Mongolian Grill Adds Spice To Kent At Reasonable Price

----------------- RESTAURANT REVIEW -----------------

Chang's Mongolian Grill, 24060 104th Ave. S.E., Kent. 850-6264. Lunch ($5.95) Mon.-Fri. 11 am.-2 p.m., Sat./Sun. Noon-3 p.m. Dinner ($9.50) Mon.-Fri. and Sun., 5-9 p.m., Sat. 5-10:30 p.m. Reservations accepted for six or more. Coupons for $7 off in Entertainment '94 discount book.

Henry Ford would have approved.

The man erroneously credited with inventing the assembly line probably never experienced anything Mongolian. But he would have recognized a kindred spirit at the impressive self-service buffet line at Chang's Mongolian Grill.

Diners move down both sides of the long line, filling bowls with dozens of frozen meats, seafood, fresh vegetables and sauces, which are stir-fried on a superheated circular grill by two chefs.

The result, when mixed with steamed rice or wrapped in thin Chinese pancakes, is a sizzling, heaping plate of lean meat and healthful vegetables, cooked in your own choice of sauces.

Go back as many times as you like, experimenting with different ingredients and sauces - the $9.50 dinner ($5.95 for lunch) is all you can eat.

The vast plateau of Mongolia - bordered by Siberia to the north and China to the south - covers more than a million square miles of east Central Asia.

Most Mongols are nomads who survive by raising livestock. Horses, cattle, camels, sheep and goats provide food, transportation and clothing for their migrations across the steppes.

Stretching across Eurasia from Hungary over the steppes of Russia to Korea, and extending down into Jerusalem, Persia, the Indian subcontinent and China, the Mongol Empire founded by Genghis Khan in the 13th century was the largest the world ever has known.

The Moghul dynasty it founded in India - one of whose rulers built the Taj Mahal - survived into the 17th century.

Mongolian cooking came to China with the Khan invasion.

According to tradition, the invention of the Mongolian grill arose when his encamped armies built bonfires and used their round iron shields as a cooking surface over the hot embers.

While highly mobile, Mongolian yurts (tents) are not equipped with fine cooking utensils, so Mongolian cooking is simple, usually consisting of mutton or beef cut into thin slices and quickly roasted.

The addition of fresh vegetables and spices is mainly a Chinese innovation.

Expansion-minded chain

With five restaurants in Oregon, and another in Seattle on Broadway, Chang's is an undeniable success, and Kent manager Carrie Lopez says the chain aims to have 30 restaurants across the Northwest. The Kent location opened seven months ago and was packed with enthusiastic families on a recent Thursday night.

Those prices and simple, filling food combined to create a noisy hubbub in the well-lit open dining room, festooned with bright green and red Mongolian banners.

Every meal includes a choice of soups. The untraditional Egg Flower Soup - a medium-thick chicken broth with fresh vegetables - was salty and surprisingly crunchy with the addition of water chestnuts.

The aptly named Hot and Sour Soup - a medium broth with slivers of beef, vegetables and Chinese black mushrooms - should be named Tofu Soup after its principal ingredient, but is agreeably spicy.

A pot of the house tea, a pleasant jasmine, arrives with the soup; steamed white rice and delicate crepes are delivered when you return from the buffet.

The line offers frozen beef, chicken, lamb, pork, turkey, salmon, pollock and shrimp, all sliced wafer-thin. If you're the type that can't help piling your bowl high despite being able to return as often as desired, be sure to mash the meat into the bottom of the bowl with the tongs.

Virtual vegetable garden

You'll also find celery, carrots, green onion and peppers, bean sprouts, mushrooms, cabbage, onions, broccoli, noodles, cilantro, jalapenos, ground peanuts and pineapple - the latter an essential ingredient for sweet and sour enthusiasts.

A menu note indicates the vegetables are free of chemical preservatives.

A recipe board above the sauce bar at the end of the buffet lists the combinations for mild, medium and hot flavors, but veteran diners quickly develop their own favorite mix. (If you like mild lip-tingling hotness, add double ladles of chili sauce, sherry, sesame oil and garlic, soy, and ginger sauces.) Other sauces available include vinegar, oyster sauce, sugar water, lime and salt water.

Partially because of the awkward placement of the sneeze guard, some of the ingredients are nearly unreachable from only one side of the buffet. . Lopez said the management is working on solving the problem.

The eclectic dessert menu includes ice cream, sherbet, loquat or lychee fruit, and root-beer floats.

The two cooks that night constantly stirred and chopped with long spatulas at the seven various meals on the grill. They moved expertly around its 6-foot circumference.

With the cooks pushing and mixing the food as they do, small bits of someone else's order can get included in yours, so go with a friend with similar tastes in ingredients.

Restaurant reviews are a regular Thursday feature of the South County Life section. Reviewers visit restaurants unannounced and pay in full for all their meals. When they interview members of the restaurant management and staff, they do so only after the meals and services have been appraised.