REFEREEING TWO KNOCKOUT CHINESE BANQUETS

The rewards of diplomacy are often subtle. Had it not been for Richard Nixon’s foreign policy, the Chinese banquet, one of the greatest joys of Oriental culture, might never have achieved the popularity it has in the West. The lavish dinners that helped pave the way for better Sino-American relations piqued the imagination of gourmets the world over, even prompting a Chinese restaurant in Paris (where else?) to name itself “Le Banquet Nixon,” offering replicas of what Nixon ate in China to the general public.

How times have changed. No longer must you be a head of state to enjoy one of these feasts, perhaps the best bargain in the restaurant world today. Just go over to your neighborhood Chinese restaurant and tell the chef you are bringing 10 people around with a case of Tsing-Tao beer. He’ll take care of the rest.

Ten is usually the minimum number for a banquet (a smaller number is sometimes accommodated), but the upper limit is often well over 100, especially in the bigger restaurants. Because dishes are served family style on large platters, food comes out of the kitchen fresh and hot.

A typical banquet has eight to 10 courses and runs between $15 and $30 a person. Consider this: In a major hotel that amount buys little more than a green salad, broiled chicken, ice cream and coffee, no match for the wide array of exotic tastes and imaginative textures found in even the simplest banquet menu.

Banquets are free form, but a few basic traditions are followed: The first course is usually a cold appetizer plate, the second course a soup. Successive courses should be saute, salty and sweet, in that order, in keeping with the aesthetics of Chinese gastronomy. Vegetables and noodle dishes come toward the end. Dessert can be fresh fruit or a steamed confection made from rice and sweet bean. No two banquets are ever the same.

I recently approached two restaurants, Pasadena’s Sun T. Lok, a newly opened Cantonese restaurant specializing in dim sum, and Chinatown’s Plum Tree Inn, a well-established Shanghainese dinner house noted for its authenticity. The restaurants offer contrasting styles but comparable prices; both have banquets at $180 for 10 people. Mentally, I envision a boxing match. Let’s let them slug it out and see who comes out on top.

Both restaurants seat us at a round table in the main dining room, and the bell sounds for round one. Both come out of the corner and touch gloves with the same dish, a cold appetizer plate. Sun T. Lok has the more daring preparation, layered slices of wine-marinated chicken, ham, jellyfish and salt pork, put together in the shape of a phoenix plumed with carved radishes. Plum Tree is not quite such a flashy opponent, plating the cold cuts in uniform rounds, featuring three kinds of ham, anise-perfumed salt fish and a crunchier jellyfish. Sun T. Lok comes out smokin’.

Both restaurants follow with shark fin soup, and both are full of punch. Plum Tree hits hard with a thickened, hearty version filled with precious strings of shark fin. Sun T. Lok counters with a lighter stock--clear, fragrant, accented by bits of Chinese ham. The soup has a delicate, unusual texture that lingers on the palate, but because it’s a little skimpy with the fin, round two is even.

The middle rounds bring out the two divergent styles. Sun T. Lok gets caught on the ropes serving abalone from the can, but shows fancy footwork with a platter of little roasted squab ringed with perfect, abundantly garlicked sea scallops. This restaurant is erratic, but very game.

Plum Tree goes to a foolproof strategy, favorites from the daily menu. First, a right hand brings expertly done sauteed shrimp, with nothing more than a little rice wine added for flavor, while a left delivers a platter of sea cucumber in brown sauce. The sea cucumber may not be a crowd-pleaser, but it has an impressive effect. Plum Tree is using greater experience to pile up points.

Sun T. Lok slips with black mushrooms stuffed with crab and shrimp. The mushrooms lack zest; could the kitchen be running out of stamina? No, they rally with “double pleasure sole,” fresh sole steamed on the bottom and sauteed with vegetables on top. They’ve regained their composure.

Now Plum Tree pours it on: “Plum Tree beef,” an orange-flavored, batter-fried beef brisket served crispy and sizzling accompanies “fish with garlic sauce,” not brilliant but sure-handed, confident and well balanced. Plum Tree is building a solid lead.

Sun T. Lok knows it needs a knockout, and, yes, it nearly gets one with the vegetables, an always exciting Cantonese surprise. Two delightful greens in the broccoli family, gai lan and choy sam, both drenched in oyster sauce, make Plum Tree’s bok choy with black mushroom backpedal rapidly.

Sun T. Lok continues to rally, with e-fun noodle, plump, moist, yellow egg noodles, and black pepper beef chow fun, mouthwatering rice noodles with an unctuous sauce. The crowd is in a frenzy.

Both restaurants finish with skill. Sun T. Lok offers little pastry blossoms, served warm with a coconut cream filling, and bowls of steamed papaya with white fungus, an innovative move. Plum Tree meets this challenge with a wonderful eight treasure rice pudding, molded steamed rice filled with delectable chunks of chestnut, walnut, candied fruits and sweet bean paste. The opponents are toe-to-toe as the final bell sounds.

The winner, by a split decision, is the Plum Tree Inn.

Sun T. Lok, 400 S. Arroyo Parkway, Pasadena. (818) 584-6719. All major cards. Lot parking. Lunch and dinner daily.

Plum Tree Inn, 937 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, (213) 613-1819. All major cards. Some parking. Lunch Monday-Friday; dinner nightly.