Winter Feasts

If you lived almost anywhere other than Southern California, you’d hunker down this month and stay inside by the fire, with a hearty stew simmering on the stove top and maybe some fresh-baked bread ready to come out of the oven.

They do such things in places like Minnesota, where the prairie winds blow in vast quantities of snow. In Southern California, winter means a little rain, nighttime temperatures in the 50s--and a host of restaurant owners eager to serve you some food.

What’s more, since some restaurants specialize in food recalling places where winter is serious business, you don’t have to stay home in January to enjoy the fruits of winter, if that’s not the wrong word.

Take, for example, the Taste of Scandinavia restaurant in Chatsworth and its sibling, the Taste of Scandinavia Smorgasbord in Woodland Hills.

Who, after all, knows more about winter than the Scandinavians?

Well, maybe some Greeks.

Phillip Boutakidis runs the restaurant in Chatsworth. His wife, Irene, his sister-in-law, Toula Alevras, and her son John Aleveas run the Woodland Hills place.

If you ask Phillip Boutakidis how folks from Greece came to run restaurants offering Scandinavian food, he laughs.

“That’s a good question,” he says. “My brother-in-law opened a Scandinavian restaurant in Burbank more than 30 years ago, so it’s because of him. We started this place together 18 years ago, and I bought him out eight years ago. He’s back in Greece.

“And actually we serve a mixture of food, a lot of it American dishes--baked chicken, fish, barbecued pepper steak, Swedish meatballs, soups--and we have a full salad bar and desserts like bread pudding, chocolate pudding and sundaes.

“It’s a big mix, and it’s all homemade; we don’t buy anything prepared here.”

The fare changes all the time, and Boutakidis serves everything from a buffet. Lunch goes for $4.50, dinner for $5.75, so you don’t have to spend a week’s wages to fill yourself up.

* Taste of Scandinavia, 21629 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, serves lunch and dinner Tues.-Sat., dinner all day Sunday. (818) 882-8200. Taste of Scandinavia Smorgasbord, 21136 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, serves lunch and dinner daily. (818) 348-1281.

As an alternative, you could pop in to Hortobagy Hungarian Restaurant in Studio City, where you can sample a wide range of hearty dishes not often found on Southern California menus.

Hortobagy was founded 38 years ago in downtown Los Angeles--long enough to qualify the place as the oldest Hungarian restaurant in Southern California.

Chef Laszlo Bossanyi, who comes from Kassa, a town in the north of Hungary, covers a wide range of items on his menu, including several new dishes:

* Chicken soup Ujhazi, a hearty chicken soup, chock-full of vegetables, named after the Hungarian actor Ede Ujhazi.

* Duck liver risotto, a classic dish from the menu of the great Budapest restaurant Gundel.

* Sauteed shrimp with paprika, dill and onion--another classic Gundel dish.

* Whitefish with a vinaigrette of lemon, tomato and dill.

* And a roasted cod fillet coated with beer and paprika and served on a bed of rice and vegetables.

Among the long list of Bossanyi’s long-standing entrees:

* Chicken with onions, green pepper and tomatoes in a paprika sauce, served with dumplings.

* A grilled chicken breast served on a mushroom ragout.

* Grilled garlic veal sausage with braised sweet and sour cabbage.

* A veal goulash with paprika and tomato, served with dumplings.

* Sauteed calf liver with onions and spices, served with potato.

* And even a breaded veal brain served with a vegetable risotto and a lemon tartar sauce.

Many of the dishes on Hortobagy’s menu go for less than $10; the most expensive tops out at $12.

* Hortobagy Hungarian Restaurant, 11138 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 980-2273.

Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or by fax at (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JH[email protected]