Sandra Tsing Loh “The Sn Frode Vly ha ered othe pce fr mori fo Lat Rega ua PU top operon ae SL aor writer Sandra Tig Ll (32 shoul bao ‘een Lobe owe shout ws se call the eer ie hah he oie as mann rt he wa rc a Koh pn i ‘cathe enay elation Dh Tao Holy (199, te woologue ‘Alegre (197) he noel Yo ad a, Be a {1 ar aN ty of ee ge teling Tar Pres perhaps bt known for ber wey a Sommentay “Lah Leon Santa Mona ion KCRW, COMING HOME TO VAN NUYS can be hard sometimes, to come home to Van Nuys. Eapcilly ia LAX, when you've just n cornfields shiver under «ecb sy 7 So unk Alpert Parking ot Creal where Burg Kingll ‘is sucks up around your ankles and cows and rows of te automobiles sulk beneath an ely sun. You step ove a sash chelb bottle and suddenly you remember your lie: you're you're anonymous and you drive sity ear 4 ‘You thik about the senic drive ahead, dep ito the Gr ‘the sweltering Valley home of hundred King Bear Ato Cen 4 thousand Yoshinaya Deef Bows, and tea thaisand yard some conitng of no more than a couple of “Disco Lal” ‘Dang out on seabrous lawn like some kind of SOS. You wan lows your eyes and say, “Theres no place ike home” Bt, i _youar home. ‘On my at return to I-A. the mantra I pt to myself as ere the ero expanse of Parking Lt C; looking for my 1978 withits bad clutch, es: "What do ove ahout Van Naya? What do ove about Van Nuys?” Twenty minutes lier, when | Found the ‘at (in section 4) had an epiphany ‘Whats great about living Van Nuys that we uh. we have 4 breiy good variety of take-out. Mapbe that doen't sound lke ‘ch, but it's something they sure don't have in Miamesoce And besides, wet talking 2 whole world of takesot pons es, Myktchen drawers bursting wth menus that mut eve a Jnl onto my front porch nthe dad of nigh: Wain five mines ‘of ay house I can get atleast dose dllerent kinds of eth {ood including 100 percent authentic soul fond, That, Chine, Saleadoras, East Indian, Northern Klan, Spanish he chela ow Baroclona, not Mexico), larch Cun, Garman, and Japanese ‘Al yes. You're imagining the vivid cadences of eros lane tuages. The bustle of wonderfil bazaars and open-air marks fl of kiosks, and street cars, and Mapping geese, and bicgce be French guys with fea Baguctes rllrskating in Gene Kally ‘Pants, mariachi music an hoes cobbler from nth and a vers ‘ie man rom Tibet who can tell you everything aboot yal The problem, of course is that this yous mekng por doesn't Aoscrite Van Nuys a all, Walt Disney never made itover hee re redecorate The notion of “ethnic charm” is hoary eld Amerans lun from the seventies. There are few vibrant ethnic enleves a Valley what Ii’ tel youihat Fr each national Poe same, there i exactly one restaurant, One. Marooned by ill sty strip mall generally sandwiched between an X-rated video see, ‘anda Sally For Nai salon. Notall them do very well, The take-out places that do Nourish here are ones that dispense terre food at terrific sped, At one of my favorites Golan Reon, "ant he employees wear perpetual scowl as they hurl poppers so falafel into paper bags with deadly urgency. An the felle oe "Tht ‘oon Café another find doa mean-delivery clocking in some, thiog ike twelve minutes rom ther door omine-no dou hang ‘nocke down afew Domino’ delveryguye on the nay ‘More common are the ethno retairant that ae slomy dying ‘on the vine They have a certain lay sual Lean defy eh Ne ‘one seems to understand what there doing here. Ie the way” the Grd‘One example. About three years ago an Eaypsian restaurant pened ina sip wall nct far frm ber And T dont rem yoo ‘generic Middle Easternish Pita Hut chain. Lean Eytan Um not ture if thin place ever had a name. The location's previous take-out fenant was a Chicken Delight franchise and the sgn, Featuring a stated yellow bird, remained up fora while eventhough the Egy ‘ane dd’ sall chicken. Nor was there much eau for delight the place was always empty. You ould se the young cook throuah che ‘window iting by himselin an orange pai chain, making cis ‘atte reading the paper ‘About ewo months late, suddenly a crodelyletered sigh that, simply read X08 went up. Sill nothing: Soon afer. the manage rent decided to abandon the idea of using English at al: KANO came down, and energetic banners in Arabic ew up around che a 1 wa his point thas I relly became interested. (Vim che ‘wor kind of consumer: small income and exacting etandards. You have ta doa ltt get my attention because when {let goof salve dollars, [done doit lightly) Abu T thought. They're only comm nicatng with heir own people. Something realy fabulous must be fees ‘But stil the masses fied to lock Why ssa the Eaypian ‘community (wherever it was) catching onto this? An eager visit to the cestaurant revealed the anne The authentic Egyptian food ‘experience cured out t be an overpriced (paper) plate of stingy bef, natant rice, and runny tomatoes. Taree more delle exer _you a trip to the sla bar —Featring Lady Lee peas, which the ‘ook poured expressinlesly from the can. "They rade a gene ‘plterng sound ws they se into the copiosslad-ba vt ‘What iopres sane fll to locate halfway around the work! to the San Fernando Valley in order 9 feed bad foal on por place other own peopl? Perhap the chef relly did noe want bb nthe food industry at al. Pehaps hi ail pared nto Te my own Chines father ped me to bein arommatcal gl nee. (He believed I was destined shine inthe Advanced Tatil ‘Weapons Division at Hughes Aicalt Company. He was wang) Bat the take-out plac that makes me el the worst the one it the strip mall on my comer—the home of Raya India ve come Tenow the owner his name is Shah. Unfortunately, Fe ao come to know his roubles, Like many Idan reetaurans languishing inthe alle the foo i in-vedible: ther’ ch vindaloo, ik masala Tike re pints lamb sag debicately aromatic in its leaning metal dish The imei too, embarrassingly clan fora place flanked toy an AIL Nite quor tre. There are white tableloth, napkins tute in wineglasees like booguet and to bowed waiters who Speak in perfor move Brith accents. And it going ow of ‘oninces. kleine I want torte the owner a note ‘Dear Shab, Least afford pend reenyfive dollars con dinner every night, but [van to keep you in my eighborbood. You are cainary genius 1 wih 1 ‘oul help! a don't Intend, [slide another oven dinner ino the icro- ‘rave One block away, Sha peers ov of Royal Indias red cur Taina, watching for invisible ctomers on what ix called Victory Boulevard Up above him, «neon GOWN LAUNDRY sign bins on snd of