Monterey Park is a city that conjures up images of cheap Chinese hole in the walls and lavish banquet halls at the same time. It has a disproportionally large Chinese population compared to the rest of the county. It is the place to find some of the best Chinese food in LA if not in the entire country. Of course, that’s pure speculation since I have not traveled widely in the US.
Cantonese food is available in almost any Chinese community. However, other varieties of Chinese food aren’t as readily available. So when my family took me to a Chaozhou restaurant in Monterey Park, I didn’t know what the expect.
It is called Seafood Village and the Chinese pinyin for it is BiFengTang. Well, it was somewhat the same style of food as Cantonese food. You have your claypot specialties and your mountains of seafood. My favorite and definitely the most popular dish is the house crab. It is breaded and fried with tons of garlic and a helping of chilies. Another interesting dish is the Stir-fried string beans with olives. I have had string beans before but never like this. The olives give it a tangier flavor than it otherwise has. It seemed like they substituted some of the salt for the olives. Another Cantonese standard I saw here was the salt and pepper pork chops. Other favorite dishes include the seafood tofu claypot, the cold chicken, and the taro dessert that comes out steaming hot.
Related Posts
-
Food: Street food of Taipei
17 November 2009 6:12 PM | 1 Comment -
Food: Blue Crab in Chesapeake Bay
03 December 2009 6:31 PM | No Comments -
Food: Campechana in the Heights
15 December 2009 5:42 AM | No Comments
John is always trying to find his way back to the road. He has an affinity for Germany due to his three years studying German at Cal, and a year working as an intern in the Stuttgart area. He also likes chocolate cake and good cheese. 
