Yuet Lee

Chinese cooking is deceptive. Sure it looks easy, all the meats and vegetables are cut into bite size pieces, stir fried quickly and swathed in some kind of sauce. Simple huh? Not so.

Too many places offer up greasy, starchy messes drenched in brown sauce. Where are the tasty Asian morsels that offer that perfect balance of salty, sweet, spicy and savory? Yuet Lee is the answer.

Don't come here if you are looking for Jade Lions or gurgling waterfalls. The building is green. Lime green. Yes, it looks like bad diner hell, but you if you want pretty, pretty, go to Empress of China. The food is crap there and the sanitation is enough to make your head spin, but it sure is pretty there.

The bathroom is sketchy, I will admit, but the kitchen is open and you can see Timmy cooking so there is no mystery about the way your food is being prepared. Try saying that about just about any place in Chinatown. If I had a choice between sweet smelling bathroom but kitchen practices close to getting the place shut down, or an open kitchen where the food being put in my body is fresh, and well prepared in an environment where I can see every step...well, enough said.

Jook.

Ah, there is nothing more satisfying than a tasty bowl of rice porridge! Yuet Lee offers a very tasty one. I never go there without getting at least a bowl of it for me. Sometimes, the chef sends us a fantastic soup to start, but he knows I also want my jook. It will fill you up, warm your insides, leave you contented and full and it just tastes warm, savory and delightful!

Salt and Pepper Calamari.

This is my other favorite. Crisp and fried just right, the salty-spicy coating is the perfect texture and the squid underneath is done perfectly. The pepper sauce they send with it brings an extra bite to the dish and I would eat twice my weight in this dish if my arteries would let me. I can pretty much guarantee if it is just me eating there that I get a bowl of Beef and Cilantro Jook, a plate of Salt and Pepper Calamari and I am a happy, happy girl.

Shrimp and Scrambled Eggs.

This is my friend Bill's favorite dish and it isn't one I would have ever thought to be a show stopper. But it usually is! Light and fluffy, the eggs are just this side of done and the shrimp are plump, fresh and perfect. The eggs are velvet and the shrimp skin has just the lightest snap when you bite in. This is a dish that just sings.

The portions are just huge, the wait staff takes a little to get used to, but remember, you are coming here for the food not the service. The prices are beyond reasonable and they stay open late. That is part of the charm for some. To me it is a sign of a good place when the chefs of another place come to Yuet Lee to get dinner when *they* get off work.

Keep your eye on street signs and make sure you don't get in trouble parking, bring cash if you can (the do take credit but I think that this might wind up being dropped as more trouble than it is worth) and do yourself a favor and see what the fuss is about.