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
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