San Gabriel’s Peony Rolls All the Right Numbers

Peony, 7232 N. Rosemead Blvd., San Gabriel. (818) 286-3374. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Beer and wine only. Parking in lot. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $20-$35.

Those who are eager to try more authentic Chinese cooking, but lack self-confidence in ordering, will find Peony the perfect place to explore. Think of it as a transition restaurant for aspiring Chinese dining experts (see Bruce Cost on Page 100).

Michael Chang, a suave, impeccably manicured Hong Kong native, is responsible for the restaurant’s concept. He comes to the San Gabriel Valley straight from a management position at Joss, a new-generation Chinese restaurant in Beverly Hills that has stirred up a wokful of opinion among local foodies.

At Joss, Chang served elegantly prepared, artfully conceived Chinese dishes to serious eaters, power lunchers and demanding Westsiders. Now at Peony, despite a Main Street USA location, Chang is doing exactly the same thing.

Chef Vincent Cheng brings heavyweight experience (he was assistant chef at Hong Kong’s deluxe Regent and Peninsula hotels) to Peony’s partially exposed, highly efficient kitchen. Cheng’s food is both classic and original, with many of his dishes so beautifully crafted they look as if they have been embroidered into the plates.

Cheng painted the restaurant himself in earth-tone beiges and grays. Walls are covered with Chinese reliefs. Lighting is subdued, not harsh. And customers sit in boothes, at tables clothed in white linen. Only a row of red-ribboned potted plants, and two large fish tanks make you realize you have wandered into a Chinese restaurant . . . until you taste the food.

Wonderful and familiar appetizers like country-style egg rolls, pan-fried meat dumplings and crispy-fried stuffed bean curd can be ordered from the 140-item menu, but there is much more tempting fare. I advise a splurge here, with some of Cheng’s more expensive and unusual creations. Pin pei chicken, for example, makes an incredible treat for four or five. It’s a crispy skinned chicken served Peking duck-style with little buns, flowered scallions and a rich, dark plum sauce.

While some may advise you against ordering soup in a Chinese restaurant, I think Peony’s soups are terrific. Fish broth with ginger and cilantro, served consomme-style, is one of the purest and most delicate sensory experiences I have ever had in a restaurant. Double-boiled duck soup with triple delight (shrimp, sea cucumber, and shredded duck meat) is delicious enough to make you forget the Marx Brothers. Seaweed tofu soup gets the ‘80s seal of approval; it’s light and clean, with a healthfully spicy fragrance. Even the well-known hot and sour soup is done creatively here, with added chunks of snapper, threads of crab, and pieces of fresh shrimp in a seafood stock.

Cheng almost always has the restaurant’s tanks stocked with snapper, rock cod, lobster and crab. Beyond those four, the fish vary from day to day. My favorite dish at Peony is listed as Number 71: diced fish with pine nuts. I have eaten it every time I’ve visited the restaurant (grounds for being sent to critic’s purgatory). It’s made with rock cod, which the chef sautees with garlic and green onion. The pine nuts are boiled separately, then added to the wok.

Like Number 71, Peony has several dishes I have never tasted before. Number 59, crispy shrimp roll with peach, is minced shrimp in a skin made from dried bean curd with a sweet-and-sour sauce made from pureed peach. Number 104, veal ribs with black pepper sauce, are soft and tender, with a fiery bite. And the excellent Number 85, the divinely sweet specialty called clams with satay sauce, has a sauce that is good enough to spoon up all by itself.

More familiar dishes get equal treatment. Standouts include calamari with spicy salt, braised chicken with fresh vegetables, Chinese greens with black mushrooms and Chinese ham, pineapple seafood fried rice, squab casserole and sizzling lobster with shao shing wine. The chef prepares tiny, Hong Kong-style dim sum at lunch, and there are boutique Chardonnays like Kendall-Jackson on a small wine list, for washing it all down. I wish I had room for all 140 of them.

Recommended dishes: Peking pin pei chicken, $18.95; fish broth with ginger and cilantro, $5.95; sizzling lobster with shao shing wine, seasonal price; crispy shrimp roll with peach, $9.95; diced fish with sauteed pine nuts, $8.75; veal rib with black pepper sauce, $7.95.