'Traditional' Chinese American and Authentic Chinese Cuisine Meet at Yue Yan Chinese Food Boutique

I have been wanting to post this review for a long time. I suppose partly because I wanted to do it right, and partly because other topics with a time-sensitive nature intervened (I think I highlighted how much I struggled with the past-due nature of 'newsy' blog topics) I have put it off and put it off.

But here goes...

Yue Yan is a really satisfying blend of familiar Chinese American cuisine with traditional Chinese cuisine. It sits immediately adjacent to the El Rey carnitas place I've previously reviewed. In fact, it came to my attention before El Rey opened because there are somewhat limited Chinese food options in Simi/Moorpark. Oh, there are a double-handful of places; a satisfactory Chinese buffet that's not convenient to any of the places I spend my day; a padded booths, jade lanterns and lazy-susans type of classic Chinese American place that is 200 meters away from my house as the crow flies but twelve or sixteen blocks and multiple traffic signals by car because the empty lot that once allowed (own risk) pedestrian access across the railroad tracks has finally made it through planning and broken ground on 10 new homes. I'll review the latter place sooner or later, maybe the buffet, too, but if you want rice, a good sauce and some stir fry in Simi/Moorpark you are far better served looking for Thai food than Chinese.

Yue Yan is an exception. It is convenient to the freeway (I've noted the geography of the Campus Park neighborhood), and unpretentious. The decor is what my Nana used to call 'greasy chopstick,' which is fitting as it also sits next to the greasy spoon burger joint that won the turf war with McDonalds that opened up the drive-thru building for Starbucks to move in. The owner and proprietor is a delightful, friendly and talkative woman named Felicity, who remembers that I am an aspiring novelist and always greets me with an enthusiasm that I (being tall, brown-skinned, unattached and male, to say nothing of being comely by conventional standards, which is a multiplier for discrimination, for those not aware) rarely receive from strangers and casual acquaintances.

I might never have tried the place if it were not for a poster I saw in the window, celebrating the restaurant's selection as a 'reader's choice' selection for a tourism magazine.

A Chinese tourism magazine.

Now, I'm not an idiot. Reader's choice means 'subject to traditional marketing methods,' so that a busload of tourists or a well-placed internet ad, or even person-to-person networking can clearly influence the outcome. But even that requires a certain minimum-acceptable level of quality, so that such an award from a Chinese magazine means that at least some non-assimilated Chinese patrons sampled the menu and stamped it 'competent.'

Let me be clear, the food is more than merely 'competent,' it is great. I only knew that the recommendation from the magazine was valid because it signifies, at minimum, competency.

But let me return first to the menu, which, as I noted, includes familiar Chinese American cuisine like beef broccoli (Chinese broccoli available), mongolian beef, kung pao chicken, lemon chicken and a version of General Tso's chicken made with tangerines (a-MAZE-ing!!!). But it also has more traditional cuisine, presumably recognizable to the tourist-voters from the magazine competition. The dim sum menu alone is rarely to be found in the U.S. outside of the biggest Chinatown neighborhoods in places like San Francisco, New York, LA or Chicago. In fact, to my memory, Chicago Chinatown is not even particularly known for dim sum. Though in later years we did find a couple larger dining halls of the classic type, for the most part it was the soups that were notable at Three Happiness, the busiest place down there.

I have tried all of the dishes noted above at Yue Yan and enjoyed them all. Of particular note, the lemon chicken is not too sweet which, honestly, most are (and frankly, I'd not have minded if it were even more tart). The mongolian beef uses green onions, which is both better than whole white onion and more...um, we're talking about American Chinese food so 'authenthic' is not quite the right word, so familiar might be the best word to use. It also includes whole (capless) fruit of some narrow red pepper (thai or perhaps arborio?) that give the dish a sweet/spicy motif (some leave the sweetness of the onions uncontrasted, I have no objective preference).

Among the dim sum I have, of course, had the siu mai and the steamed bao, with multiple fillings and while my palate for numerous Asian cuisines is rather broader and more normative than my palate for western condiments, I'm still a creature of habit. On my most recent visit, I asked Ms. Felicity to choose my menu for me and I walked away with enough food to feed me for the entire weekend.

Among the dishes recommended by the proprietress were the tangerine chicken, which as I've already said is really, really good, with a great, puffy batter and a lovely sweet, delicate flavor to the gelatinous orange 'sauce.' The potato dumplings feature deep fried batter around a curried potato filling that surprised me by its texture but was amazing, particularly the batter which was fried to an especially perfect, puffy crisp. The same can be said for the fried red bean paste balls, which have the sweet, gritty filling that any who have had a dish with the traditional red bean paste will know but which is otherwise hard to describe. These use enough of the batter/dough to be crispy on the outside and quite chewy on the inside, which, with the sweetness of the red beans, might make it ideal for a final course in an American household with conventional western palates, as it could very nearly be a dessert.

My favorite of the owner's recommendations was the fried pork chops, which are sliced, bone-in and breaded with either shallots or more green onions to garnish. The rice, of course, is always well made from a medium grained variety, neither crumbly nor overly sticky and the drippings from the pork chops, with a bit of added soy sauce, made an incredible covering (though not sufficient to flavor the entire box, where I'd normally have chosen at least one dish with such a sauce).

Overall, Yue Yan is always a great culinary experience, perfect for takeout or an unfancy lunch, though my more normative paternal grandmother might have sniffed at the decor for a sit-down family dinner out.

Highly recommended.