![\"Barbecued](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Fried-ricewebtop.jpg\")
<\/a>Asian design elements of craft-store quality flow throughout an airy dining room that was clean and tidy. (The restroom, I must say, was particularly spotless.) Located in a fairly subdued strip plaza, we found ample parking.<\/p>\n Food portions are generous and prices are cheap, even after a minor cost increase recently imposed on combination meals available from afternoon until closing daily. The menu in general features all of the nostalgic classics \u2013 egg foo young, walnut shrimp, orange chicken, moo shu pork, etc. In addition, our waitress was efficient and sweeter than pie.<\/p>\n The restaurant\u2019s age and ownership, however, remain in question despite my attempts to uncover the back story. In three separate calls I made to the restaurant, I learned that a woman named Kelly might be the owner \u2014 or perhaps the manager \u2014 and that the restaurant is somewhere between 10 and 20 years old. Nobody knew for sure.<\/p>\n Kelly wasn\u2019t onsite when I phoned or visited, nor was she reachable through any means, an employee said. So I settled for the history described vaguely to us by our waitress, that the restaurant came under different ownership by an unspecified person or family a couple years ago, and the word \u201cnew\u201d was prefixed to its name to differentiate it from the original Maxim\u2019s Palace.<\/p>\n We encountered no riddles with the food. An order of crab Rangoon featured eight, prettily crimped pastry shells free of grease. Their cream cheese centers, however, contained only miniscule shreds of meat. Unless you\u2019re dining in some posh Chinese hotspot in Hong Kong or New York, the chances of finding chunky pieces of crab inside this ubiquitous appetizer anymore are near zero.<\/p>\n A pair of chicken-vegetable egg rolls proved satisfying, given their crispy exteriors and plump fillings of mostly crispy, shredded cabbage. Served piping hot, we had to wait several minutes after splitting them open before they cooled down.<\/p>\n Three entrees we ordered ranged from exceptional to mediocre to sub par. Respectively, the barbecued-pork fried rice sported a highly desirable semi-toasted texture. Enriched substantially by wisps of cooked eggs and julienne pork marked by sweet, barbecued edges, it\u2019s exactly the preparation Chinese kitchens throughout North America have been slinging for decades to lure us back.<\/p>\n Moo shu pork carried the coveted, smoky flavor from the wok as well as the raisin-like essence of hoisin sauce lacing the dish. But the meat was cut into bite-size pieces rather than minced, which is the preferred method for striking a texture consistent with the finely shredded vegetables stir-fried with it. Also, the thin Chinese pancakes served traditionally alongside suspiciously resembled flour tortillas rather than delicate crepes. So moo shu burritos it was.<\/p>\n A heaping pile of chicken chow mein required every condiment on the table to rescue it from blandness. We created an admixture of equal parts soy sauce, feisty chili oil and neon-red sweet and sour sauce to enhance the flavor. It worked beautifully, probably better than monosodium glutamate (MSG) would have, had we not requested that the controversial taste stimulator be omitted from our orders.<\/p>\n \u2014Frank Sabatini Jr. es el autor de \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press), y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del ex San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en <\/em>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":250562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Secrets of the \u2018palace\u2019 \u00a0","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Because of New Maxim\u2019s vast meal selections, which encompass Cantonese, Mandarin and a few Szechwan-style dishes, it would take repeat visits to accurately evaluate the food and figure out who\u2019s running the place. Though based on this single meal, I suspect there are several more winners other than the chubby egg rolls and fluffy fried rice hiding within the menu.<\/p>\n