Yeung Shing menu reflects Chinese-American favorites
By Suzanne Cristallo
Along with chow mein, chop suey and egg foo yung, fortune cookies are the invention of Chinese-Americans. They are the traditional capper for a meal served in almost any American restaurant serving Chinese food. The plain, griddle-baked wafers may leave taste buds flat, but the little strips of paper inside them bearing messages from "You will win lots of money" to "A long trip is in your future" provide a happy ending for the meal.
"I like them very much," smiles Helen Li, who co-owns the Yeung Shing Restaurant in Los Gatos with her brother, Yi Xin Wu. She says the most popular fortune is the one predicting a happy and healthy life.
Besides nearly 18 versions of Chinese-American dishes, Li and Wu also serve Cantonese, Mandarin and Szechuan cuisine, traditional cooking styles they were eager to share with Americans when they bought their restaurant three years ago.
"It was a chance to bring our traditional foods here," she says, reflecting on her emigration in 1991 from Canton, China, where she and her brother grew up working in their parents' restaurant. "I have spent my whole life in a restaurant," she notes.
At Yeung Shing, the menu lists 163 items, with something for every taste: pork, lamb, chicken, beef, seafood, soups, vegetables and rice. Children command special attention. Their small hands do well with the fried shrimp and chicken wing finger foods for $5.25. Of course, the fried crab puffs may tend to stimulate questions along the lines of "What's that?" But fortune cookies remain a familiar favorite.
"Everything is homemade," Yi says. "We serve healthy foods with no MSG [monosodium glutamate]." A staff of eight in addition to Yi and Wu hustle to serve the big luncheon crowd--mostly medical personnel from the nearby Community Hospital of Los Gatos and high-tech neighbors in the surrounding office parks. Take-out and catering for business meetings is a big part of the trade.
Part of the attraction is the lunch special: a three-item combo dish of walnut prawns or lemon chicken with chicken salad and fried rice for $7.25. A particularly hot summer day might bring a run on orders for the cool-sounding cashew prawns with mushrooms, water chestnuts and sweet corn in a garlic sauce or sliced chicken with snow peas, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts.
On a cold day, comfort might be found in a big bowl of deluxe sizzling rice soup or iron plate beef--sliced beef with broccoli, bok choy, carrots and water chestnuts in garlic sauce served on a heated iron plate.
While Yi has spent most of her life in a restaurant--all day and every day--she and her husband, Chuck Lim are planning a break in September when they expect their first child. "I think I will stay home with the baby," she muses.
And what kind of fortune does she wish for the child? "Health and intelligence," she says.
Yeung Shing Restaurant, 14107 S. Winchester Blvd. at Knowles Dr., Los Gatos. Open Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Sun. 3-9:30 p.m. 408.370.2032.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
