Mie n Yu

For restaurant week, a good friend of mine reserved spots at a couple of restaurants to try. One of them was Mie n Yu in Georgetown. If I am not mistaken, this was formerly the spot where Hamburger Hamlet used to occupy during it's heydays in the 70s-80s before another failed restaurant, which name escapes me, before the Owners of Mie n Yu opened its doors in February 2003. I recall getting a few drinks at Mie n Yu at the bar and mostly ordering small plates rather than main course selections. The first thing i noticed with the decor was crowded and dark. It has it's thematic booths and rooms, which i think, adds to the experience of the visit. I don't know if I can describe it as having a "Tiki" feel, with drapes from the ceiling for soft touches.

Back then, they were serving Asian "Fusion" cuisine. Tim Miller joined Mie n Yu in August 2004 and recently transformed the menu as "Authentic Silk Road" cuisine. Upon glancing briefly, the menu is well conceived with "almost" exotic spices and description of its ingredients; they also sound very good from a marketing stand point.

So, biggest pet peeve I have with a menu such as this......brown!

It is my description of Art when too many colors are used to compose it; I believe in simplicity in any type of preparations. From simplicity comes flavors that are distinguishable; thyme taste like thyme, cumin compliments spicy flavors, oregano gives an earthy aroma yet sweet and pungent, and so forth.

With painting, when too many colors are used to compose, the result is mostly grey or Brown.

Similarly with food.

With that said; I see too many of these things......before even tasting it, I can already assume and most of the dishes will taste spicy (not hot, but indiscernable flavors).

Items such as Korean Bulgogi, Indonesian Scallop kare (curry), Chicken Rica Rica are on the menu as part of the main course selection.

Authentic Silk Road cuisine barely come to mind when one sees Indonesian and/or korean dishes on the menu. Indonesians rarely serve Scallops by itself (I am indonesian) and as far as I can recall Rica Rica is a term used in the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi (Celebes not Singapore) for hot and spicy. I also ponder using the term authentic Silk Road cuisine when the silk road stretched between Greece and China; Indonesia? Korea?

Aside from being Geographically challenged, I think the food preparation itself is at best mediocre. I opted for the Prix Fixe; starting with the Dumplings, followed by the Afghan Lamb and topped off by the Mandarin Mai Lo Go.

The dumplings are stuffed with ground beef mixed with (possibly) ginger, garlic and cilantro that tasted decent, but nothing to write home about....authentic.....not quite. The Afghan Lamb Kabobs were pretty nicely prepared but lack the bite and spiciness that lamb kabobs are meant to taste, or Am I confusing it to Tandoori? For dessert the "Mai Lo Go" was a mish mash of lychee and mandarin orange cake, more like cinnamon pudding in a creme anglaise bath with candied pecans tossed around it. A very nice and interesting concept on paper, but putting together citrus, with cinnamon in a rich creme anglaise sauce with lychee? Pretty poorly conceived in terms of flavor mixture and texture. There's plenty of such examples on Mie n Yu's menu that looks VERY good on paper, and I don't think that they are poorly executed.

I have yet to try their bar selections; as they've been dubbed as one of the world's destination bar.......whatever that means.

Overall, I think Mie n Yu presents a refreshing idea to an already watered down food selection in DC. I guess I'm partial to less innovation and more on perfection when it comes to food preparation. As I've prefaced so many times in my food blogs, simplicity is so key; perfecting the basics will eventually bring innovations.