MONTEREY PARK’S TOP 10: A GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE KINGDOM

Monterey Park is the new “middle kingdom,” as the Chinese call their homeland. Over the past few years, this sleepy suburb has turned into a paradise for eaters. Its provinces are Alhambra and San Gabriel, and together they boast hundreds of quality Chinese restaurants. The competition among them is fierce.

Deciding which restaurant to eat in isn’t easy--especially if you are not Chinese. For the best of these places share one unifying flaw: They tend to strut their best stuff for the local community, leaving serious Western eaters to the heartbreak of pan-fried noodles.

If you want to go on beyond egg rolls, here are some restaurants that will accommodate your appetite. Chefs move around a great deal and new places are opening at a furious pace, but at the moment (and with apologies to the wonderful restaurants I couldn’t include), these are my 10 favorite Monterey Park restaurants. If none of these will satisfy you, there’s a flight to Hong Kong leaving any minute.

Wonder is a gastronomic temple, a Chinese version of Paul Bocuse. In three short years, under the steady guidance of Tony Lai, Wonder has developed into a world-class restaurant.

The plain, dimly lit dining room is festooned with endless banners that inform the enlightened ones (those who can read Chinese), of their seasonal specials.

One of their best dishes is a snake soup made from cobra, chicken and dried scallop. It’s beyond description, the kind of dish people travel great distances to experience, with legendary powers as an aphrodisiac. Another amazing dish is fat tiu cheong , which means “Buddha jumped over the wall” (because he smelled the soup, and it smelled so delicious). This stew that serves 10 contains abalone, conch, soft-shell turtle and a host of other ingredients.

Many other dishes beckon: succulent fresh giant scallops from one of the tanks in the front, abalone and duck hot pot, sizzling crystal shrimp in rice wine, and a can’t-miss English menu. If you want one of the live fish (ask for lobster and they will bring it past your table on the way to the pot), be sure and ask which dishes are cooked with them; there are tanks filled with live shrimp, which go into some of the dishes, but others are made with the more ordinary sort.

You can ask Ricky Wu, a young waiter, for his guidance through this wonderland of delights. Still, this is one place where a Chinese friend is helpful. If you haven’t got one, rent one.

Wonder Seafood restaurant, 2505 W. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, (818) 308-0259. Open daily 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Limited parking. Visa and MasterCard. Dinner for two, $20-$50.

Should Wonder loosen its grip a bit, Sam World is ready to move into the top spot. This restaurant has it all--an expert owner-chef named Ho Hon, a tightly run dining room marshaled by Ho’s wife, and a great location, the busy corner of Monterey Park’s Atlantic Boulevard and Garvey Avenue, home to about 24 Chinese restaurants. Sam World is always packed, and that should tell you something.

Eating here is inspiring. Food always arrive at the table hot, and they never rush you through your meal. Barbecued tripe, which you’ll find on the menu as “pig intestine with daily special,” arrives sweet and crispy. Beef balls with seasoned vegetable is a Hakka specialty, owner Ho’s home region, and the dish has a crunchy texture and a saucy bite. Chinese beer is its perfect complement.

Other dishes dazzle: sizzling oysters, with caramelized ginger and onion sticking to the pan, clams in black bean and the zesty, mildly sweet duck with orange flavor, as close to classical French as you’ll find in the Chinese repertoire. As they say in the Guide Michelin, “vaut le voyage . “

Sam World restaurant, 715 W. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park, (818) 289-9898. Open daily 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Cash only. Dinner for two, $20-$35.

Jumbo was the first live seafood restaurant in this area, and owner Ricky Wong is still on top of the latest trends. He has built up a loyal following, the dining room is usually overbooked, so come early, especially on weekends.

The restaurant has recently been remodeled. What was once a drab, crowded dining room has been transformed into a pale pastel green room with widely spaced tables. The kitchen, however, has been left unchanged, and what comes out of it continues to be wonderful.

Batter-fried soft-shell crabs, which taste as if they had been plucked from the ocean minutes before preparation, are a bargain at four for $6. Goose feet in clay pot comes bubbling to the table, perfumed with star anise and garnished with spinach, straw mushrooms and fresh bamboo. (It tastes a lot better than it sounds.)

The most sumptuous Chinese dish I know of is a Jumbo specialty, sweet shrimp with crispy walnut. It’s a banquet dish, garnished with homemade mayonnaise (the Chinese claim that the French borrowed the sauce from them). If you’re lucky, Ricky will also let you order subgum seafood wrap, minced seafood with plum sauce rolled up in a lettuce leaf and eaten taco-style.

Jumbo, 203 W. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, (818) 289-9908. Open daily: lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner 5-10 p.m. Some parking. Visa and MasterCard. Dinner for two, $20-$40.

A Shanghainese cafe, 3-6-9 features dim sum and cold dishes of remarkable quality. At lunch, when the variety of fresh buns and dumplings is greatest, you can sample their best wares. Virtually anything wrapped in pastry is a wonder.

The cafe is plain, clean as a whistle and remarkably reasonable. Charming waitresses encourage you toward the unusual, like braised tofu with black mushroom, and those addictive cold plates: chili-sauce cucumber, wine chicken, cubed salty pork and beef with star anise.

