Presentation Is A Plus At Lynnwood Cafe

XX 1/2 Cafe 196, 5621 196th St, S.W., Lynnwood. Euro-Asian. Dinner ($11 to $25) 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Closed Monday. No lunch. Lounge, full bar. Major credit cards. Nonsmoking area. Reservations: 774-5701. --------------------------------------------------------------- East is East and West is West and the twain just met in Lynnwood.

Cafe 196 is an uncommon combination of two distinguished cooking traditions in a somewhat unlikely suburban setting. Self-described as "Euro-Asian," the restaurant is a sophisticated blend of European saucing techniques (mostly nouvelle cuisine French), American ingredients and Asian knife work and presentations.

It is pretty stuff - and it is pretty good. And it is not original, as you may already have guessed, to Lynnwood.

An intrinsic aspect of the original French "new cooking" was its Asian treatment of fresh vegetables - minimal cooking (and often minimal portions) and artistic presentation, as well as the use of reduced meat and vegetable stocks instead of heavy flour-and-butter-based rouxs as thickeners.

Executive chef Ralph Ronstadt, cousin to singer Linda, insists that: "The secret to this food is its sauces."

Cafe 196 has been open for exactly one week. I rarely visit restaurants that are still in their shakedown stage, but this one, frankly, caught my curiosity. Just what form of Euro-Asian concepts was chef Ronstadt playing with - and how well?

Very well, it turns out.

Installed in a cavernous space, Ronstadt has created a menu that is based on the pan-Pacific "Island Cuisine" of celebrated chef Roy Yamaguchi of Los Angeles and Honolulu, with whom Ronstadt, a native of Hawaii, worked for four years.

Thus, on the appetizer menu, we have Seafood Potstickers in a spicy lobster butter ($4.75) alongside Baby Back Pork Ribs Szechwan-style ($5.25); Blackened Ahi in a soy-mustard vinaigrette ($6.50) and Sea-Rock Dungeness Crab Cakes (also $6.95) in a spiced sesame butter.

I thought the potstickers were fine, if slightly tough, and the crab cakes - a bit overladen with minced red pepper - even better. An even more appealing starter is the Seafood Bisque "Cappuccino" Style ($2.95 with crab or shrimp; $3.95 with both).

Indeed, I found the bisque so appealing that I downed it with considerable gusto. It is served in a coffee cup with a swirl of cream on top. Unfortunately, in my enthusiasm, I spilled a drizzle of bisque on my cashmere scarf. Which is to say, I scarfed my bisque and bisqued my scarf.

"By using European techniques and sauces - which we start every morning at 6 a.m. - along with Asian ingredients and flavors," Ronstadt said, "we are creating a new direction in dining. The unusual variations follow no rules."

But they do follow a certain procedure. The master sauce is a heavily reduced mix of veal and chicken stocks, which are then combined with other flavor bases: red wine reduced to almost a jelly, mild curry sauces, saffron piquante, sun-dried tomato, chili-plum, etc.

The main elements (prawns, filets, scallops, and so forth) are quickly seared, sauteed or grilled, and just as rapidly sauced. Nothing takes more than a few minutes to cook, assemble and serve.

A heated plate of Grilled Mongolian-Style Lamb ($14.95) could not have been prettier. The tenderloin of lamb had been briefly marinated in a combination of teriyaki sauce and red current jelly, broiled to the rare side or medium rare, sliced on the diagonal, and arrayed across a saucing of tangy balsamic vinegar and rosemary.

Vegetables included a square of excellent scalloped potatoes au gratin (done with two cheeses) and chopped, mixed fresh herbs, julienned carrots, a floweret of broccoli and a round of yellow squash. The array was attractive but - frankly - could have been more generous.

The lamb, however, was ample - and perfect. The light, sweet touch of currant and the brief bite of soy gave the tenderloin a caramelized crust.

Seared Scallops ($14.50) were served over a mound of julienned vegetables, including green and yellow summer squashes and mild onions. They were robed in a mild cabernet butter and garnished with enoki mushrooms and sprigs of watercress, and accompanied by the same above listed vegetables.

A side dish of home-made angel-hair pasta with a sun-dried tomato-and-cream sauce was less impressive. The pasta was overcooked and the sauce underflavored.

The cabernet sauce (made from a rich sugar and red-wine reduction) was a little too sweet to fully complement the scallops - an impressive half pound of them. The conflict of flavors was interesting, but marginally confusing. A champagne or curry sauce might have suited the seafood better.

Mild curry butter certainly worked well with Asian Tiger Prawns ($12.95). Seven or eight of the prawns were quickly grilled ("We slightly undercook all of our seafood," Ronstadt said) and fanned out across a pond of creamy, herbed butter subtly touched with Indian spices. A more aggressive use of the curry would not have hurt.

Outstanding desserts are made by bake chef Kathy Buccarelli, wife of the chef de cuisine, Thomas Buccarelli. Try the light, fluffy chocolate mousse cake or the ginger-vanilla ice cream, richer than Daddy Warbucks.