Jumbo Seafood

Live fish and a light touch can make a restaurant more than just good

by Robert Nadeau

5-7-9 Hudson Street (Chinatown), Boston (617) 542-2823 Open daily, 11:30 a.m. - 12:15 a.m. Beer and wine AE, MC, Visa Up several steps from sidewalk level

Ordinarily, when I criticize other restaurant critics for not writing negatively, I do so because they're not being fully honest. But there's another problem, too -- in the atmosphere of "only saying something nice," positive reviews don't stand out enough. So a place like Jumbo Seafood doesn't get credit for being a lot more than nice. I've been eating in Chinatown for about 25 years: Jumbo Seafood is one of my favorite places there, which means it is one of my favorite places anywhere.

The key is a focus on fresh seafood, highlighted by tanks full of live fish near the entrance. Additionally, there is a regional emphasis on Hong Kong, with a giant velvet painting of the harbor on the wall as a reminder. The English name of the restaurant doesn't evoke much, but the Chinese characters are more descriptive. If I read them right, the name is two characters that each translate as "treasure," with the subtitle "shark fin seafood wine house."

Although Hong Kong has developed an eclectic cuisine, its true specialties are Cantonese seafood dishes, so your meal should include one or more of those. The star of our appetizers, for example, was "crispy fried calamari with salted pepper" ($7.95). The pieces of squid were fresh and sweet, the slight breading just held the extra salt, and the seasoning was a combination of sautéed green rings of hot chili and flecks of red chili paste, with scallions for a little more fresh crunch. We also made an appetizer of a $10 special on steamed bean curd with scallops in black bean sauce ($10.95 on the main menu). It was presented canapé-style -- squares of tofu topped with slices of scallop, dabs of fermented black bean paste, and sprinkles of scallions. What made it sing was the use of soft, silken tofu -- creamy and fascinating cubes that took some adjustments to eat with chopsticks. The scallops were bland-on-bland, but the black bean sauce was there for pungent contrast.

Conventional appetizers ran curiously to the Mandarin. A scallion pancake ($2.95) was 11 inches in diameter and fresh enough to carry its coating of frying oil and the aroma of fresh-fried scallions. Pan-fried ravioli ($3.50) were the thick, doughy kind one gets in Chinatown, but with a lively dip of soy and garlic.

You could make a fuss over the odd specialties like sea cucumber, abalone, lobster fruit salad (which must be ordered a day in advance), squab, frog, and jellyfish. But the heart of Cantonese cooking is not all that exotic. I asked for a steamed fish from one of the live tanks and was asked in return whether I wanted sea bass, striped bass, or blackfish. I wasn't entirely sure what was meant, so I went over to the tank and pointed to what I call tautog when we catch them on Cape Cod. They're also called blackfish; you can recognize them because a few are always lying flat on the bottom of the tank. Those guys aren't tank-sick; tautog often take that position in nature. We settled on a small one, about three pounds ($27). Although it isn't on the menu, steamed fish is a Cantonese specialty, and the waiter knew we meant with ginger and scallion. (The menu lists a market-price "Hunan-style crispy whole fish," which is fried and served in a sweet-sour-hot sauce for about the same price: $9 to $10 a pound.)

The reason to order fish from the live tank becomes apparent with the first bite: such a fish steams up to a delicate, light texture and sweet flavor you can never get with a fish that has sat on ice and gone through rigor mortis. I would expect the sea bass to be similar to the blackfish, but my experience with small striped bass is that they are farm-raised and taste like ashes. The tanks also contain live shrimp (the Cantonese serve them at banquets), eels, and geoducks.

More conventionally, you can enjoy something like the seafood delight in a crispy nest of shredded taro ($12.95), which was as delightful as the menu promised. The seafood is scallops, shrimp, slices of a fish loaf, and fresh squid, with straw mushrooms, carrots, and (Western) broccoli -- all in a perfect garlic white sauce.

The vegetable of choice is pea pod stems (seasonal, recently $11.95). These are sautéed to an intense green color, with a flavor partaking of sugar snap peas and asparagus, again emphasized with just enough garlic. "Hallow green vegetable stir fried with garlic sauce" ($8) aroused my curiosity. At the table, it turned out to be a similar sauté of a vegetable like the pea tendrils, but with hollow stems, as though this were the lower part of the pea plant from which the tendrils had already been harvested. The flavor was similar, but more buttery and less vegetal. Another novel green shows up on the "braised 2 kinds of mushrooms with vegetables" ($12.50). This one has something of the sweetness of Chinese broccoli, but a longer, thinner stem and leaf, like broccoli crossed with napa cabbage. The two kinds of mushrooms were fresh shiitakes and dried black Chinese mushrooms, a closely related variety. In a savory brown sauce, each kind had its own richness.

Chinese broccoli does get done beautifully here, judging from the chicken with Chinese broccoli ($8.25): a salty orange sauce brought together the two elements surprisingly well. (Taking on the typical Chinese restaurant problem with undercooking Western broccoli is shaping up as one of my retirement projects.) Beef with Chinese broccoli would be the usual dish, but we expended our beef quota on a braised brisket with turnip hot pot ($8). This was a decent demonstration of Chinese-Jewish unity, with a couple of wrinkles: Jumbo Seafood spices its beef with sweet five-spice powder and also smuggles in some tendon. (Let me say a few words in favor of tendon: although I haven't acquired most of the gelatinous tastes of this cuisine, the beef tendon is simmered to a toothsome tenderness and picks up the spice flavor very nicely. Sometimes the gristle is better than the meat.)

One of the standout features of Jumbo Seafood is the white rice (50 cents per person). It is richly aromatic, probably Thai jasmine rice, likely the best restaurant rice in Chinatown. You will notice the difference. The tea, unfortunately, is just as thin and earthy as everyone else's. For a cold drink, Tsing Tao beer is a good choice. Service is generally good, and our waiters didn't drop a stitch despite limited proficiency in spoken English. When the restaurant fills up, there are a few smokers, and no real system to control the smoke. There are no desserts but fortune cookies with the check; I did not feel the lack. Everything from this kitchen has a light quality that sends one off at the end of the meal with a euphoric, floating sensation.

Event

The South End right now probably has the highest concentration of good restaurants this side of Manhattan. They'll be really concentrated Tuesday, June 9, when every South End restaurant we can think of will set up a table in the Boston Center for the Arts. The event is called "A Taste of the South End"; tickets are $30 at the door and $25 in advance at Mike's Movies and We Think the World of You, both on Tremont Street near the BCA. Proceeds go to the Pridelights Foundation, which this year is dedicating the funds to antihomophobia programs in schools. Call (781) 455-1972 for more information.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.