Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 8:21 a.m.
As Las Vegas continues to grow as a city, our ethnic dining options increase apace. The constant influx of Asians from California has brought a new wave of Asian food choices in Las Vegas restaurants, and as an Asian food destination the city is narrowing the gap on such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Following are four restaurants that offer us something we haven't seen before, each one delightful in its own way.
Taste of Indonesia
5700 Spring Mountain Road
At last Las Vegas has a restaurant serving the exotic, mildly spiced cooking of Indonesia, a modest place with shiny lacquered tables and bamboo curtains. The restaurant belongs to Melania Gile, an Indonesian-born graduate of UNLV's Hotel and Restaurant School, and her husband, attorney Ryan Gile.
For those of you who haven't experienced it, Indonesian food is ex tremely diverse, because the country is an archipelago that stretches some 6,000 miles. As in most Asian countries, the staple of the diet is rice, but coconut milk, ginger, galangal (a mild relative of ginger), coriander and red chili figure prominently in Indonesian recipes throughout the country.
Several famous Indonesian dishes have found their way onto menus all over the world. The most famous one is probably satay, marinated, grilled meats such as beef, lamb, pork or shrimp, barbecued on skewers, accompanied by a spicy peanut sauce. Another is nasi goreng, Indonesian fried rice, chock full of chicken, shrimp and mild spices.
These and other dishes are done with skill here, and the prices are reasonable. The spicier entrees are marked with chili peppers. One is ayam bakar, grilled chicken on the bone crusted with coriander and red chili peppers. Another is rendang, beef that has been stewed in coconut milk and then braised until it takes on a dense, soft texture.
Shanghai Noon
3943 Spring Mountain Road
Shanghai Noon takes its name from a Jackie Chan spoof of the film "High Noon," and this is apropos, since the restaurant belongs to Chinese and American TV star Sammo Hung and his wife, Mina.
The menu is full of cold dishes, noodles and great dumpling variations. Try simmered beef pancake roll, which can be eaten like a wrap, and the delicious cucumber salad, a cold, crunchy snack that has enough garlic for a whole family.
Noodles, generally with a nice bite, come fried or submerged in giant soup bowls. One of the heartiest lunches is pork chop and noodle soup (no subterfuge there), and another is braised beef and noodle soup, flour noodles and big cubes of soft beef in a rich broth perfumed with five-spice seasoning.
Some dishes are well suited to being served over steamed white rice, such as spicy minced pork with preserved radish, a powerfully salty dish, and stir-fried beef with green onion.
One favorite is Hainan chicken rice, steamed, chopped chicken served over oil-anointed rice, eaten with bright green chutney made from scallion and garlic. Another winner is dumpling on fire, thick-skinned flour dumplings with minced pork filling in a sesame oil broth laced with hot chili.
Pak Indian Cafe
730 E. Flamingo Road
Las Vegas already has its share of Indian restaurants, but this one adds the cuisine of neighboring Pakistan, which is distinguished from that of India by the use of beef, among other things. Pakistanis, not being Hindu, have no restrictions when it comes to eating beef.
This small, friendly place belongs to Junaid Sheikh, formerly a chef at Aladdin. All the meats served here are halal, the equivalent of kosher for followers of the Islam faith. The quality of preparation is excellent, and these meats are spiced a bit differently from their counterparts in an Indian restaurant.
One of the most delicious items is seekh kebab, which are long, broiled cylinders of spiced ground beef.
The kebabs are served with a pair of chutneys, mint and cucumber, plus roasted tomatoes and chana (stewed garbanzo beans). Then there is Lahori kebab, chunky beef in the style of the city of Lahore, which is broiled in the restaurant's tandoor, or clay oven. The Lahori kebab is particularly hard to resist when eaten with hot naan, a flatbread also cooked in the tandoor.
Two more dishes not generally found in Indian restaurants are stewed mustard greens, which look similar to spinach but have a sharper flavor, and keema mattar, spiced ground beef that could pass for a Central Asian sloppy Joe.
J.J.'s Kitchen
4335 Spring Mountain Road
The cuisine of Taiwan differs from anything on mainland China because of the indigenous influence of the ethnic Ami people and the outside influence of the Japanese, who colonized the island for decades until being driven out during the '40s. That's why one specialty at this cafe is shabu-shabu, a Japanese-style hot pot.
The cafe is furnished with tables of blond wood, and the sound system features a wide variety of music, anything from Norah Jones to Chinese pop.
Nearly all the menu is written in a combination of Chinese characters and English. The owners are happy to translate specials, such as the wonderful salted radish flaky buns, or five-spice beef, which is served cold, cut into thin slices.
Noodles are a revelation here, especially dan dan mein, spaghetti-like noodles in a spicy peanut sauce that has more than 15 ingredients. Pork chop rice comes on a huge platter, a delicious, panko-breaded chop cut into manageable strips.
In Taiwan, where it can be unbearably hot and humid during the summer, crushed ice and fruit drinks (aka smoothies) are popular. J.J's does a mean lychee, peach, grape, plum and passion fruit smoothie, and there are more than a dozen other flavors to choose from.
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