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Le Jardin reopens 18 months after it was hit by fire



LE JARDIN


Address:

17431 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley


Phone:

(714) 593-6541


Open:

Lunch and dinner


Prices:

Entr & #233;e prices range from $8 to $21.95

One of our favorite little gems, Le Jardin, the Saigon-esque caf & #233; in Fountain Valley, has reopened after a devastating fire caused by lighting enveloped the strip mall it is in 18 months ago.

I am so pleased that it has reemerged as an updated vision of its old self. This is a typical small, beautiful society caf & #233; plucked from old Saigon. Owner Dong Nguyen is an architect who has also had some culinary training in French kitchens. His architectural commissions have included several classy restaurants. One day in 1997, he decided to design a restaurant of his own that represented the sophisticated yet engaging atmosphere he knew so well from his home country.

It was 1998 before we got our first glimpse of the charming French-Asian result. The lines are still clean and the colors soft. The large and tranquil bamboo garden still skirts the entrance, which now features a wall of glass allowing indoor and outdoor views to merge.

Woven chairs that imitate rattan, but are actually a modern new material that lends itself well to the genre, surround linen-napped tables. There are a few ethereal floating panels hanging from the ceiling mid-room with an enormous urn beneath holding an unusual, tiny-leafed tree that almost reaches to the ceiling. And, there are still the large vases of fresh flowers that are posed strikingly here and there.

Some of the food is very French, as it had been before, but there are those Asian accents that add dash and charisma to some dishes as well. A little pile of escargot are immersed in a parsley, butter and white wine combination that requires plenty of the crusty bread to soak up every last drop of the sauce. Delicious roasted pork is wrapped inside delicate rice paper.

Shrimp are steamed in fresh coconut essence. Strips of clam are sprinkled with spicy salt, grilled quail sits in a moat of juniper berry sauce with colorful cherry tomato and watercress salad around the edges. Scallops come with a dollop of Champagne-based sauce. And these are just the appetizers.

I am already staking out favorites from other categories on the menu, as well. You will have to rethink the definitive salad once you’ve encountered the multi-textured and toothsome green apple, lotus root and shrimp combination on its pretty plate.

In the best French tradition, soups are also stars. The French onion is rich and classic; cream of asparagus is smooth and elegant, and creamy lobster soup is dashed with good Cognac. The scallop soup in a fish stock studded with leek carrot makes a fine statement, too.

And there are those appealing entrees. The beef Burgundy stewed up in red wine with a hint of Cognac in the background is quite the satisfying country dish. Skewered shrimp marinated in basil sauce and served over basil flavored noodles make a good summer-style dish.

In the past I could hardly pass up another try at the veal shank cassoulet and that urge has returned now that I have my seat at the table again. I once described this as the most interesting version of cassoulet ever encountered. The shank is simmered very slowly in a brace of fresh herbs, smoked ham, wine and stock. When it nears the falling-of-the-bone stage, lima beans and bits of fresh tomato finish off the dish.

If you like sweet and sour dishes of the Asian persuasion, the stir-fried shrimp and calamari is a nice combo. But listen, you are not a certified good traveler in France unless you have eaten pork with prunes and red wine sauce. Save the fare and have the pork chops here that sport all the flavor components that make the dish a classic.

The curry chicken is very lightly flavored with a creamy curry sauce and I love the choice you get with it: either French baguette or rice, both of which pick up all that sauce nicely. The giant prawns with mango puree are not to be missed. Yet other considerations: orange-flavored chicken with couscous, chicken with lemon grass essence, sea bass topped with foie gras, bouillabaisse, halibut with red pepper butter and New York steak with mashed potatoes.

In short, all the flavors and feelings that made this a darling of the media and the public before are still there.

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