Restaurant: NBC Seafood
Location: 404 S Atlantic Blvd, Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 282-2323
Date: August 26, 2018
Cuisine: Cantonese Chinese
Rating: Really excellent
Tony Lau’s Cantonese dinners are some of the best Chinese dinners of the year. He always manages to get the best out of these old school Cantonese kitchens.
And check out this vintage 90s giant dining room at NBC!
We had the world’s largest single table private room. Quiet, cushy, and tons of space.
Sauces on the table.
As well as peanuts and candied walnuts.
I didn’t grab the photo of our King Crab when he was alive, but he was about 10 minutes before this photo and his return with glass noodles and lots of garlic.
Steamed king crab with glass noodles. Classic. Perfectly moist and garlicky. One of the best simple crab prep’s I’ve had. Really emphasized the delectable sweet meat. Tony likes to have the restaurants individual plate all the dishes and here is an example. Normally I don’t love this as it negates my ability for portion control. This time, the plates were large enough that it worked out well.
Scallops. Lightly fried in a brown sauce. This may be a Shandong dish in original. They were really good. Very soft and delicate.
Shrimp two (heavy) ways. Both mayo walnut shrimp and the heavy salty egg yolk fried shrimp. Both very moist and tasty, particularly the walnut one, but heavy!
Pepper fish. Delicious juicy fish with a nice medium black pepper bite.
Suckling pig. Excellent boneless rendition of this classic dish. Really nice with the bones and other stiff bits. Great crispy and piggy flavor.
Cashew Beef. Kind of a Chinese American dish, but very tasty filet mignon which was elevated by the crunch of the nuts.
Mushrooms and greens. Good for what it was. I don’t love this kind of mushroom.
Lotus wrapped sticky rice.
The contents were a kind of taro/red bean sticky rice. It had that weird sweet/starchy thing that isn’t to my taste. I’m sure it was good for this dish.
Roast pigeon. Excellent, crispy and meaty.
Mango pudding. I always love this.
Sweet cakes. These were kinda nice too.
A pair of gelati by me:
Peanut Butter Tagalong Gelato – Peanut Butter base with house-made chocolate caramel and Girlscout Tagalong Cookies — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato
Not all my creations turn out as good as I hope — Watermelon Mint Sorbetto – watermelon sorbet with a hint of fresh mint — made by me for @sweetmilkgelato. Texture was too icy though.
Overall, this was a fabulous meal. Several people, the ones that seem to always prefer Cantonese, thought it was the “best ever” (Chinese). I certainly wouldn’t say that, but it was very very good and on the top end for SGV Cantonese banquet. As I said, Tony always gets the best out of every kitchen he takes us to. Many of the dishes were fabulous and the rest were just good. Now, I like a somewhat more varied, spicier, and more “Chinese” Chinese food style personally. You can see a lot of examples from China itself below in my Chinese dining guide.
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Wines:
