Monterey Palace Restaurant in Monterey Park: A Lunch Time Winner
On one rainy noonish Monterey Park day, I joined Gena and some of her chinese tennis buddies on a lunch outing to Monterey Palace Restaurant. I was supposed to do some tabling for the Lunar New Year festival that morning but apparently electrical cords and messy tent setups don't mix well with wet weather. I invited one Alex S. out for the lunch affair and it was ON!
I was first impressed by the clean and friendly service. The place was packed, as it should be on a weekend lunch hour. The parking is not quite sufficient but there is always street spaces nearby.
There should be NO reason to order OFF of the lunch special menu because they cover practically everything. As you can see by the adjacent photo of the overall lunch spread we had the following items:
1. The "Koh" Meat with Sour Pickled Cabbage (see closer pic in entry below). This is a fatty pork classic in the Taiwanese gastronomy. I've had it momma's style so this restaurant type was far fattier (yet more tender) and much sweeter than our homemade version. Lots of sugar. But it makes the meat that much more succulent. I avoid the cabbage part but suffice it to say that you can still enjoy the meat sitting on top of the Taiwanese's answer to sourkraut if you don't like the particular flavors.
2. Roast Duck with Shrimp Chips. Self-explanatory. Chips weren't too greasy. The real star is the juicy and well-crisped skin of the chicken. I prefer to eat it without the dip in the salt but that condiment is available on the dish.
3. Beef Chow Fun. This was surprisingly good, given the fact that there is a lot of chow fun out there...often cheap and greasy. This had some subtlety in the taste. Been so long since I had it I can't recall the nuances. But trust me. Don't recall having been so pleasantly surprised by chow fun in a long time.
4. Seafood dish with Asparagus. Forgot its formal name but this was yummy too. Not too drenched with corn starch thickener. Flavors were light and the dish came with plenty of meaty chunky seafood...fish, scallops, etc. Great dish to get that's lighter and that will give you plenty of chunky asparagus to fulfill your well-rounded diet vege quota and stuff.
5. Fried Squid. Yet another dish often served, but rarely done with subtlety. This had a light batter that was nicer than most San Gabriel Valley cafe type places. There was more meaty substance to the squid chosen. A definite winner.
6. Tofu stuff with Baby Bok Choy. Uh. I didn't order this. Texture of the tofu roulades were weird but the others seemed to like it. Bok Choy is fresh and stir-fried. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Read below for info & directions.
