This week Jonathan Gold considers the study in ambition, cuisine and magazine-worthy menu art that is Shanghai No. 1 Seafood Village in the San Gabriel Valley. Old Alley Pork. “Double tubes of squid.” Jellyfish. Shark-lip casserole. One could go on.

It is the Chinese restaurant menu equivalent of a September Vogue, except instead of models, there are crabs and stewed pig's trotters and fried abalone, reproduced in nearly pornographic detail. To hell with dinner — you may want to just curl up with the menu and a snifter of Courvoisier.

Read the complete story in Gold's Counter Intelligence, “Red Velvet,” and check out Anne Fishbein's photo gallery. Then maybe get in your car.

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