For many people, the closest goat-related morsel they're willing to put in their mouths might be a little chevre on a toasted round.
Too bad. They're missing out on a hot new Southern California restaurant trend. No, not at the high-priced palaces of haute cuisine, but in places such as Hong Lien in Orange County, where a true gourmet's heart races at the sight of a menu with more than a dozen goat dishes, including charbroiled goat on a sizzling platter, goat in lemon sauce and warm goat salad.
For many local immigrants from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, goat meat--particularly when it comes from milder-tasting young animals--is their favorite comfort food. As their numbers grow, restaurants catering to them are attracting more adventurous diners.
Intrepid restaurant buffs are sampling goat dishes in Korean, Vietnamese and African places; they regard finding an unfamiliar goat specialty on par with discovering an exciting new genome. For example, word has spread that at Phong Dinh in Rosemead, there are eight goat dishes, including ground goat meat wrapped in \o7la\f7\o7 lot \f7leaves. The Ambala Dhaba restaurants in West Los Angeles and Artesia offer five richly seasoned goat dishes: grills, sautes and a pilaf-like \o7biryani\f7.
In Koreatown, Han Mi and Chin Go Gae serve marinated grilled goat and cooked-at-the-table goat casserole with greens and rice. Many other Korean restaurants offer goat soup, which is prized for its flavor and its purported ability to strengthen postpartum mothers and frail children and enhance virility.
The enormity of some immigrant populations allows restaurants to succeed by filling a particularly narrow niche. Regional Mexican goat preparations range from \o7birria\f7 to Oaxcan \o7barbacoa \f7bathed in a sauce thick with ground guajillo and ancho chiles at Monte Alban in West Los Angeles, where goat tacos \o7de barbacoa \f7also are a specialty.
A twist on Jamaican goat curry at Caribbean Tree House in Inglewood is a Trinidad and Tobago-style stew wrapped in roti bread like a burrito. Ashoka the Great, in Artesia, and a handful of other Indian restaurants make goat curry in the style of India's Punjab state, while Al Noor, in Lawndale, seasons its regional Punjabi curry in the Pakistani fashion.
At the Ecuadorean El Caserio in Silver Lake, owner William Velasco is finding appreciative new customers for his braised-in-lager \o7seco de chivo\f7, an Andean dish now served throughout Ecuador. "Friends introduce other friends and they love it."
