of Japanese pork loin, perfectly fried, in a pillowy steamed Chinese bun, with tiny stems of lettuce and a miso spread. Serious nom nom nom, and we still dream of it. Bianca could eat it daily for lunch, and would probably stab me in the hand if I tried to pilfer some of it.

The sake list is small but carefully chosen; the Ai San San junmai is fruity and light, but as we like drier sakes we followed up with the simple Hakutsuru ginjo. I always like to order iced green tea when it's possible, and Buddha's Belly offers an organic one, very thin and subtle. There are also herbal tonics, hot or iced, if you want to charge yourself.

There's a new location in Santa Monica. Those Santa Monicans... always stealing our Asian fusion.

* Not per dish, anyway. We left unhungry with an eighty-dollar tab for two, and that's with two small bottles of sake.