Dumplings are a triumph. Try the soup-filled steamed dumplings, vegetable bao and the sublime golden chives vol-au-vent . Many other dishes are also made with surprising finesse, like the “spicy fried intestine” that turns out to be tripe stuffed with spring onions, mysteriously cooked to a golden crunchiness and carved and presented in delicate slices on a bed of lettuce. Pork ribs with rice crumbs are served in a bamboo steamer on a bed of chestnut and squash; at $2.95, they are better than 90% of the $25 entrees on the Westside. No wonder I can’t get my Chinese friend to Chinois.

3-6-9, 1277 E. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, (818) 281-9261. Cash only. Parking in lot. Open Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-9.p.m., Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Lunch for two, $8-$15.

This place has been lionized by the critics, one of whom even referred to it as “the class act of L.A. Chinese restaurants.” That’s stretching it, but not much. Dragon Regency deserves high marks, but not for its solid, dependable cooking alone. It is one of the few authentic Chinese restaurants that extends itself to the Western diner, and that makes us feel welcome and comfortable.

The atmosphere is pleasant, with pink tablecloths and understated lighting, and the waiters are gentle and patient. Every dish is translated, even a special menu addition, so the options are all yours, not the waiter’s.

Choices run from a crispy double pleasure sole, complete with crackling fried bones, to herbed wild duck soup with tree worm added for medicinal purposes. Dragon Regency has fine dim sum, unusually fresh seafood and a very welcoming air.

Dragon Regency, 120 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, (818) 282-1089. Parking in lot. All major cards. Open 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Dinner for two, $20-$50.

I love the Fragrant Vegetable. It’s a relaxing, aesthetic experience and a welcome change from the bustle of most Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately, much of the Chinese community does not agree with me; the local residents want richer foods when they dine out. It’s their loss.

Most Chinese who eat here are Buddhists, for owner S. T. Cheung was trained in Zen temple cooking. This is strictly vegetarian, and the creativity is astounding.

Consider the following: Buddha’s cushions (fried and steamed tofu stuffed with black moss), curried vegetable treasure in coconut milk (spicy, sensuous, and a meal in itself), fresh and dried mushrooms with stewed melon (paradise for mushroom lovers).

On the weekends, vegetarian dim sum are featured. Some of the dishes are so successful it’s hard to believe you aren’t eating meat. Desserts are light years beyond those in conventional Chinese restaurants. Try the walnut pudding.

Fragrant Vegetable, 108 N. Garfield Ave., Monterey Park, (818) 280-4215. Parking in lot. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Open Sun.-Thur. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Dinner for two, $20-$40.

Shanghai House, an attractive plant-filled cottage set back from Atlantic Boulevard, has an excellent kitchen. Although the management has tried hard to translate the extensive menu, English is minimal here and the names are often confusing. Luckily, the menu is all hit, no miss and whatever you order is bound to be good.

Start your dinner with assorted cold cuts, like aromatic beef and salted crab. Then try the shredded pork and preserved vegetable soup. All are first-rate.

For main courses, stick to the terrific seafoods that the Shanghainese do so well. Three of the best dishes are yellow fish with brown sauce, eel with chive and stewed catfish in garlic sauce.

If you’re lucky, they’ll have eight-treasure rice for dessert.

Shanghai House, 608 N. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, (818) 308-1918. Open daily 11 a.m.-3 a.m. Parking in lot. Visa and MasterCard. Dinner for two, $20-$40.

Looking for Chinese comfort food, like jook , the creamy rice porridge, or a good won ton min ? Yuan Ten is the place.

This brightly lit, exuberant noodle house, the newest in a small chain owned by Chinese noodle magnate Cheng Hon, has the best food of this genre I know of.

Broths are flavored with shrimp eggs, the noodles are fresh, the tea is piping hot. The restaurant has a superb barbecue where duck, suckling pig and various organ meats are chopped into cavernous soup bowls. Grandmothers everywhere would approve.

This is one restaurant where the Chinese menu is filled with offal and other dishes you probably won’t mind missing. But do be sure to try the barbecued kidney; it’s so good it made a convert out of me.

Yuan Ten restaurant, 128 N. Garfield Ave., Monterey Park. (818) 572-7208. Open daily 9 a.m.-1 a.m. Limited parking in rear. Visa and MasterCard. Breakfast for two, $6-$10.

If there is one restaurant on this list sure to please Western tastes, Fu-Shing is it. This is the only bona-fide Sichuan restaurant in the area, and the menu is crammed with American palate pleasers.

Kung-pao dishes, classic Sichuan preparations of sauced meats with red pepper, peanuts and green onions, are excellent. Tea-smoked duck is the poor man’s Peking duck, with the plum sauce and scallions, but minus the buns and soup. Here it is available in half or whole orders; the meat has a delightfully smoky flavor and an appealing moist texture. Dry shredded dishes, another Sichuan standby, are also marvelous.

Fu-Shing, 512 W. Valley, San Gabriel, (818) 570-0725. Open daily 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Ample parking. Visa and MasterCard. Dinner for two, $20-$30.

Monterey Garden has the silliest interior I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. The walls are covered with panoramic pictures of Hong Kong as seen from the windows of a circular hotel dining room. The effect is a lot like being in someone’s basement. Despite this objection, Monterey Garden never serves a bad dish and the prices are a bit lower than some of its neighbors.

The restaurant has an attached barbecue where excellent lean pork, nicely perfumed duck and homemade sausage are featured. Among the dishes on the regular menu, scallop with deep-fried milk croquette is outstanding. Don’t forget to ask for the free house soup.

Monterey Garden, 1001 E. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park, (818) 571-0888. Open daily 11 a.m.-1 a.m. Parking in lot. Visa and MasterCard. Dinner for two, $15-$30.