COOKING & ENTERTAINING WITH STYLE : Getting to Know You : Entertaining in the New L. A. / <i> Visiting with Joel and Margaret Chen, Yukuo and Akiko Takenaka, Agustin and Maria Garza and Jorge Santos </i>

Both Joel and Margaret Chen’s families originally came from Shanghai. But there is much more of Hong Kong and Los Angeles in the way they entertain their friends.

“We never entertain at home,” says Joel, the owner of J.C. Chen Antiques, a stylish to-the-trade store on the high-rent end of Melrose. “I guess that comes from the time we lived in Hong Kong. You know, there living space is so small that there just isn’t room. So you take your friends to restaurants. That’s what we do here.

“Dining is vital. Cuisine is a very important part of Chinese society. Chinese people eat all the time and we’re very critical of our food.”

The restaurants the Chens choose depend on the company they are keeping. With their Los Angeles friends they go to places such as Patina, Maple Drive or Campanile. Lately, they’ve been at DC-3 a lot. “The decor is so unusual,” says Joel, who is in his late 30s. “You really feel like you’re in California.”

But when family members visit, the restaurants are more likely to be in Chinatown, Alhambra or Monterey Park. “We really like to go to Seafood City in Rosemead and the new Empress Pavilion in Chinatown, he says. “Usually, we order Cantonese. To me, it’s a lot less oily. And we eat a lot of seafood and vegetables cooked in different ways. A lot of times, we specify no MSG. I like soup a lot, especially Hot Pot with Tofu. My wife doesn’t like it but I win all the time.

“We did try a Chinese imitation once--we went to Chinois on Main--and liked that a lot.”

Another place they take visitors from China is Lawry’s The Prime Rib. “People from the Orient go for meat a lot,” Joel says. “It really seems to be an essential part of the meal and Lawry’s gives them a lot. It seems very English and very traditional. But other than that, we stay pretty Chinese. I don’t think they’d understand Spago.”

Within their family, the Chens remain very Chinese. “Sometimes I feel like I’m very un-Chinese now,” Joel says. “We still speak Chinese at home, though, and our two kids speak Chinese. Our parents are here and when we go out on the weekends with them, we tend to go for dim sum--either the Empress Pavilion or (Monterey Park’s) Harbor Village.”

Or they’ll go shopping at stores such as Maxfield’s. “We love to go to sales on the weekend,” he says. “I hate to pay full price.”

Even after being in Los Angeles for 17 years, Joel Chen says most of the couple’s friends are Chinese. “Our clients are all Caucasian, but we don’t tend to socialize with them,” he says. “I guess no matter how many years we’ve stayed here, we’re basically very ethnic.”