Saturday Night Live

Seated at a huge round table at NYC Seafood in Monterey Park, four of us are waiting for the rest of our party. After a half hour, we order appetizers and are happily nibbling on jellyfish and beef tendon when our friend Janet storms in, unapologetic. “We’re waiting for you!” she complains. “The food is already ordered, and it’s going to be amazing. Come on!”

But your fax said NYC Seafood in Monterey Park, we tell her. “Oh, maybe it did,” she says. “I’m no good at geography.”

It turns out there are two NYC Seafood restaurants, the original in Monterey Park and a second one 10 minutes away in Alhambra. We pay up and follow Janet to NYC Jumbo Seafood, where we find the other half of our party, seated around another large round table. We have barely unfurled our napkins when a waiter arrives bearing a brassy gold tureen. In it is a whole winter melon filled with soup. Taking a knife, he scores the fleshy sides, carving off the sections into the clear broth and serving it up in small white bowls. Every bite of this royal soup yields a shred of chicken, a pink-striped shrimp, a slice of mushroom or some of the soft, savory melon. (The soup takes about four hours to cook, and the kitchen serves only four or five each evening, so order the day before to ensure getting one.)

In fact, it’s a good idea to call the day before to discuss the proposed menu. What you want is anything that’s live, and therefore very fresh. This is a Cantonese seafood restaurant, not the place to order Peking duck or barbecued spareribs. If you come in and order off the menu, which lists dozens of dishes, you can come away thinking NYC Jumbo Seafood is nothing special, and that would be a shame. Always ask for the price of live seafood though; some of it can be more expensive than you might imagine.

I couldn’t help eyeing the bank of fish tanks, which hold some of the largest crabs I’ve ever seen in captivity. Janet has ordered a whopping 16-pound New Zealand king crab for our table of 10. The black-tipped claws and legs are enormous, and the kitchen uses it for no less than three dishes. The first is steamed crab on a bed of glassy bean thread noodles splashed with subtle “supreme sauce” that’s enriched with chicken stock and dried shrimp. The snowy meat has a firm texture and a more pronounced flavor than familiar Dungeness crab. We polish off every bite.

Then comes the body, with the huge chunks of dense crab meat deep-fried with garlic and scallions. It seems as substantial as steak. The third presentation arrives toward the end of the meal--fluffy deep yellow fried rice made from the odd scrap of crab meat and the pungent crab butter heaped in the upturned shell. This may be the best fried rice in the San Gabriel Valley, and that’s saying a lot.

When we divvy up the bill, I find out that the crab is nearly $20 a pound. Even so, our tab for this munificent feast, (which includes a few more dishes I don’t have room to mention) comes to $60 a person. That’s high for most Chinese restaurants, but still a deal for the quality and amount of the food.

Needless to say, I’ve been back. The parking lot in front is nearly always full, whatever the hour (it stays open until 1 a.m. every day). Families with grandmothers and toddlers in tow may show up at 10 p.m. One such group had come directly from Burbank’s airport. As an appetizer, consider a platter of cold sliced beef tendon, a cut of meat that is deliciously gelatinous, and a heap of amber strands of jellyfish dotted with sweet pickled carrots and nappa cabbage. If you plan ahead, order the stuffed chicken wings--and, believe me, one per person is enough. These are stuffed to bursting with sticky rice and diced Chinese sausage and fried until the skin is as crisp and gilded as a Peking duck. If the tank of live prawns is full, order some steamed. They come heads on, entangled with the bright red roe. An order of one-third to one-half pound per diner is about right.

One night our waiter suggests the live red rock cod. We had the head prepared in a soup and the body steamed with ginger and garlic. Pieces of the fish head, mustard greens and soft pillowy chunks of tofu come on a plate: You tip them into the robust fish broth to taste, setting aside any bones on another plate. Later the steamed filet appears garnished with sprigs of cilantro and slivered ginger and garlic. It has a wonderfully delicate texture and a slightly earthy taste. Spindly Chinese watercress in preserved bean curd sauce is a nice accompaniment.

Simple steamed chicken strewn with matchsticks of ginger and scallion seems plain at first but grows on you throughout the meal. Pink at the bone, the meat is velvety with real chicken flavor. It would be a great picnic dish for the Hollywood Bowl.

Recently I went back and ordered the crab three ways again, this time a mere 8-pounder for six people. It could easily have fed eight, and was even better than I remembered. On this visit, the fish tanks held some of the reddish fish called sheep’s head. Steamed and layered with slices of salty Chinese ham and best quality shiitake mushrooms, it made a fabulous dish, worth a special trip. Our bill for steamed prawns, stuffed chicken wings, winter melon soup and the crab and fish dishes still came to $60 a head. But what a meal.

NYC Jumbo Seafood is busy enough that it’s a good idea to call the day before to reserve a king crab or a larger order of live prawns to avoid disappointment. While you’re at it, don’t forget the winter melon soup. Just be sure that everyone coming to dinner knows the right address. Even if they did grow up in Monterey Park.

NYC Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

203 W. Valley Blvd.

Alhambra

(626) 289-4828

Cuisine: Cantonese

Rating: ** 1/2

AMBIENCE: Large Cantonese restaurant with wall of fish tanks, bright lighting and a sea of round tables.

SERVICE: Efficient and crisp; not all waiters fluent in English.

BEST DISHES: Stuffed chicken wings, winter melon soup, jellyfish and beef tendon, New Zealand king crab three ways, steamed whole fish with Chinese ham and mushrooms, Chinese watercress with preserved bean curd. Appetizers, $7 to $38. Seafood dishes, $8 to $14; market price per pound, $14 and up. Other dishes, $8 to $13.

DRINK PICK: Tsing Tao beer.

FACTS: Open daily. Lot parking in front. Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. eeee: Outstanding on every level. eee: Excellent. ee: Very good. e: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.