HFF Quickie: Uncle Yu's at the Vineyard

Growing up in the California suburbs there's one cuisine that you come to love more than any other: American Chinese food.

I'm not talking authentic Szechwuan cuisine or ducks' tongue congee. I'm talking General Tsou's chicken. Kung Pao chicken. Lemon chicken. All forms of chicken, pork, and etc loaded with deep-fried goodness and serious sweetness.

It's what mom or dad picks up on her or his way home from work when they don't want to cook. It's what you and your friends get for lunch when you go out to eat like grown-ups (but still can't spend more than $10 a person). It's what your parents tried every now and then to cook at home but could never get to taste as good as at Mandarin Garden down on the corner.

My dad always said it was the "dirty oil" at Chinese restaurants that made it taste so distinctive. If that's the case then dirty oil is delicious.

It's something that you don't find in the cities, but you'll find in every suburb (or even rural town) where a Chinese immigrant has set up shop to sell versions of cuisine from their home land delightfully corrupted for the American palate.

One of my great frustrations is that despite living in an area with a significant Chinese-American population, I have to return home over the hills to get really good American Chinese food. Everything out here is about authenticity, which is all well and good every now and then, but what about some nice Szechwuan eggplant and chicken chow mein on a $7.95 lunch special?

I had the pleasure of recently eating at the pinnacle of American Chinese: Uncle Yu's at the Vineyard in downtown Livermore. It was a family affair as we celebrated my brother's birthday, and everything we had was great. Only in the appetizers was there even a hint of "east-west" fusion, overall everything was authentically true to mid-20th century American Chinese food.

Duck spring rolls, dry-fried garlic green beans, fried eggplant, tender fried squid, chicken chow fun, fish in black bean sauce--it was fucking awesome. Flavors were thick without being overly salty, fried food was crisp and airy, meat was tender and of significantly better quality than most establishments of its ilk.

Plus there's none of the annoying gimmickry or pretension of a shitty-ass P.F. shitty shitty Chang Chang's.

But I have yet to get to the best part.... Uncle Yu's has an enormous wine list that offers a brilliant (if relatively conventional) array of wines from primarily California and France, including an enviable Alsatian selection to pair well with the cuisine. We enjoyed a great 2004 Guerra California Chardonnay and a pretty much flawless 2001 Pernand-Vergelesses red Burgundy with lightly steeped tannins and tasty cherry fruit.

Dinner was pretty reasonable too, about $190 for four of us for more than enough food (and that includes $90 on wine).

So there you have it. Uncle Yu's is the first restaurant east of Walnut Creek to get the HFF seal of approval. Pretty fucking great.

Uncle Yu's at the Vineyard
39 South Livermore Ave.
Livermore, Ca 94550
Reservations: 925-449-7000
www.uncleyuatthevineyard.com