Yung Kee, Oakland
888 Webster St
Oakland, CA 94607
This corner restaurant (Webster and 9th St) in Oakland Chinatown is desolated and they cheat.
In the afternoon, the entire Chinatown looks empty (I would learn later on from the locals that no one goes there anymore: a robbery a week is just too much to stomach … and less than $950 crime/offense committed has No Consequences in California ⇒ Google Proposition 47.) The diagonal crosswalk at the intersection recorded the former glory: how busy it was.
At 4pm, the restaurant was empty with one duck and two chickens hanging. I went in anyway, curious of its name. Yung Kee is a famous restaurant in Hong Kong that specializes in roast goose. Upon questioning their relation, the guy replied, “we’ve divorced.” My suspicion was, they just took the name and nothing more.
I ordered half duck and the last chunk of char siu (叉烧) BBQ pork, both cut into small pieces. When we got home and opened the container, there were very few pieces – the guy cheated on me. Whenever I go to Flushing, I always buy duck, and half duck filled the container to the brim. This container from Yung Kee is barely full but it has the duck AND the BBQ pork – missing a lot. If the missing pieces can help him to feed his family, so be it. The cheating part is confirmed by my cousin, “yes they do that indeed.”
The taste of the duck is ok. The texture is loose and soft, whereas the New York is lean and tight. In any case, I won’t return, assume if they last much longer.
The locals told me to go to Gum Kuo (388 9th St STE 182, Oakland, CA 94607), diagonal from Yung Kee, inside Pacific Renaissance Plaza. I saw it: lively, with many roasted chickens and duckies hanging by the window.
More Chinatown pix
