Pages

Showing posts with label Chong's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chong's. Show all posts

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Eating Cantonese (Chinese) Cuisine with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget




Eating Cantonese (Chinese) Cuisine with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


When I originally wrote this restaurant review of Chong’s in downtown Monterey several years ago, Chong’s was a Cantonese restaurant (notably featuring dishes with black bean sauce).

Now Chong’s has transformed itself into an all-around Chinese restaurant (notably featuring dishes with hot, red peppers) thanks to books like Fuschia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes for Hunan Province (Hunan is the province next to Sichuan which uses the same ingredients with less fiery results.)

This review remains relevant for comparing the Chinese community of the Monterey Peninsula to that of San Francisco and many other Chinatowns around the country.

When I described this Chinatown situation to the editor of the Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000), she was interested in learning more about China and thought Weekly readers might be as well.  The article I wrote follows:

After 40 Years, Chong’s Features the Familiar Dishes and Some Special Cuisine from South China

During a recent dinner party, I asked our friend C., who is Chinese, what his favorite restaurant is in Monterey.

“Chong’s,” he replied without hesitation.

He told me that Chong’s features many dishes from China’s southernmost area of Canton, which distinguishes it from other area restaurants serving dishes from northern China.

Northern Chinese who followed immigrants to the Monterey Peninsula account for the many Northern Chinese restaurants featuring Mandarin Chinese cuisine here.

In most Chinese restaurants around the country, including San Francisco’s Chinatown, you will find Cantonese cuisine.  The overwhelming number of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. came from Canton (referred to as Guangdong by the Peoples’ Republic of China), which includes Hong Kong.

Chong’s take-out menu says its cuisine is Szechuan from Western China, but a look at the menu shows a preponderance of Cantonese classics like shrimp with black bean sauce as well as Chinese-American classics such as chop suey, which were created by Cantonese chefs in America.

After our meals, our server confirmed that all the chefs at Chong’s have Cantonese origins.

The mild climate of Canton and its access to the sea make for a cuisine that prizes fresh vegetables, fish, and seafood served with light sauces.

Cantonese foods are consequently held in high esteem throughout China – similar to the way that French food is esteemed in parts of Europe.

Hong Kong reigns as the capital of Cantonese cuisine and many innovations using new agricultural products with traditional cooking methods come from this gastronomic capital.

When I saw that Chong’s offered steamed fish on its menu, I immediately ordered it while my husband Laurent ordered the shrimp with cashews.

A cup of egg-flower soup comes with the meal along with rice.

Chong’s dresses up its version of the egg-flower soup with tofu rods, chicken, tomato, celery, snow peas, and straw mushrooms.  I liked the soup, but the celery made me think I was eating American soup.

The steamed rock cod I ordered was large – probably twelve inches large from head to tail.  Mounded-up, shredded Chinese chives and cilantro covered the fish, which was surrounded by broccoli with long stems.

Chinese cookbooks poetically call broccoli prepared in this manner “jade tree.”  The fish looked dramatic on the platter with the sauce setting off the greens.

With this glorious dish in front of me, I imagined I was eating in a Hong Kong restaurant looking out at the twinkling lights of the harbor as I inhaled the savory scent that wafted towards us.

The succulent sauce, made from sesame oil, soy sauce, and a bit of freshly grated ginger, enhanced the flavor of the pungent chives and cilantro.  Chinese chives have a more pronounced onion taste than American chives.  These Chinese chives tasted great with the broccoli.

The flesh of the fish slid off the bones, which are big in rock cod, making them easy to remove.  Something this good does come at a higher price than most of Chong’s other menu items.  Even the fussiest foodie would like this dish.

The shrimp Laurent ordered came with cashews.  The shrimp had been stir-fried along with snow peas, straw mushrooms, carrots, and zucchini.  The nutty flavor of the sesame came through in the slightly thickened sauce.  The generous portion makes it perfect for family-style dining.

Laurent and I visited the following day to sample more food.  This time we tried the lemon-chicken and spareribs with black bean sauce.


A light, crunchy crust coats moist, white-meat chicken in Chong’s version of lemon-chicken.  The addition of slightly, sweet lemon sauce makes it feel like eating crunchy lemonade.  This is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes.

The spareribs arrived in one-inch pieces and did require some rather indelicate removal of the bones.  These specialties of the Cantonese countryside are coated with mashed, fermented black beans and garlic before they are steamed.

The flavor of the spareribs is earthy and salty at the same time.  Fermented black beans may require some getting used to, but they are favored ingredients all over South China.

During our two visits to Chong’s, we noticed that Chinese families and workers from downtown Monterey filled the tables.  Chong’s location by the Monterey Transit Plaza helps them fill tables.

End of Article

Once Laurent and I had checked out Chong's, I would take Florence there after school for early dinner while Laurent worked at went to graduate school at night.


By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks, Teen in China, and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books




Ruth Paget Selfie