• EAT: You won't find much mystery on the menu at Mama Fu's, a pan-Asian noodle house in Hollywood. We've seen most of these dishes before, either at the neighborhood Chinese or Thai place or at the chain bistros.

But there's still something different about a place that has the woks sizzling in an open kitchen and where the vast majority of the dishes are about $8.

Mama Fu's is a hybrid -- not quite fast food, not quite gourmet. The place is built for takeout, with a menu on the wall and a worker at the counter ready to take your order. The versatile offerings allow you to name your own meal with chicken, beef, shrimp, tofu or veggies. After waiting for about 30 minutes, we hauled home a variety of appetizers and noodle dishes, covering Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Vietnamese styles.

We started off with lettuce wraps, plucking stacked iceberg leaves from a plastic bag and filling the cool cups with a mixture of minced tofu, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnuts and scallions. We squirted on some accompanying sauce, from a cup mysteriously labled ``chicken wrap,'' to give it some needed juice. But be forewarned: Check your wrap for holes to avoid the indignity of filling your lap with what is supposed to be in your lettuce.

The seared ahi tuna appetizer came as six slices of semi-raw sesame-encrusted fish over a bed of spinach leaves and Asian slaw. Alongside, we munched from a container of edamame beans (don't forget to pop the succulent soybeans from the leather-like pods or you'll be spitting into a napkin).

A main course of lo mein was basic and filling, with flavorful but tough beef chunks. Another entree, ginger-chicken broccoli, came with a choice of white or brown rice. Nice touch. Vietnamese crunchy noodles, clumped and a bit bland, were saved by seasoned carrots, string beans, red peppers and mushrooms placed in the middle of the nest. Pad thai blossomed with layers of seductive noodles sprinkled with peanuts and topped with slices of flavorful, meaty tofu and a lime wedge. If you're looking to fire up the mellow mix, you'll need to ask for some heat or add your own.

Have no fears about leaving out a distasteful ingredient. Bean sprouts make you go ``eww?'' Mama Fu's can easily keep anything out of the wok.

• DRINK: With Asian food? Try sake, which is on the menu and served chilled or warm.

• WATCH: The Good Earth, the award-winning 1937 film about a Chinese farmer determined to survive from the food on his land.

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