We spent Xmas, as always, with friends in DC eating Chinese and seeing movies. But this Xmas was special. The Yenching Palace was closing and we had to bid this institution on the corner of Connecticut Ave. and Porter Street in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of DC, adieu.

Some have referred to the Yenching (known as the Yench in our family) as the Wretched Palace but we all loved it. When my daughter was small, she and her two best friends, (known collectively around the ‘hood as “the two Sarahs”), with mothers in tow, would dine on Fried Two Kind at the Yench. With apologies to Michael Pollan, if the worst thing about Fried Two Kind was that this particular mystery meat was corn fed, then our kids got off relatively unscathed. They loved the stuff. In fact, it was one of the few foods any of them would eat. So far, Fried Two Kind (one part chicken bits, one part mystery beef) seems to have inflicted no damage on anyone’s constitution. To commemorate the passing of the Yench, we ordered it last night. Apparently, nostalgia reigned in DC this Christmas day; the place, usually empty, was packed.

According to local lore, the Yench was the site of several Chinese-American diplomatic encounters during its 55-year reign, but for us, the Yench will always be the neighborhood joint we loved to hate.

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