Just by looking at the storefronts, you can't get a good sense of the seating arrangements inside the former Yun Nan Flavour Snack and the transplanted, expanded Yun Nan Flavour Garden. With good timing, the first might have accommodated our party of five, but at the second we were actually able to sit together, and at a table, not beside a window ledge. The new operation as a whole, however, is still settling in.
The menu — now a laminated handout, no longer simply a succinct menu board — has also been expanded, though many items are still in the planning stages. Whole sections of rice-cake dishes and pickled appetizers are unavailable; there's no firm due date for the arrival of "small farm," "triple red," and "triple black." These cryptic names bring to mind a dish at the old location that was pulled from the menu sometime after my first visit; I never did try the noodles with "coconut skin."
However, the most famous dish of Yunnan — a Chinese province immediately south of Sichuan, and that borders Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam — has finally splashed down in Sunset Park. "Crossing the bridge" noodles ($8.75) owe their name, according to the most common tale of yore, to the diligence of a wife who carried meals to her scholar-husband's place of study. Her chicken noodle soup was best, she found, when the broth and the additional ingredients were transported in separate containers, then combined to cook quickly just before being served. The first photo below shows the add-ins: a heap of slippery rice noodles, a plate of beancurd skin, bean sprouts, and Chinese chives, a single quail egg, thin slices of ham, and chunks of black chicken. An extra $2 secures a tilapia filet or a complement of beef or lamb. The oily broth, which arrived some minutes later, is also prepared using black chicken, which is gamier and not as meaty as most paler breeds. The noodle soup is ultimately ladled out in individual bowls; the flavor is delicate, almost to the point of blandness, until seasoned to taste with chili and vinegar.
You might preface or accompany your noodles with one or more cold appetizers (about $3 each), such as potatoes, seaweed, lotus root, and cucumber. They'll seem pedestrian, however, once the dumplings in hot-and-sour sauce ($5.25) hit the table. If there's more than two of you, figure on ordering seconds.
The dumplings are as good as ever; the interplay of sourness and spiciness is a delight. At the old Flavour Snack they were surpassed only by one of the various single-serving rice-noodle bowls, featuring "spicy meat sauce" ($5.25). The final photo below, taken some years back, shows the dish in all its glory: a tangle of thick, toothsome noodles surmounted by ground pork, chopped fresh and preserved vegetables, and a dab of purplish sauce, applied by the chef-owner in a Chinese version of the "fresh pepper?" routine.
That personalized touch was absent on a recent visit — the owner, who now oversees a kitchen crew, was also contending with a full dining room — and the sourness of the dish was nearly supplanted by an out-of-character sweetness. I'm hoping that old hot-and-sour flavor is revived before the next time I pop in. Where else would you find such a wonderful Yunnan lunch for one?
Yun Nan Flavour Garden
5121 Eighth Ave. (51st-52nd Sts.), Sunset Park, Brooklyn
718-633-3090
