Yum Yum Spice Asian Cuisine, Denver

When hubby and I moved home the fall of 2016, among the things that made me really sad was the lack of good Chinese food. Say what you will but after Tokyo and a whirlwind tour of Taipei where J., hubby, and I stuffed as much yummy food as our tummies could handle, coming home to this "House Special Chowfun" below was down right depressing, to say the least. 

I'm not going to name this offending restaurant but suffice to say I never went back :( Boo. Hiss.

On one particular sad Friday night, I was desperate for something, anything, reminiscent of the yummy food we'd enjoyed in Taipei. J. also happened to be visiting from SF that weekend and so I took to the internet and came upon this Yum Yum Spice Asian Cuisine in Denver.

Seriously, my first honest-to-god thoughts were: Is this place a joke? What kind of name is that? Not to mention it's a bit far for us as we were still living in Boulder at the time and the place is near Denver University, a good 45mins' drive away. But hey, will travel for food. That, and the pictures on Yelp looked enticing enough. J. was particularly taken with the photos of Mapo Tofu so off we went.

We got there right as the restaurant was opening. Half of the tables were already filled and all but one of them were of Mandarin-speaking patrons, all great signs so far. However, being unwitting first-timers we totally screwed up our meal and ordered all the wrong things like Mapo Tofu, bokchoy and shiitake, etc. The Chinese dudes at the table next to ours were snickering as we ordered, because they knew better. I'm not being sarcastic at all. You'll see why below.

The Mapo Tofu was okay. J. liked it well enough. I was more confused with what they labeled as 重慶辣子雞 (Chongjing Laziji) below. I've ordered the dish a few times on different occasions, and each time it came out differently and didn't even look like the photo in their own menu, much less looking or tasting anything remotely close to what hubby and I have had. Here's one take (my fav so far, actually) from Szechuan House (川妹子) in Hamilton, NJ. Here's another take from Kiki's in Taipei.

Another dish that confused me was the Stir Fried Noodles (below left). We pointed to the picture in the menu that looked a stir fried Cantonese egg noodles, but what came out was Combination Lomein. At this point, I was convinced the chef(s) was messing with us.

But D., you said due to the current situation, food posts will only be positive. So far, it sounds pretty damn negative.

That's because hubby and I didn't learn what was up until our third visit to the restaurant. Yes, after two disappointing and confusing tries, we still went for a third try, and perhaps that was why we were rewarded, or learned our lesson rather. We stopped looking at the menu and started looking around us, only to find that no one else had ordered any dishes. They all had this mini wok heated over a tea light, so we asked the waitress what it was. Her answer: 麻辣鍋 (mala guo, numbing spicy pot/griddle, or dry pot/griddle). Yes, believe it or not eating out all these years and hubby and I have not had 麻辣鍋, simply because we'd never come across it until now.

Technically, it's 麻辣香鍋 (mala xiang guo, numbing spicy fragrant pot), but here at Yum Yum Spice they split into a "non-spicy" 香鍋 (xiangguo, fragrant pot) that's already pretty zesty and flavorful and a 麻辣鍋 (mala guo) with a spice level I can adjust, 小辣 (xiaola, mild), 中辣 (zhongla, medium), and 大辣 (dala, hot). Each version comes in three sizes, a 小鍋 (xiaoguo, a single-person size pot for lunch only), 中鍋 (zhongguo, medium pot for two people), and a 大鍋 (daguo, large pot for 3+ people). When hubby and I go we always get 麻辣大鍋 (mala da guo) with 大辣 (dala, hot), and we never ordered anything else from the menu since. 

My god, this stuff speaks to my soul. It's flavorful. It's tongue-numbing. It's spicy. If this place weren't so far away I'd go every weekend and get leftovers for the rest of the week. It's that good. The basic toppings are potato strips, soy bean sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage. For extra toppings, I love 排骨 (paigu, pork ribs), shrimps, shiitake, 粉絲 (fensi, cellophane noodles), quail eggs, and tofu skin. We've tried a bunch of other things like lotus roots, fish balls, etc., but would always return to the others because they soak up the flavor so well.

Anyway, each time we go, hubby has to stop eating after a while because the spice gets to him, but I'd keep going until my tummy feels like it's going to burst. I literally cannot stop eating it. When J. was in town again for a visit, this time with her girls and boyfriend, we took them too. Before we went inside though, I had to prep the party that despite all the temptations on the menu, resist the urge and only order the 麻辣鍋. For a party of 6, we ordered three 麻辣大鍋 and everyone stuffed their faces silly. 

Once or twice hubby and I also tried their 麻辣湯鍋 (mala tang guo), the soupy version of the 麻辣鍋. It was good, but we didn't like it as much because the flavor seemed more diffused and diluted with the soup. So yeah, we definitely prefer the dry stir fry version.