Shunning the spotlight, soft-spoken executive chef Jessie Yan nonetheless deserves center stage: She was one of Washington’s earliest female chefs, and she brought the first Asian noodle house to the metro area. Who can forget the noodle-eating frenzy downtownwhen Yan’s Oodles Noodles opened on 20th St. NW in 1995.
“Even from the first day, the restaurant was packed,” she says. “We couldn’t handle the business, day and night. People were willing to share tables. People even ‘bought’ a table for $20 because they didn’t want to wait in line. The concept and the menu items were so new that people wanted to try everything.”
After 18 months, Yan and her business partner, Vanessa Lim, moved to larger quarters and a bigger kitchen on 19th Street near K Street, and Oodles Noodles went on to make local food history; today the two have renamed the restaurant Nooshi, because the kitchen now offers noodle bowls, meat and fish entrées, and sushi.
Yan, who spends one-third of her time in her native Hong Kong, has other culinary triumphs to her credit. She has created and perfected the menu items for her neighborhood hangout, Spices restaurant in Cleveland Park, and she was the cooking genius behind the now-defunct Yanÿu, the very high-class Chinese restaurant adjacent to Spices on Connecticut Avenue.
“I opened Yanÿu because people thought Chinese food was so boring and oily. They had the wrong idea about Chinese cooking. We wanted customers to see the other side, such as the banquet style,” she says, adding that she did the cooking for staff and friends for any of the annual Chinese celebrations. “We wanted to eat something that was typical and fun.”
Yanÿu was both typical and fun and its menu featured several unforgettable dishes. Among these: Big Duck.
“It took me about one year to create the perfect Peking duck,” she says. “I tried 10 different varieties of duck, and finally found a good free-range variety. Then I had to create a really good duck sauce and find the best oven and the best fryer.” [Note: A rendition of Yanÿu’s Big Duck is on both Nooshi’s and Spices’ menus.]
From a country and culture where men usually don the chef’s toque and jacket, Yan has set herself apart even there.
“I cooked all the time at home. And then I went to restaurant kitchens and watched how to cook,” she says. “I would then go in the back door of the kitchen and always wait for the chefs to give me the recipes. I learned their secrets. They taught me the differences between restaurant and home cooking.”
Although Hong Kong is today’s restaurant paradise, Yan still cooks at home when she’s there.
“I can buy lots of fresh seafood,” she says, “so I make plenty of hot-pot meals.”
And her family seems amazed at her success.
“My family knew I liked to cook,” she says, “but they didn’t expect this. My mom says I cook better than she does.”
Lo Mein
Serves 2
Look for the fresh noodles in the refrigerator case of an Asian market.
1/2 pound chicken, beef or pork, thinly sliced
Cornstarch for sprinkling
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
12 ounces fresh Chinese egg noodles
3 ounces shredded Chinese cabbage
1 stalk green onion, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
3 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 ounces bean sprouts
Put the meat slices in a bowl, sprinkle them with cornstarch and two tablespoons of oil and marinate for 10 minutes.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles according to package directions, drain, and rinse with cold running water. Drain again.
Place a wok over high heat. Add the remaining two tablespoons of oil, and stir-fry the meat until cooked, three to four minutes. Add the cabbage, green onion, ginger, and garlic, and cook until fragrant.
Add the noodles, oyster sauce, soy sauces, and sesame oil, and continue stir-frying over high heat. Add the bean sprouts, stir-fry about 1 minute, and serve.
In Yan’s own words
Why did you become a chef?
From a very young age, I wanted to cook. I even wanted to be a hawker (street food vendor). I stood in front of noodle shops and watched for hours. Even sometimes people asked me to go away. … When I was 12 years old, I even tried cooking Western food. My siblings were happy because they could eat Western food with a knife and fork at home.
In Washington, what do you cook at home?
Always Asian food, though sometimes I make pasta in my style with white truffles.
What is your comfort food?
Noodle soup, with a very rich chicken broth with meatballs and fish, a typical Asian assortment.
How do you define your style?
At my restaurants, it’s not fusion and it’s not authentic. It’s my own style, a crossover of Asian cuisines. Spices’ Suicide Curry is an example. It’s very spicy, and we can’t take it off the menu. The name says it all. It calls for seven different chilies.
Which are your basic ingredients?
Ginger, garlic, green onions. More than 80 percent of my dishes call for these. Maybe 90 percent.
Which is your favorite restaurant?
Woo Lae Oak, but most often I go to a noodle place in Eden Center or downtown to Luigino’s.
What’s in your fridge?
Fruits. Milk. Chicken broth, always a good one in the freezer. Champagne. With Asian food, you cook from scratch, so you need to buy fresh and to buy a lot. Because these could go to waste, I pick up what I need from the restaurant.
