If a theme has emerged in Los Angeles restaurants over the last several years, from Picca and Spice Table to Lukshon, A-Frame, Rivera and Corazon y Miel, it is the idea of Asian American and Latin American chefs trained in classical European kitchens, driven to reinterpret the tastes they grew up on through rigorous French technique. This isn't fusion food, which tends largely to be the application of Asian flavors to non-Asian dishes; this is chopped-and-channeled cooking designed to heighten the original sensations, a kind of reverse colonialism of the plate.The latest anti-fusion hero on the block is Tin Vuong, chef and owner of the Manhattan Beach restaurant Little Sister, who grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, worked his way up through grand hotel kitchens and has spent the last couple of years as chef at the well-regarded Hermosa Beach gastropub Abigaile.Vuong's beef tartare involves hand-chopped beef, pear, egg yolk and pine nuts in the manner of the Korean raw-beef dish yuk hwe, and a light dusting of Sichuan peppercorns, a flavoring most common in western China. It looks like an American steak tartare. There is a smear of bone marrow paste — French? You scoop it all up with cassava chips, which I associate with Indonesian grocery stores and Trader Joe's. And a torn mint leaf and hint of star anise in the assembled mouthful steers the dish at the end toward Vietnam, which is kind of a neat trick. In his own quiet way,and then they get to a stage where they are not sure of therock drilling tools
. Vuong wants to blow your mind.Little Sister is a happy, beachy restaurant next to Darren's and across the street from MB Post and Fishing With Dynamite, on what has become Manhattan Beach's restaurant row. It is a little dimly lighted, perhaps,GPs and community nurses are the prime audience Whey protein powder
. but buzzy and cheerful, with candles in Mason jars, Hitachino Nest on draft and a roomful of locals who have opinions on Garnacha. If you want to eavesdrop on awkward OkCupid dates, you could scarcely do better. It feels a little like UCLA Alumni Day in the dining room.But those scraps of verse stenciled onto the walls, if you have punk rock in your past, you may recognize them as lyrics from songs by Fugazi and Black Flag, the latter of which came from this neighborhood. The music pulsing just below the threshold of recognizability isn't generic electronica,but to social services such as Meals on Wheels Cheap Station Post Insulator for Sale
. it's gangsta rap, which was born in a Torrance recording studio also not far from here. If you find yourself in the restroom in the course of an evening, you'll notice that the fluttering butterflies painted on the walls are in the process of pulling the pin on a hand grenade.