Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Song Hyunh, chef at Mabel's Lantern House, cooks up some fried rice.

The light is still shining at Mabel's Lantern House

By Suzanne Cristallo

For 23 years, Los Gatans have been dining or picking up Chinese food to go at Mabel's Lantern House. For some patrons, entering the small restaurant on N. Santa Cruz Avenue is a retreat in time to the family dinners they enjoyed there as children.

For Mabel Lai, co-owner with husband Ken since 1982, cooking in the restaurant is an opportunity to introduce to others the good things she enjoyed as a child.

With the cold winter weather here, the Lantern House's featured Mandarin cuisine is particularly inviting. Created to offset the effects of the bitter cold of Northern China, Mandarin dishes are salty or sweet with flavor-enhancing black beans, yellow soy beans, chili paste and lots of vegetables. Mabel recommends hot and sour soup for cold days.

Born in Hong Kong into a highly educated banking family, Mabel grew up with the exquisite cuisine her grandfather's cooks created for the family. There was one cook each for soup, seafood, dessert and everyday fare.

The advent of Communism ended the lifestyle her relatives had enjoyed for generations. Mabel, at age 18, was sent to New York under the sponsorship of her aunt to achieve the higher education revered by her family.

With a degree in sociology from Adelphi University on Long Island, paid for through the long hours she spent waiting tables after school, Mabel then met Ken Lai, an aspiring mechanical engineer with a master's degree from MIT. They soon married. Ken's employer later transferred him to California, where Mabel, vowing never again to have anything to do with restaurants, became district director for the Campfire Girls in Santa Clara County.

But four years as director, five years at home with two young sons, and finally her role as teacher of Chinese culture and cuisine in adult education softened her attitude toward restaurants.

In 1978, she bought Mabel's Table No. 1, a coffee shop at University and Lark avenues in Los Gatos, followed by No. 2 at the San Jose Airport three years later. "After all, food is in my blood," she says, referring to her family's tradition of serving great cuisine.

"But I always wanted to do Chinese," she adds. Her chance came with the sale of the Lantern House in 1982, which the Lais bought, adding Mabel's name.

"The most popular thing I serve is the Chinese chicken salad," she says with a smile, "and it isn't even Chinese. It's American, like chop suey and fortune cookies."

The rainbow beef, her own creation, is another popular item. Made of multicolored bell peppers, sautéed beef and onions with black bean sauce, it sells a la carte for $6.95. The Sizzling Three Treasure Soup, she says, is a "show-stopper"--prawns, scallops and calamari with lots of vegetables served over a crispy rice crust.

Mabel's Lantern House, 39 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos. Open for lunch and dinner daily, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. 354-1844.

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