Golden China’s Varied Menu Is Diner’s Delight

When you cruise up to a Chinese mall restaurant on a deserted stretch of Venice Boulevard way past the noon hour and find the restaurant still hopping, you know you’ve come to the right place.

I enjoyed the chicken noodle soup served in a huge bowl filled with good noodles and vegetables on a day when I was watching my diet. The soup was psychologically the perfect diet lunch, because the broth in most Chinese restaurants is defatted. As for the calories in the noodles? OK, so it’s equivalent to a slice of bread. Maybe two.

But that’s not a good enough reason for dining at Golden China, which I noticed had won a California Restaurant Writer’s Assn. award in 1988.

You go there because the menu is incredibly varied, even for a Chinese restaurant. At Golden China you are offered 150 items from a surprising grouping of foods: appetizers, soups, earthenware pots, rice, chow mein (soft noodles), chop suey, egg foo yong, cold dishes, chef’s specials, a la carte entrees, sizzling plates, seafood, poultry, beef, pork and lamb dishes. There are loads of vegetables and even dessert (both fried and candied bananas and apples).

Sand Pots

Have you seen many earthenware “sand pots” around lately? I haven’t. I don’t even know what a sand pot is, and nor could anyone I asked tell me, but I can’t wait to find out on some chilly night next fall when a steaming clay pot filled with meat and vegetables (I think) would hit the spot.

What about separate categories for chow mein and chop suey? I haven’t seen those since I was a little girl in New York, where the only Chinese food you got in those days was chow mein and chop suey. These vegetable-meat stir-fries introduced to the American palate, when the American palate couldn’t discern a bamboo shoot from an arrow, are back and I’m glad.

At Golden China chow mein, made with soft noodles, is available in many guises to remind you of days gone by. The chop suey, a vegetable stir-fry, can be served with rice.

What about sizzling platters? Ever see those spelled out in any great detail in many Chinese menus? Golden Dragon serves sizzling beef, noodles, scallops, shrimp and seafood in combinations with beef and chicken. All worth a try.

If that is not enough, then you are invited to take a look at their Buddhist dishes--all vegetarian--made with a vegetable protein from soybean, which is molded and flavored to resemble meat, fish, chicken, pork. You get things like sweet-and-sour chicken, almond chicken, lemon chicken, garlic chicken, Mandarin beef, Mongolian beef, Hunan beef, orange beef--all of which taste like beef or chicken, but are not.

Looks Like Chicken

I ordered the kung pao chicken with peanuts, in which chicken is the soy product cut in cubes, with faint chicken flavor added. Not spectacular, but really quite tasty for what it is. Frankly I did not find any of the dishes I tasted distinctively high in flavor, but they were tasty and varied enough to satisfy my Chinese food palate. You’ll notice immediately from reading the menu that no MSG is added to the food, which may account for the more subtle flavors.

You can stick to real vegetarian food, if textured protein seems too alien. There are Szechwan Chinese cabbage, kung pao Chinese cabbage, broccoli and bean in many forms , with and without sauces, and eggplants with hot garlic sauce and black bean sauce to choose among. Buddha’s feast, which is the same as mixed vegetable in the regular menu and vegetarian’s feast on the vegetarian menu (both consisting of steam-fried Chinese cabbage, carrots, broccoli, snow peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and mushrooms), are served with either fried or plain rice. A residue of oil added for flavor during the cooking made the dish. Flavor would simply not be the same without oil.

Except for the vegetarian fare, lunch combos come with soup (hot and sour, or won ton--thick but OK), Chinese chicken salad (a small nondescript plate with a few strands of fried won tons, disappointing shreds of chicken and free-form lettuce--nothing special) and, if ordering from the regular menu, paper-wrapped chicken appetizer, which is excellent.

Except for special dinners (offered at $8.95, $9.95 and $11.95) the menu is a la carte. But don’t worry. Entree prices are in the $7-range for beef, $10 for seafood (with some like steamed whole fish at $17.95), and $5 for chop suey and chow mein. The earthenware dishes are also higher at $16.95, but most all of the more expensive dishes are offered in two sizes. The full dinners, by the way, are a true bargain. They come with appetizers (egg roll, paper-wrapped chicken, fried rice, sometimes soup) and a choice of several beef, pork, egg, chop suey, kung pao and sauteed bean dishes, plus tea. The $11.95 dynasty dinner, for instance, offers sizzling rice soup, Chinese chicken salad, egg roll, fried shrimp, barbecue spare ribs and one of the entrees listed. Portions, throughout the menu, including lunch are enormous. So ask for a doggie bag, if you do that sort of thing. Otherwise order simply.

Specialties

There are also specialties of the house such as sub gum won ton (using fried won tons as a bed for chicken, shrimp, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and vegetables), and “hot pu-pu teriyaki,” which allows guests to cook their own beef served with two hot, garlicky sauces. You’d have to order several such specialties to complete this unusual, great-sounding category of dishes.

For summer, you might want to give a cold dish or two a try. There are assorted Chinese cold cuts, shredded chicken with pepper sauce, cured beef and sliced cold chicken with chile sauce (very hot).

Egg foo yong, another long-forgotten category of dishes worth rediscovering, if only to include eggs in the diet each week (American Heart Assn. recommends consuming three to four weekly for healthy Americans), also is featured on the menu in various chicken, shrimp and meat combos. You might also consider egg foo yong for brunch parties. Although not ideal for take-out, they do stand up well if you zap them in the microwave before serving. Everything on the menu, in fact, is available for take-out, with free delivery within a 2-mile radius.

There are some unusual dishes scattered on the menu I’d like to try sometime too: spicy double-cooked pork, boneless tea-smoked duck, spareribs with peppered salt and fire pot beef stew, among others.

Now that I’ve talked myself into this unusual restaurant on the Westside, I can’t wait to return.

It’s not gorgeous to look at, mind you, but it’s not bad, either. There are some nice art pieces around, somewhat incongruous with the red and lace look, bare tables and booths. The Chinese service people are pleasant and look as though they too enjoy eating what they serve others.

Golden China, 9018 Venice Blvd., Culver City (off Robertson Boulevard); (213) 559-0116 or 559-0117. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Major credit cards accepted. Reservations suggested for dinner. Free mall parking. Food to go; food delivered free within 2-mile radius. Banquet facilities available. Minimum $5 per person charge at dinner .