Sheldon said:
Carol 'Damsel' Peterson said:
I once worked in a Chinese restaurant where they served yetcamein soup.
The noodles were very similar to ramen noodles. They put quartered
hard boiled eggs on top, along with thinly sliced strips of chicken and
sliced green onions. Pretty good stuff!
You mean "Yatka Mein"... excellent, impressive... my favorite Chinese
restaurant soup.
They pronounced it "yaka mein," but they spelled it as above. I just
Googled both spellings, and they appear to be used interchangeably.
Quoted message said:The yatka mein noodles are not quite ramen, they're
very long and straight with a square cross section and they are not
fried, they are more like soba. Typically yatka mein is a meal in of
itself, a large tureen is served of stock the same as wanton soup stock
but with an immense quantity of yatka mein noodles, I'd say equal to
about the result of cooking a third of a pound of pasta. Then
depending on which one you order there are veggies, and meat... pork,
or chicken are typical, but the House Special Yatka Mein will contain
not only the veggies and the pork and chicken it'll contain shrimp and
lobster meat too.
At Shangri-La, where I worked, they only made it with chicken, and it
wasn't on the menu. They generally served it to their Chinese friends
when they had their Mah Jong nights. That's when I had my first
steamed buns with pork filling. I never had the nerve to try the
seaweed, but I was only 16 years old at the time.
Quoted message said:I haven't seen yatka mein on a menu in many years...
Try asking for it. I've successfully ordered it at several restaurants
where it wasn't on the menu. None compared with the stuff I got at
Shangri-La, though.
Quoted message said:last time I ordered it was at an ancient Brooklyn landmark restaurant,
Ave. P. & E. 2nd St.... changed names many times over the years but was
a frequent photo OP in NYC newpapers for some 50 years because it was
the third of a trio of adjacent stores, an Italian butcher, a Pizzeria,
and the Chinese Restaurant ocupied that same corner for all those
years. Can't remember how many times I ate at that Chinese restaurant,
gotta be thousands... in those days dishes were served steaming hot
under a stainless steel domed lid... a huge tureen of House Special
Yatka Mein cost 35¢, was really a meal for two.
Absolutely. I love the stuff, and could never finish an order!
Quoted message said:A large order of
spare ribs was 25¢, an egg roll was a dime. When I went with my
mother I'd treat her to the House Special Yatka Mein, the large spare
ribs, and we'd each have an egg roll... a $1 with the tip. Oh, and
yatka mein was considered a full meal so it included dessert, and since
we were steady customers we got a dessert each; vanilla ice cream
topped with kumquats was our favorite, came with fortune cookies of
course. Sometimes we'd spring for a 10¢ bag of lychee nuts on the way
out to eat on the walk home. Hey, when you're 12 years old you can
treat your mother to dinner.
That's a great remembrance. I'm happy that you and your mom had such
special times together. 🙂
Carol