Yoz serves two dishes with guihua duck, though I'm unclear whether either one contains guihua, or osmanthus.
True, osmanthus flowers do have culinary uses, even in stir-fries, but their delicate aroma might fare poorly in a hearty bowl of soup. Furthermore, some accounts maintain that guihua duck was named purely for its popularity during China's Mid-Autumn Festival, when the flowers happen to be in bloom, or from other ingredients whose aroma evokes osmanthus.
Osmanthus or no, there's much to enjoy in duck noodle soup with guihua duck ($7.50): duck meat, duck liver, congealed and sliced duck blood, and what the menu labels (in Chinese) duck treasure, all in generous supply, plus wads of fried bean curd and hanks of slippery cellophane noodles. Some of the "treasure" appears in the bottom right of my bowl; these curvy slices, both chewy and delicately crunchy, are more commonly called gizzard.
The diner in line ahead of me, who ordered the same soup, seasoned his bowlful with Zhejiang black vinegar; I preferred black pepper. On this occasion, neither of us followed the guidance of the ancient, yellowed flyer taped to the counter, whose larger illustration recapitulates the ingredients: One hand is for the soup spoon, the other is for skewers.
Yoz Shanghai Restaurant
New World Mall food court, stall 20
136-20 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
718-321-8525
Also upstairs at the Golden Mall, stall C3
41-28 Main St. (at 41st Rd.)
718-321-2663
