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“Yumcha-- CLOSED”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	West Village	Moderate	Great

Friends, wait, there is more.

The Peking Duck Breast ($24)—marinated in Black Chinese vinegar, sherry wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, palm sugar and hoison Sauce—was much juicier and flavorful than I seem to recall a duck ever being. It was served in neat domino-sized slices with a spring onion crepe, sort of like a pancake. The Slow Baked Atlantic Halibut ($23) was silky in texture, crowned with a fine dice of sausages and black beans, wading in a pool of rich broth made from Chinese Lapchoung sausages (a very sweet sausage), infused with garlic, ginger, and shallots. That sausage soup was YUMMY. If you are a tofu fan, you’ll love his Silken Tofu ($16) given serious amounts of flavor from aged soy sauce and finger chiles. The Szechwan Dusted Beef Tenderloin ($24) was, like the duck, shocking in that the meat was ridiculously tender and intensely saturated with flavor. It came balanced on squat, tree stump-shaped slices of super-soft, chile-flamed Japanese eggplant. But the most startling entrée of all was a crock-pot of slow braised Ginger-Lacquered Veal Cheeks ($23), the texture of which I have never experienced before. The reason? You guessed right—that pineapple braising liquid. It is magic. (I am braising everything in this from now on.) The melting cheeks are served in an apple cider broth spiced up with fresh ginger and stocked with plenty of silky rice and firm slices of apple. The guys at my table were all hogging the last bits, though they did save a little for me. Awwww. We also ordered some Curried Fried Rice ($5), a spectacular creation of chewy, nutty rice that tasted almost like faro to me, flecked with chunks of ham and charred vegetables, nudged up to a neon-colored curry cream that gives the rice an extra special zing. Absolutely fabulous. I could not let it leave the table until desserts was planted in front of me.

While Frank Bruni indicated in his Diner’s Journal that he was hungry after dining at Yumcha, we were quite sated (and very happy) after dinner. We did still had room for desserts—and so we ordered a few of them—firm fried beignets in a condensed milk fondue ($7), a terrific Green Tea Pot de Crème ($7), and a Peanut Butter Cheesecake Mousse ($8) that the guys loved but I found too sweet and creamy. It needed some texture and some balance. But the homemade ice creams were dee-vine.

Okay, now I will tell you about my singular issue with Yumcha. (A ... [more, click below]

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Posted: April 24, 2005

Other restaurants in West Village :
+ Jefferson-- Closed   + La Palapa Rockola   + Sumile   + Babbo   + Tasca   + AOC Bedford   + Home   + The Spotted Pig   + Barbuto   + Numero 26   + Mas   + August   + Alta   + Cru   + Blue Mill Tavern-- Closed   + Employees Only   + Lassi   + Metropol--Closed   + Turks and Frogs   + Bellavitae   + Yumcha-- CLOSED   + Gusto: SEE EARLIER REVIEW; THIS CHEF HAS LEFT GUSTO   + Perry Street   + Home   + Ditch Plains   + The Little Owl   + Cafe Condesa   + Cafe Cluny   + Gusto   + The Waverly Inn   + Morandi   + P*ONG   + Perilla   + Soto   + Market Table   + Centro Vinoteca   + Barfry   + Dell'Anima   + Bar Blanc   + Smith's   + Commerce   + Elettaria   + Bar Q   + Cabrito   + 10 Downing   + Minetta Tavern   + Braeburn   + Scuderia, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Bar Blanc Bistro by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Joseph Leonard   + Bar Henry, by Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Kin Shop   + Monument Lane   + Wong   + Bin on Bleecker, by Dara Pollak   + Ristorante Rafele   + Cole's Greenwich Village by Guest Reviewer Claire Jaffe   

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