Ming Court Judgment Favors Flavorful Fare Ming Court

Besides the video rental stores, nail salons, dry cleaners and other tenants that evidently are essential cornerstones of strip shopping centers, a great many offer a Chinese eatery of some sort. They range from genuine restaurants down to the increasingly popular fast-food outlets that serve a limited menu of egg rolls and the like and are no better than you might expect a McChinese place to be.

A pleasant exception to the rule is the new Ming Court, a fairly elegant restaurant in a new center in the North City West area of San Diego near Del Mar.

Although the curtainless windows look out primarily on vistas of parked cars, empty storefronts and bland stretches of concrete and asphalt, the interior of Ming Court is quite attractively decorated in the toned-down style that might be called chinoise moderne . The quiet service and soft lighting encourage dawdling over dinner--formerly not a hallmark of dining at many Oriental establishments--as does the presence, Wednesday through Saturday, of a classical pianist who puts the baby grand in the lounge to good use.

The menu, similarly stylish, includes a few dishes not readily found elsewhere as well as a solid list of preparations that leans less heavily upon moo shu, kung pao and other standard offerings than do most contemporary Chinese menus. As is increasingly common, some of the more unusual choices are offered on a separate specialties page. Included here are such items as the batter-crisped cilantro chicken, which sounds localized if you don’t know that cilantro also travels under the name “Chinese parsley” and is widely used in Chinese cooking; the marinated and sauteed Hong Kong-style beef filet and even, in a borrowing from the past, “Hawaiian chicken,” seasoned Polynesian-style and served in a pineapple shell.

Minced chicken, not widely known hereabouts until a few years ago, also appears on the specialties page and is done with restraint, a little less sweet and less heavily sauced than elsewhere, but succulent inside its wrappers of crisp lettuce leaves. The “five spice” pork chops, or wafer-thin cuts of meat heavily dusted with salt and the star anise-scented “five spice” powder, are simply fried and are enjoyable for their strong, zesty flavoring. In a much more elegant mood, the “triple mushroom delight” presents a braise of black, enoki and cultivated mushrooms in a light sauce over wilted spinach; the enoki melt into the dish like the most delicate of noodles, and the flavors are exquisite.

The starter list goes further than most and, besides the usual spring rolls, barbecued ribs and pan fried dumplings (these last well-made and juicy), offers several highly attractive seafood preparations. The shrimp medallions, puffy and light like French seafood quenelles (dumplings), are breaded and crisped to provide a counterpoint to the airy mass of ground shrimp and seasonings. The idea seems radical, but these can be dribbled with a few drops of chili oil--as the servers suggest--an act that brings out the full, briny flavor in much the same way that peppery rouille mayonnaise deepens the taste of bouillabaisse.

The stuffed crab claws are not so much stuffed as surrounded by a seafood paste, again encased in crumbs and fried; these have a delicate flavor and are more substantial than might be supposed. Apart from seafood, the appetizer list also offers jou yen chicken, or white meat treated in the “salt and pepper” fashion that is popular in China but not much encountered here. As the term implies, the fried chicken cubes are heavily--heavily--seasoned with salt and pepper, and the result is potent.

One of the cooks is from Singapore, a primarily Chinese republic that has supplemented traditional Chinese cooking styles with techniques borrowed from Malayan and Indian cuisine. This cook imports Singapore curry powder, somewhat spicier than the turmeric-based curry used in China, and uses it to good effect in stir-fries of shrimp, chicken and beef. Highly aromatic, this curry goes best with simple dishes rather than other strongly seasoned preparations.

For dessert, Ming Court offers toffee-coated banana, apple or pineapple, or all three together if the kitchen is in the mood. Sprinkled with sesame and rather brittle-sweet, these little chunks of fruit are sufficient at the end of the meal.

Ming Court

12750 Carmel Country Road, (at Del Mar Heights Road), San Diego

Calls: 793-2933

Hours: Lunch and dinner daily

Cost: Most entrees $7.25 to $14.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $55.