Shark and Other Bites

As soon as you sit down at MPV Seafood Restaurant, you’re handed a glass of chrysanthemum ice tea. When you get your soup, MPV sends out a whole tureen, even if your table has only a couple of people. And the meal doesn’t end with fortune cookies but a delicately sweetened water chestnut soup. All these touches help set MPV apart from the many Chinese restaurants in Alhambra.

To choose well at this Cantonese place, you need at least three menus: lunch, dinner and specials. A red wall banner names still more dishes (in Chinese), mostly involving shark fin or lobster. If you order lobster, I recommend the delicate broth-based sauce; black bean sauce would obscure the delicate lobster flavor.

The banner lists shark’s fin soup for $17.99 or $25.99, depending on the grade of fin. The $13.99 banner special is a sort of medicinal soup, believed to bestow a feeling of well-being, that combines chicken, ham, sea cucumber, black mushrooms and shark fin. An order serves two.

A couple of the lunch menu shrimp dishes are as tempting as candy, such as the non-classic kung pao shrimp (it replaces the peanuts with macadamias). The plump, juicy shrimp are perfectly cooked, and the slightly sweet sauce contains (fortunately, for my taste) only a few chiles. The other is the luscious honey walnut creamy shrimp--the same big shrimp coated with mayonnaise, surrounded by candied walnuts and orange slices.

The pan-fried diced steak with macadamias doesn’t measure up to the shrimp. The meat is slightly spongy from whatever is done to tenderize it, and the macadamia nuts are scattered over the top rather than incorporated into the dish. On the plus side, large fresh mushrooms and asparagus are stir-fried with the meat.

“Pan-fried string beans” may sound ordinary, but this is probably the best version of the dish I have ever tasted. The beans are deep-fried briefly, then combined with minced pork, garlic, sugar, soy sauce and fresh red chile. As a lunch special, it’s only $4.95.

Another dish that hides under a plain name is home-style chicken. This hot pot is a lot fancier than most home cooking. Along with chicken, it contains jujubes (Chinese red dates), black fungus, black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, lily flowers and ginger.

Still another deceptive name is stuffed scallops with minced shrimp. The scallops aren’t stuffed, they are the stuffing--of fat pink cakes of minced shrimp. These cakes are nestled among perfectly cooked broccoli florets and covered with a sauce of thickened broth flecked with egg white.

If you’re feeling adventuresome, try sauteed asparagus with bamboo fungus and dried scallops. Bamboo fungus is a texture food, bland to taste but interestingly spongy and not quite as rough as a washcloth or cat’s tongue. It’s layered over fresh asparagus and topped with deep-fried shredded dried scallops. The faintly briny scallops go nicely with the asparagus.

Fish maw was also notable for texture, but a Chinese friend felt it should have been more tender. We were eating the chewy maw along with big meaty dried black mushrooms and Chinese mustard greens, which overpowered its faint sea taste (they were the best part of the dish).

Despite the intriguing name, pan-fried snow peas and celery with smoked duck is a mishmash of vegetables (including carrots, straw mushrooms, black mushrooms and cucumbers) that don’t go well with the salty duck. The strong American celery gives this dish a sharp and rather odd edge.

Sometimes less is more, as in braised yee mein. These delicious linguine-shaped Chinese noodles are delicately flavored with just a few flecks of mushroom and yellow chives. Yee mein is the longevity noodle, traditionally served on birthdays.

If you want to get really exotic, MPV has ostrich, sauteed ducks’ tongues, a fish belly and goose feet hot pot, black chicken soup with ginseng and the like. The menu of special dishes changes every few months to keep customers interested.

BE THERE

MPV Seafood Restaurant, 1412 S. Garfield Ave., Alhambra (626) 289-3018. Open daily, 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Lunch 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Major credit cards accepted with minimum $20 order. Wine and beer. Free parking in lots opening off Garfield and Valley Boulevard. Lunch for two, food only, $8 to $12; dinner, $30 and up.

What to Get: Macadamia nuts with shrimp kung pao, honey walnut creamy shrimp, stuffed scallops with minced shrimp, pan-fried green beans, sauteed asparagus with bamboo fungus and dried scallops.