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February 13, 2008
Jai Yun - What did I eat?
UPDATE: Chowhound thread
On our first night in San Francisco, we joined our friends for dinner at Jai Yun, a reservations-only restaurant that is reputed to serve the most authentic Chinese banquet food outside of China. It's so authentic, in fact, that no one there, chef, server, or bus boys, speak English. That made for a bit of an adventure, but we managed to communicate. At the end of the meal, the chef came out and we effusively thanked each other without actually exchanging any complete sentences - but I think he understood how much we enjoyed the meal.
The other quirk of this place is that you don't order - you just tell them how much you want to pay, and they start bringing out dishes. It is pretty awesome, and I'd be happy to eat this way more often. But the problem with not knowing what you're getting and not speaking the same language is that... we still don't really know what we ate! We could identify most of the primary components, but there are a couple that were completely mystifying:
A dish that looked like noodles in an egg sauce, except that the noodles were chewy like squid. They tasted mild and eggy, however, without a hint of seafood flavor, and absolutely delicious. MYSTERY SOLVED! This dish was abalone in egg whites.
The second mystery was something that looked like chicken knees, tasted like pork, and was clearly mostly cartilage... but a nice, chewable cartilage. MYSTERY SOLVED! Chowhounders weighed in, and it looks like it might just have been chicken knees after all!
Anyone have any clues?
About Food, by Erica McDaniel at 7:29 PM
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Comments
You are very brave Erica. I do like the concept of the restaurant though...
Posted by: Mallika at February 15, 2008 3:41 PM
Wow, YUM! Next time I am in the Bay Area I AM THERE.
Posted by: Anonymous at February 16, 2008 5:55 PM
Thanks!
Mallika - I love your blog!
Posted by: Erica at February 19, 2008 7:32 PM