RESTAURANTS : Ruby Is Genuine Korean-Chinese

Ruby Palace is on a torn-up commercial stretch of Beach Boulevard, far from any major Chinese neighborhood. But the food served behind the enormous red portals of this Huntington Beach restaurant bears a striking resemblance to authentic Chinese. Korean-Chinese, that is.

The restaurant is run by the Hsus, a Korean-born Chinese family fluent in at least three languages. When I found out where the family came from, I immediately asked for two kinds of kimchi, those spicy, earthy pickled vegetables that no restaurant in Korea would begin a meal without.

However, the waiter was reluctant to bring them until I pointedly asked, “Do you automatically serve kimchi when the party is Asian?” “Yes,” he replied, somewhat contritely. There’s a common assumption that non-Koreans will be put off by kimchi’s pungent aroma.

Ruby Palace would be a very fine restaurant if it didn’t unilaterally make decisions for the customer this way. Many dishes here are too sweet or too salty, but the food can be delicious when the chefs play it straight. On one hand, the specials board has featured a horror called sweet cherry ribs, which was pork ribs in a sauce that tasted like a famous brand of cough syrup. On the other, all will be forgiven when you taste this kitchen’s superb steamed dumplings or exquisite seaweed soup.

The restaurant is pleasant enough to look at, decorated with plenty of screens, wood carvings and Chinese lanterns. Unfortunately there are no windows, which gives a bunker-like feel to the surroundings. At least they keep the lights low here, a welcome departure from the sort of Chinese restaurant where the candlepower verges on blinding.

Don’t let the waiter’s news that steamed dumplings take 20 minutes dissuade you from ordering them. These are great dumplings, chewy and with a light minced pork filling. On the side comes a superb dipping sauce of soy and green onions.

But avoid the salt-and-black-pepper ribs, a misguided take on a dish you find in most restaurants with a Chinese clientele. Here’s the mistake: Instead of being made with pounded pork meat, this deep-fried dish is chopped-up ribs. It’s tasty, but you can never tell whether you’re going to bite into meat, fat or bone. We gave up after a few bites.

I’d be tempted to recommend the shredded pork and preserved turnip soup except for the salt problem. Preserved turnips are salty to begin with, but the kitchen actually adds salt to the broth, making it literally hard to swallow. The seaweed soup, however, is masterful: tofu, spinach, seaweed, bean thread noodles, egg, shrimp and minced pork, all the flavors showing up clearly against the neutral background of a clear broth.

Many vegetable dishes here are outstanding, such as sauteed string beans, sauteed spinach, and black mushroom with Chinese green. I’d steer clear of the ultra-bland Buddha’s feast and the eggplant with hot garlic sauce--oily eggplant in a ferociously vinegary sauce.

A party of four can order the restaurant’s complete duck dinner for $75. The menu is chef’s soup, a huge plate of Cantonese appetizers (including barbecued spare ribs, fried shrimp and egg rolls), garlic fish, scallops with Chinese greens, black mushrooms with bok choy and an entire Peking duck. Smaller, or less ravenous, groups might consider a barbecued half duck, only $9.95. This is the poor man’s Peking duck--the same appetizing roast duck with plum sauce, lacking only the steamed buns and flower-cut green onions.

There’s an even less expensive route. A dish the menu calls roasted spicy chicken is, in effect, Peking roast chicken. For only $7.50, you get nearly a whole chicken, on the bone, complete with the plum sauce and Peking duck buns. It’s one of the best values on this menu.

Sometimes the restaurant has fresh fish such as sea trout or catfish; ask to have yours simply steamed with ginger and green onion sauce. Roast spicy shrimp ball would be great if it were just a little less oily. (These are not balls, by the way, but rather flat cakes of mashed shrimp and rice crumbs, fried to a golden crust). Salt and black pepper shrimp in the shell is much like the rib dish mentioned above, in the same oily batter and accompanied by spiced salt (oddly, this salt mixture is about 60% black pepper, rendering it the color of volcanic sand).

For those who like a fine, lean pork meat ball in a rich brown sauce, stewed meat balls (like the shrimp dish, formed in the shape of flat cakes) is the answer. Sauteed long rice with shredded pork is the less fanciful name of the dish known in Chinese as “ants climbing tree,” because the tiny bits of pork virtually swarm throughout the rice mixture. If you fancy pasta, try the cold noodle, which comes with a spicy bean sauce. It’s a favorite with the Chinese community in Korea, especially on hot summer afternoons.

Dessert at Ruby Palace can be candied apples, bananas or yams. If you think you overdosed on candied yams at Thanksgiving, trust me--these are not the same. They’re hot fruit, dipped in molten sugar and corn starch and then plunged into a bowl of ice. The fruit stays hot while the coating solidifies into a crunchy candy glaze.

Actually, do try the yams, the best of the three. They’re a treat, especially when you take some home and eat them the next day.

Ruby Palace is moderately priced. Appetizers are $3.95 to $16. Soups are $5.50 to $11.95. Main dishes are $3.50 to $25.

* Times Line(tm): 808-8463. To check an Orange County restaurant by name to see if The Times has reviewed it recently, call TimesLine and press * 6170 For other weekly recommendations from Max Jacobson, press * 6160

* RUBY PALACE

* 18330 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach.

* (714) 848-6088.

* Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday, noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, noon to 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

* American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted.