Appetite for Flamenco

Haleh and Allen Adel’s Pasion Restaurant and Supper Club in Studio City has begun offering a weekly evening of flamenco dancing featuring the Los Angeles ensemble Mojacar.

Mojacar performs Mondays starting at 7:30 p.m. with an open invitation for diners to join the performance--and a lesson for those who need it.

Michel Aytekin, the restaurant’s new executive chef, recently overhauled the menu and offers a Monday-night seafood paella special for $25.

Elsewhere on his new menu are veal medallions with mushrooms in a Madeira sauce, a salmon filet with a dill sauce, a grilled Chilean sea bass with leeks and a roasted red pepper sauce, a lamb steak marinated with thyme and garlic, and a grilled veal chop with roasted peppers and sun-dried tomatoes.

Prices range from $16.95 to $24.95 with one exception--a dish featuring tournedos of beef and Hawaiian shrimp in a red wine sauce with peppercorns, for $29.95.

“This is Michel’s first revision, and the menu is totally new,” Allen Adel says.

“We make continental dishes with a hint of California cuisine, but on Monday nights there is a special menu with the paella.”

Pasion Restaurant and Supper Club is upstairs in the Times Square Mall at 12215 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, (818) 752-7333.

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Check out the upcoming Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation, an annual fund-raiser to benefit the hungry, if you want to sample the wares of some of the best restaurants in the San Fernando Valley.

Scheduled for May 17 on a lot at Universal Studios, in Universal City, the event will feature dishes from at least nine good Valley-area restaurants--Crocodile Cafe in Pasadena, McCormick & Schmick’s in Pasadena, Mi Piace in Burbank, the Tam O’Shanter Inn in the Los Feliz area, Posto in Sherman Oaks, Tommy Tang’s in Pasadena, the Parkway Grill in Pasadena, Twin Palms in Pasadena, and Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Woodland Hills.

And after you sample what those restaurants have to offer, you can finish up with a bit of Dandy Don’s Gourmet Homemade Ice Cream, made by Don Whittemore of Van Nuys--one of the very best ice creams you can get.

Tickets are $65, and all proceeds go to anti-hunger organizations supported by Share Our Strength. For details, phone the House of Blues, (213) 848-5100.

* Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at JHovey@compuserve.com.