Tanks for the Memories

Whenever an extraordinary Cantonese restaurant opens in the San Gabriel Valley, word of mouth ensures that it’s packed. Then, after the highly touted chef moves on, the place becomes just another good restaurant. Right now, 8-month-old NYC Seafood Restaurant in Monterey Park is always crowded, even on weeknights.

Most parties are large, multi-generational families with nothing else in mind but to eat and eat well. One night, at a table of 10, four toddlers swathed in cotton napkins bang their chopsticks, reaching for the pink spot prawns one mother is busy shelling. It’s 9:30 and these kids are interested in everything served. Frankly, I find it exhilarating to be in this room of dedicated and omniverous eaters.

NYC Seafood may not be big-city, but it’s definitely bright lights. So bright, in fact, that it almost requires shades. And it’s as frosty as restaurants in Hong Kong. (So bring a sweater, even in summer.) The decor is spare and modern, with precision-pleated swags framing the windows.

Along a back wall are the Cantonese seafood restaurant’s requisite aquariums, full of live spot prawns, crabs, lobsters and fish. When a table orders boiled prawns (and almost every one does), a waiter scoops them up with a net and weighs them on an old-fashioned balance scale. Price varies with the market. On my last visit, prawns were $16 a pound--buy one pound, get one free--which means we paid roughly $8 a pound and each got three or four prawns for $4. What a deal.

Before ordering, though, see what looks interesting at other tables. Cold appetizers are particularly good here, especially the combo of crunchy dried and shredded jellyfish perfumed with sesame oil and cold marinated pork shank, thinly sliced and accompanied by a simple vinegar and garlic sauce. And pounded pork chops that have been rolled in spicy salt and deep-fried are better than most.

Instead of the winter melon soup being ladled from an ornate gold tureen with great ceremony, we order a mixed-seafood soup laced with tofu and brimming with squid, shrimp and mussels. Dungeness crab fresh out of the tank is nicely cooked with big chunks of ginger and ribbons of scallion, but a baked lobster prepared the same way arrives overcooked. Whole rock cod steamed with ginger and garlic in a light soy-based broth is always a sure bet, especially if you have the patience (and chopstick skills) to ferret out the best morsels.

Like most Cantonese restaurants, NYC Seafood cooks vegetables beautifully: just to the point when flavor and crunch are in balance. One evening, we get a plate of perfect fat asparagus, chopped on the diagonal, in black bean sauce. Chinese broccoli is just right, too. As are pea shoots when they’re in season. And besides steamed rice, there’s a good sticky rice enriched with chewy lop cheung sausage.

Our waiter insists that the barbecued chicken is better than Peking duck, so we try a half-order of each. He’s right. The duck, sliced and presented with steamed buns and scallions, comes with plum sauce to dab on the buns. It’s OK, but not the definitive Peking duck. The chicken, however, with its lacquered skin and moist, tender flesh, is one of the best I’ve had recently.

When we finally manage to get a waiter to translate the specials written on a board in crayon-bright Chinese characters, we order a casserole of clams, sliced mushrooms, dried scallops and lardons of pork in a broth with thin rice noodles. It’s a dish that grows on me with every bite. We also sample a hearty hot pot of sliced beef shank and sweet red dates, though the meat has an unappealing slippery coating.

Still, ordering a dish or two that you don’t entirely love is no great tragedy at NYC Seafood. You can afford to explore the menu because, even if you get carried away, it would be hard to spend more than $15 per person--at most. And that, in itself, is exhilarating.

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NYC SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

CUISINE: Cantonese. AMBIENCE: Large Hong Kong-style restaurant with well-stocked aquariums. BEST DISHES: Jellyfish and cold pork shank, boiled spot prawns, barbecued chicken, Chinese sausage sticky rice. DRINKS: Chinese beer. FACTS: 715 W. Garvey Ave., Monterey Park; (818) 289-9898. Open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily. Dinner for two, food only, $24 to $30. Parking in lot.