Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published December 16, 2005 Click here for the current edition Trey Yuen Post-K Ratings: B, 2$ Mandeville: 600 Causeway Blvd. 626-4476 Lunch Tues.-Fri. and Sun. Dinner Tues.-Sun. AE DC DS MC V It seemed impossible that Trey Yuen could be any busier than it was before Hurricane Katrina. But so many people moved to the North Shore to find places to live that the palatial Chinese restaurant did, indeed, find itself busier than at any other time in its history. Trey Yuen was open as soon as the Wong brothers could get back into town, regroup their workers, and get the doors open. They should have known that the crowds would be hot on their heels. "We had to close on Mondays again!" said Frank Wong. "It's the only way any of us can get an hour off! My employees needed one day to go in and pick up their relief checks!" When he said this, instead of being dressed in his usual dining rom clothes, he was wearing the garb of a working cook. "Gotta get back in the kitchen!" he said. "Everybody's cooking right now!" Indeed they are. James and Tommy Wong, too. That's how things were the first time I dined at Trey Yuen, in late October. When I came back a couple of weeks later, things had calmed down a bit. The dining room was every bit as full--you don't come here after six and expect to be seated anytime soon. But the staffing situation was enough under control that the unaccustomed harried look on Frank Wong's face had returned to its usual everything's-great smile. And instead of complaining about the work load, he was back to his usual gossip about what's going on in his part of the food world. Trey Yuen is almost certainly the most popular serious restaurant in west St. Tammany Parish. It's one of the few North Shore restaurants that's busy every night, not just weekends. It's also a great place to go if you're looking for someone. Everybody who lives in Mandeville makes his way there at least once in awhile. And, while you're there, it's inevitable that you'll see friends and associates from other connections. It is certainly one of the most-used venues for business lunches in the area, and not only because we have so few restaurants to choose from at the moment. Trey Yuen is a large restaurant. It doesn't stand out as much as it did before the Causeway approach was elevated and the trees grew around it. In 1980, when it opened, you couldn't drive past it without taking a look, and it must have really turned the heads of the uninitiated. It's still striking, inside and out. The gardens that surround the restaurant are full not only with exotic plants, but odd creatures, too. That loud blurp you just heard was a bullfrog. Yes, those are crawfish scuttling away from the big goldfish. Inside, the walls and ceilings rise high, decorated with antique Chinese panels brought in before the traffic in such things was stopped. Trey Yuen was a major innovator in its early days. Its many regulars force it to keep its menu steady now, although if you ask the right questions of the right people (especially if you're a regular), you'll be treated to unique dishes reserved for the curious. Some of these (notably Frank Wong's amazing Chinese gumbo, which tastes and looks like gumbo, but also tastes and looks Chinese) could become major hits if they were unleashed. The appetizer section has no surprises. It does, however, offer the best version of fried dumplings--a.k.a. "pot stickers"--to be had anywhere. The hot and sour soup is definitive. That owes to its being made to order, an extra effort that keeps the mushrooms in particular firm and fresh. The great creation of Trey Yuen's kitchen here is a sauce called tong-cho. It performs the miracle of tasting good with absolutely anything. One can check the veracity of that claim through the agency of the tong-cho platter, which splatters the stuff over almost every protein in the house. The flavor is a blend of spicy and sweet in a glistening, translucent matrix. I'd say my favorite match for it is a dish called wor shu op, a sort of updated version of Mandarin duck. But it's also great on oysters, pork, beef, chicken. . . anything. Trey Yuen's seafood is its other standout quality. They buy better fresh fish and shellfish than any other Chinese restaurant I know about, and have had the good taste to include many local specialties. You will always find crawfish and oysters. Often there will be soft-shell crabs, trout, and flounder. The alligator dishes are fascinating: the mild taste of that ferocious-sounding meat lends itself perfectly to this kind of cooking. Most of the seafood is fried one way or another, but they get creative as often as not with the cooking processes. In recent times I've found myself getting the moo-shu dishes a lot. The classic of the genre is moo-shu pork, in which the pork slices are cooked with thin sticks of vegetables, a light brown sauce with a savory flavor, and (the moo-shu aspect) curdles of egg scrambled into the hot dish. This is eaten by spooning the stuff into a flour tortilla (they used to make thin pancakes for this purpose, but decided that the tortillas were close enough), rolling it up, and eating it in your hands. They make moo-shu anything at Trey Yuen, but on a recent dinner when I felt like eating a little lighter than usual I ordered the intriguing vegetable moo-shu. This turned out, in my opinion, to provide a better taste than the meatier versions, and I've been stuck on it, even though I'm no vegetarian. Chicken's best forms here are the presidential chicken (this seems to me to be a lot like what other places call General Tso's chicken), the lemon chicken (unlike most, Trey Yuen's version actually sports a sauce), and the flaming chicken (make sure they burn ALL the alcohol out of this before serving it to you). Duck is always good here--not only the wor shu op but also the tea-smoked duck. There's a scattering of lamb along with the usual beef and pork. Obviously, all this works. Still, despite the undeniable popularity of the restaurant and its food, in many ways it's like a Creole restaurant that only serves oysters Rockefeller, shrimp remoulade, gumbo, trout amandine, and bread pudding. All those things are good, and so are spring rolls and hot and sour soup and lemon chicken. But I wish they'd install a specials menu with some bolder food. The Wong brothers are widely traveled and very skillful, and they know what's out there. I'd love to see them go nuts once in awhile. © 2005 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com