Thursday, August 20, 2009

Seafood Village - All About The Ong Choy!

After a mediocre massage at Clean Foot Spa where my lady masseuse beat me up and didn't go the full hour, we headed to Seafood Village to get our Chinese food grub on.

My friend recommended this place as she and her man go here quite often. It's a traditional Chinese restaurant, complete with the tanks holding fish, lobster and crab unaware of their imminent demise. But, what else would these creatures be good for anyway?

The 3 of us sat down at a table and proceeded to order. My gf suggested we get the Fish Pot, which she said was a must have. So, we ordered that, Ong Choy with tofu, and House chicken.

Fish Pot: OMG. This was the biggest fish pot I've ever seen. It came with an entire fish, head attached, sitting in a metal pan with soup and veggies. They put the pan on top of a portable stove and said we had to wait 5 minutes for the fish to finish cooking. Dayam. That was some intricate shit.

why, hello there


I liked the fish stew. It had a nice broth to it, a bit salty, but the fish was cooked well. I didn't much care for the skin and all the bones. But, a good dish overall. It better be at $25!

Ong Choy with tofu: Yeah!!! Now, this was MY favorite dish. Stir fried ong choy (water spinach) with bits of tofu. It was greasy as hell, but that added to the flavor. I ate a bunch of it over my white rice and it blew me away. Who knew such a simple dish could taste so good? However, I did not see any tofu bits.

yummy in my tummy


House Chicken: Basically, Hainan chicken. Umm.. I had a bite and did not like it. I didn't know it was supposed to cold. Whatever. I guess I'm not THAT Asian. My friends both liked it. But, ehhhh.. to me, it was just kinda gross.

not my thang


All this food cost $58. Pretty pricey dinner, but the good company made up for it. Service was alright, but I was annoyed they kept stepping on my toes! Anyhoo.. gonna go forage in my fridge for the leftover Ong Choy and rice now.

Seafood Village
684 W Garvey Ave
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 289-0088

3 comments:

Daniel S. said...

Ong Choy, is this the veggie that has a little bit of kick to it? Or am I thinking of something else? Or am I just not thinking at all?

Fish pot does look good; the preparation with fish head attached reminds you that you're in SGV, not the west side. Funny that you mention the fish tanks with--hold on tight--live fish! I've been trying to gather a group of friends to go to Newport Tan Cang (or even a place like SV) and order a crazy spread of handpicked lobster/crab/fish but a few pansies are refusing to eat at a place that has live seafood tanks. WTF?!?!

House (Hainan) chicken: yeah you got me there.

Maybe time to try Master Wong's? Although I have to confess it was a bit rough (but I felt goooood!)

Hope your toes are ok :-|

Pandalicious said...

Ong choy is water spinach, and hollow in the middle. it's so good!! I'm going to make it myself soon.. just have to stir fry with some oil and salt. and it's cheap!

well, live fish is the freshest as they say. i can do without the whole head looking at me tho. are they animal lovers?

hmm.. i will consider master wongs. but, i think i may have to go back to my regular massage therapist soon. massage place montana in SM.. $47/hr. and it's awesome!!

Ravenous Couple said...

the ong choy looks good, but have you ever tried ong choy malaysian/indonesian style called KangKung Belacan? Try it at your next malaysian/indonesian restaurant--we think it's def. one of the best preparations of ongchoy.