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Peking Tom’s Longtang Lounge
Pu-pu your way to fun fusion
BY ROBERT NADEAU
Peking Tom’s Longtang Lounge
(617) 482-6282
25 Kingston Street, Boston
Open Mon–Sat, 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. and 5:30–11 p.m., and Sun, 5:30–11 p.m. Bar menu Mon–Sat, 11:30–2 a.m., and Sun, 5:30 p.m.–2 a.m.
AE, DC, Di, MC, Vi
Full bar
No valet parking
Access up six steps from sidewalk level

This is a well-executed and popular bar-restaurant that plays with two contradictory forms of fusion food. As the first part of the name suggests, one kind of fusion is the Chinese-American-Polynesian food of the 1950s and ’60s. "Longtang" denotes a fusion style of architecture developed in Shanghai in the 1870s, and suggests to those in the know a more serious and contemporary fusion of French and Asian cuisine. Neither fusion is entirely successful, but the restaurant sails along because, for so many of us, no menu with both spareribs and crème brûlée can fail.

The first kind of fusion is the more uncomfortable, because fond memories of Trader Vic’s and its hundreds of suburban imitators must be reckoned with more than a century of racial discrimination against Chinese-Americans. The waiters who served us pu-pu platters and drinks with little umbrellas in the 1950s generally could not bring their families to the United States until the late 1960s. We knew even then that sweet-and-sour shrimp wasn’t really Chinese food, but a caricature rather like the portrayals of Charlie Chan and various houseboys on television. Visual and culinary references to Japan, which raise the specter of the discrimination historically suffered by Japanese-Americans, also add to the guilty discomfort of the restaurant's white patrons. As for its more serious and modern fusion, supervised by Pigalle’s Marc Orfaly, it’s not uncomfortable, but it’s only a block or two away from the authentic cuisine of Chinatown, so every time a French flavor overwhelms a Chinese technique, one thinks about eating the original for half the price down the block.

A fair example is the mushroom dumplings ($4). These look like dim sum, but they fall apart when eaten with chopsticks because, unlike real dim sum (at half the price), they aren’t stuck together with pork. The filling is something like duxelles, a fine mince of mushrooms sautéed to bring out the flavor — much more flavor than in Cantonese dim sum, which somewhat swamps the idea. Something similar happens with rib-eye-beef chow foon ($16). The chow foon are the soft, fresh rice noodles of Chinatown, but the beef is much higher quality, which means less chew for contrast, and the sauce is a real reduction instead of the usual cheap Chinese gravy. As a result, the sauce is gluey. The dish is good, but not as balanced and satisfying as a typical Chinese platter, which would have far more noodles and beef, and probably a vegetable as well.

The side dishes offer relative bargains. There’s a fine platter of Chinese broccoli ($4), the sweetest kind, or wonderfully dry and crisp fried scallion pancakes ($4), as good as any Mandarin chef could make them.

I also enjoyed the mainly Western food, such as the clams ceviche ($10), served in six Chinese spoons set in a hubcap of crushed ice. The ceviche is a fine, peppery chop of clams, onions, and peppers, no evident cilantro, but a good cherrystone flavor under the quasi-Mexican treatment. Crispy calamari ($7) is a large plate of squid rings, breaded in a sweet batter like that of canned fried-onion rings, but with some sautéed red and green jalapeño rings dribbled on top for emphasis. This preparation owes more to Jasper White than to anyone in Hong Kong, but it’s good nibbling. The catch of the day on our day was striped bass ($18), a chunk of tasty wild striper in a wisp of hot red-curry sauce, with some sautéed cabbage and onions and a dish of oily, fluffy jasmine rice. Grilled pork chop with honey and toasted sesame ($18) is another of the large, nicely cooked chops we’ve been seeing, set on an intriguing nest of shredded pickled vegetables, with the rice.

However, the real strength of the menu is the Trader Vic’s stuff. Lead off with a mai tai ($7), which has a paper umbrella and a candied cherry and a slice of pineapple and two tiny straws. If you can find a place to sip among all that decoration, the drink is properly sour and refreshing. Then go straight to the pu-pu platter ($22), which includes four orange-tamarind spareribs ($7.50 on their own), four beef teriyaki ($5), four chicken wings ($4.50), a couple of pork spring rolls ($4.50), and a couple of crab Rangoons ($7), with a live fire in the middle for re-toasting your beef teriyaki, if that's your pleasure. The teriyaki are actually satay, with a good marinade of lemongrass and spice. The ribs are weirdly tender and juicy, like filet mignon spareribs, and a big hit. The spring rolls, small-bore and very crunchy, bring to mind Vietnamese spring rolls. The chicken wings are trimmed of some skin, and terrific. The crab Rangoons are almost too good. I think the kitchen uses goat cheese instead of cream cheese, and rolls them in salt after frying. In any case, the flavor is all cheese, not much crab, but fabulous. The dipping sauces need a little work — the sweet-and-sour sauce should have cilantro, not French chervil; the peanut dip is too drippy; the mustard looks Chinese but tastes French; and the ponzu-soy dip is safe, no more.

Peking Tom’s emphasizes cocktails, new and old, but has a good wine list, a fine selection of sakes, and three kinds of shochu, a Japanese spirit distilled from rice and sweet potatoes. When ordering moonshine, always start with the expensive one, here Yufuin ($7), a little flute of cold, thick-textured stuff with a sweet sake aroma and a chilled-vodka aftertaste. Tea ($3) is brewed from leaves in a metal pot, and both Yunnan gold tip and wild mint were excellent.

Desserts are where fusion cuisine often shines, and Peking Tom’s desserts would not embarrass Paris Pierre or Vienna Victor. I especially like the coco boba ($6), a kind of virgin-colada version of bubble tea, with pineapple bits instead of tapioca marbles and a rich coconut-milkshake basis. Panna cotta ($6) is three semicircles of gelled cream on a bed of diced peach, blueberries, and strawberries. Ginger-lemongrass crème brûlée ($6) is frothy, not heavy, but with a good flavor of ginger and citronella, and a nice crust. The sorbets ($6) were a very impressive papaya, a delightful strawberry-black-pepper, and a blueberry-tarragon that was the color of red wine and tasted mostly like tarragon. The scoops were garnished with wisps of fried ginger, a hazelnut or almond wafer, and candied orange peel, respectively.

Peking Tom’s consists of a couple of narrow storefronts that get very loud very quickly. Background techno starts the noise, but lots of customers complete it, their voices echoing from wood floors and tables. The decoration is dim lighting and red (but not the Chinese lucky crimson) and black, with wall graphics based on what looks like Asian bridal photos of the 1920s. Service our night was very good. Peking Tom’s has been a summer hit, I think for the Trader Vic’s side of the menu. Ming Tsai has demonstrated that serious fusion can be popular, but if I were making the menus, I would keep the desserts and drop some of the bistro food for, say, ho yu gai pu, fancy chow mein, and a Frenchified version of General Gau’s chicken.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com


Issue Date: August 22 - 28, 2003
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