Edesian Feast: Chung King Restaurant (Monterey Park, CA)

Monday, February 11

Chung King Restaurant (Monterey Park, CA)

On one of my last days in L.A., the few of us were craving Szechuan food, so we Yelped our destination (as Yelp is more commonly used in the U.S.) to find the best around town, and found Chung King Restaurant. This place is one of those casual Chinese restaurants that don't put much emphasis on decor, but serves delicious (and I think authentic?) food for cheap - so no complaints!

We got the Boiled Fish Slices in Hot Sauce (9.99), Fried Chicken Cubes with Hot Pepper (9.99), Hot Sauced Won Tons (6.99), and the Dried Sauteed Beans (7.99) between the four of us, and it was plenty of food. The boiled fish was my choice, since it's pretty much my favorite dish at Szechuan places, and while this place didn't taste like the place I used to eat at in NorCal, it was almost just as good. The spices seemed less complex and not quite there (other than the spiciness), but the fish was just as soft and flavorful, and the sauce just as numbing. For $10, it was a lot of fish!

The chicken dish was something I'd never had, and ended up being my favorite dish. For one, it's fried, and who doesn't like freshly fried chicken? The chilis were a spiciness that I could handle (not as spicy as the fish), and the shallots, sesame, and pepper melded perfectly with the chicken into a dish I just couldn't stop eating! The spicy won tons weren't too spicy, and weren't flavored with the typical spices either, but I really liked the texture of the won ton skin. I'm glad we got the dried sauteed beans, as the dish was a relief to our tongues from all the spiciness. The beans were also not over-fried nor overly salty, which I liked. Overall, I was really pleased with the food and the prices (though they may have different pricing from what I have listed now), and the waitresses were also friendly.