I call myself a citizen of the world only in the sense that I would wholeheartedly embrace the opportunity to celebrate any holiday of any culture unless it involved the piercing of certain body parts or fasting. Bastille Day, Cinco de Mayo, the Queen's Birthday, you name it. This sentiment is multiplied by tenfold if such holiday involves the reckless consumption of delicious food. Chinese New Years definitely falls into that category for me. Since moving to New York 5 years ago, I have been lucky enough to be invited to a festive Chinese New Years party each year. Sometimes we would have a traditional Chinese banquet at a restaurant in Chinatown. Other times we would gather at someone's house, each bringing a dish to ease the burden of the host. Whatever the case, it was never a day that passed by unnoticed in my calendar.

Last month, I received a call from my friend Linda on the Saturday before Chinese New Years. She told me that she and a couple of her classmates from Beijing were organizing a Chinese New Years dinner at the Maple Garden Beijing Duck House. Would I be interested in joining them, she asked. Absolutely, I replied without hesitation. I had heard her rave about Beijing duck (also known as Peking duck) before - she has very high standards for Beijing duck and obsesses over it the same way I obsess over souffles. She always complains that the duck at the Peking Duck House in Chinatown is dry and greasy. Maple Garden is reputedly a step above the Peking Duck House.

Maple Garden looks like a midtown Chinese restaurant. What do I mean by this? Well, in Manhattan, there are a number of upscale Chinese restaurants, usually located in the midtown area, that cater mainly to businessmen on expense accounts, who want "Chinese food," but find the crowded, litter-strewn streets of Chinatown to be too intimidating or distasteful. I put Chinese food in quotes because the authenticity of the food at these establishments is questionable. Often times, it's just fried rice served on fancy plates. Most Chinese restaurants in Chinatown do not have coat checks or white tablecloths. Maple Garden has both, and it is definitely cleaner and more spacious than many of my usual haunts downtown though perhaps less colorful. Beigey, creamy shades dominate the main dining room, creating a sedate yet somewhat nondescript look.

We arrived around 8:00 p.m., starving but in good spirits. We started off with a huge cold platter consisting of an assortment of Chinese delicacies - five spices beef, jellyfish, vegetarian duck, duck feet skin and celery with special sauce, and spicy, marinated cabbage (app. $20.00). I laughed when Linda refused to partake of the cold platter. "I'm saving my appetite for the duck," she announced with the same fervor of someone claiming to be saving their virginity for marriage. Then she noticed the duck feet skin and decided that a bite wouldn't hurt her. The vegetarian duck (thin strips of marinated bean curd stuffed with finely chopped Chinese mushrooms) was one of the best that I've had in the city. The strips of clear, chewy jellyfish were also very tasty. For those of you who have never tried jellyfish, don't be intimidated - think of them as gummy worms.

For the nine of us, we ordered two Beijing Ducks ($40.00 each). The ducks were carved into slices and served on two silver platters, accompanied by a plate of thin homemade pancakes, a bowl of chopped green onions and a bowl of plum sauce. The way to eat this dish is by spreading the plum sauce on the pancakes, layering the duck slices on top, using the green onions as garnish and wrapping up the whole thing like a burrito. Our server offered to do the wrapping for us. I was perfectly happy to accept his offer since I am a notoriously messy eater (especially when I am wearing something that just came back from the dry cleaners), but Linda immediately declared that she wanted to do her own wrapping - she wanted to control the amount of sauce and green onions (and most importantly, DUCK) that went into her pancakes. We were all suspicious, as well we should have been. Her pancakes definitely appeared fuller than the rest of ours. After one bite, everyone agreed - Maple Garden did indeed serve up the best Beijing duck in the city! The skin was perfectly crispy and flavorful but not greasy. The duck meat was tender and lean. Even the pancakes seemed superior to the pancakes that we had tried at other restaurants.

I've always found it interesting the way certain foods trigger memories of distant homelands and times long past. As Linda and her friends wrapped their succulent duck slices in the homemade pancakes, spreading the special plum sauce all around, they reminisced about their childhood and school years in China. Oh, the incredible stories they told! Beijing in the late 80s. While a student at the Beijing University, Linda recalled taking the train from Beijing to her hometown of Chendu every year to celebrate the New Year with her family. It was a two-day train ride; to call it grueling would be a MAJOR understatement. First of all, there were people everywhere (and she meant EVERYWHERE!) - people sleeping under her seat, in the aisle, on the luggage rack above her seat, even in the bathrooms! During the entire two days, Linda remembered being steadfastly glued to her seat. She knew that if she got up, even for a quick bathroom run, she would never be able to reclaim her seat - that the minute she got up, some opportunistic son-of-a-gun would stake his claim, and he would be so desperate to keep her seat that he would swear up and down on his grandfather's grave that he had been sitting there all along. God forbid, she forfeit her seat on a two-day trip! So, how did Linda get around this problem? She would not eat or drink the day before her departure nor during the entire two-day ride just so she wouldn't need to use the restroom. How on earth can a person hold it for that long, I wondered! It must be a world record. Thinking back to her adolescent years in China, Linda says the U.S. has made her "soft." But it sure is grand, being able to have all the Beijing duck she wants.

As is tradition at a Chinese New Years dinner, we ordered a Whole Steamed Fish - a seabass ($22.95). In Mandarin, fish is pronounced "ur", which also means "to have more," so fish is a popular dish to order at New Years because it means you will always have more than enough during the upcoming year. The seabass was plump and substantial. It was dressed simply with ginger and scallions, and lay in a pristine pool of delicately flavored broth. The meat was very tender and fresh.

The other dishes that we tried were good, but not anything special. We ordered Sauteed Spinach ($10.95) and Bean Curd with Spicy Sauce ($10.95) for the vegetarians at our table. The spinach was an appealing spring green (not dark green, like spinach that has had all the life cooked out of it), and the cubes of bean curd were firm yet tender. Despite the menu description, the bean curd was not very spicy at all. I thought the chef added too much corn starch to the sauce. We also tried Crispy Squid with Salt and Pepper ($15.50) and a Noodle Basket filled with a Seafood Assortment (app. $22.00). The squid disappeared before I had a chance to try it, which I didn't perceive as a terrible loss since I've never been that fond of squid anyway. The noodle basket was a dish ordered more for show than for the way it tasted. The quality of the seafood contained in the basket was only average, and the portion was rather skimpy. We would have liked to order some other festive foods, like sauteed rice cakes, but the Maple Garden did not have them.

We were served dessert, compliments of the house. Each person received a bowl of Sticky Rice Balls in sweet soup. The soup contained some egg whites, which enhanced its consistency. The sticky rice balls were tasty, but slightly overcooked - the texture lacked the requisite elasticity. At the center of each rice ball was ground peanut paste, which is one of the traditional fillings of this dessert. In general, I like all variations of this dessert, but I think sesame paste, another common filling, is my favorite.

We were one of the last tables at the restaurant that night. We had probably been one of the biggest parties there, certainly one of the loudest, and without a doubt, the greediest. I was pleased that the Maple Garden staff never rushed us even though we lingered over every dish. The manager even stopped by to personally wish us a happy New Year. It was indeed a warm, welcoming place to ring in the Year of the Snake.


Recommended: Yes

Kid Friendliness: Yes
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Address: 236 East 53rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd), New York, NY; Telephone: 212-759-8260; Vegetarian Friendly: Yes, but you'd be missing out on some of the best dishes there. Child Friendly: Yes.
Best Suited For: Friends