Today I wanted to share with you the BEST Chinese food Chris and I have found since moving out here to Mooresville. As I've said before, we are pretty picky when it comes to Chinese food (all Asian food, really), and have been disappointed for the most part with everything that we've tried. Until now. A few weeks ago we were sitting at home, craving some dumplings, so I searched Google for nearby Chinese take-out joints. This place called Yami popped up - it was only about two miles away and had decent overall ratings, so we figured we'd give it a shot. We ordered somewhere around $30 worth of food (if you're going to try it, you have to go all out, right?) and, judging by how busy they sounded on the phone, took that as a positive sign. To say that their food was good is an understatement - this is probably the best Chinese food I've ever had (and that's saying a lot)! I'll start with the dumplings.
When we lived in Rocky Point, we used to order Chinese food from Jade Garden, which was five minutes from our house, and they used to make their dumpling wrappers from scratch, which really is the best way to have them. Unfortunately, about a year ago they started using the store-bought wrappers, so we stopped ordering them completely. In this day and age it's getting increasingly harder to find places that still hand-make their wrappers, but, luckily, Yami does, and the results were incredible. The dumplings were chewy and dense, which is exactly what you want, and the overall flavor was better than any dumplings we've ever had. Additionally, they were chock full of filling, not just a tiny dollop in the center but packed from edge to edge (as you can see in the above photo). What really set these apart from the others we've tried was the sauce. Generally, the dipping sauce that comes with dumplings is a mix of sweet and savory, with soy sauce being the base flavor. This particular sauce was all of the above but had some spicy undertones that left us craving more. It wasn't overwhelmingly salty, either, which can happen when you mix other condiments with soy sauce. After demolishing these, we had high hopes for the rest of the meal, and we were not disappointed.
Since having (and enjoying) the crab rangoon at Shiki, we thought we'd give the ones at Yami a try. These were absolutely delectable - fried just enough so they were crispy (but not so hard you broke a tooth while eating them), not oily or greasy at all, and, like with the dumplings, were loaded with both filling and flavor. These rangoon were accompanied by a sweet and sour sauce, and while I'm not typically a fan, this one had the perfect balance of both sweet and sour tastes, and was the ideal pairing with the crab and cream cheese. These were also polished off in no time, and we moved on to the main courses.
I know that General Tso's chicken is an incredibly Americanized dish that is on nearly every Chinese restaurant menu, but both Chris and I have recently fallen in love with it - when it's done right, that is. I've had it so many times, so many ways, and it varies from restaurant to restaurant and ranges from delicious to horrible. As with the rest of the food at Yami, this version was definitely done right! The chicken itself was moist and tender, and the pieces were actually identifiable as dark meat from the legs (unlike some places, where you can't tell which part of the bird you're eating - if it's even chicken at all). The sauce, again, was the perfect blend of sweet and savory, with a little heat thrown in there, and covered the chicken without drowning it. While devouring this dish we also started on the mei fun, which was the real star of the show...
Again, we used to always order the mei fun at Jade Garden (although we got the Singapore Special mei fun, which is a spicy, curried version), and, since we enjoyed theirs so much, we decided to try a variation on a theme and got the house special chow mei fun. I expected it to be much plainer but I was totally wrong. While it definitely didn't have the fieriness of the Singapore Special, it was not lacking in flavor at all. As you can see in the photo, it was laden with crab, shrimp, chicken, pork, egg and veggies, and had the most clean, amazing flavor... I can't even describe it. My mouth is literally salivating with the memory of it. The rice noodles were cooked perfectly so they were still chewy, and everything had obviously been cooked in some sort of stock or broth (chicken, perhaps) that gave it an extra savory undertone that was unlike anything else I've ever had. I was almost full by the time we got to this but I still ate more than I should have - that's how delicious it was!
To summarize, everything at Yami exceeded my wildest expectations. All of their food was extremely clean, flavorful and obviously prepared with care - they definitely take pride in their cooking. We ordered from them 4 times in a week, that's how impressed we were! I had read several mixed reviews so was initially apprehensive, but after having it multiple times and never being disappointed, I have to conclude that, whoever gave them a less than stellar rating must either have gone on an off-night (which happens), or else they can't recognize quality food when they eat it. Since we ordered so much food we had leftovers the next day, and all the food was just as good (if not better) when re-heated, from the crab rangoon to the mei fun. I definitely give these guys 5 stars all around, and, honestly, after writing this post I am actually craving some more of their food so maybe I'll be able to talk Chris into ordering some after work tonight!
I'll leave you with this quote today: "As long as there's pasta and Chinese food in the world, I'm okay," - Michael Chang
He's preaching to the choir here! Have a great rest of your weeks!
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