Never Eat Chinese Food in A City With No China Town. Our Dinner at Kam Yi.

A savvy Taiwanese friend and colleague told me this years ago when we were working together in Köln. Sage advice if ever I heard any.

So why did we do it? Decide to have dinner at Kam Yi? Well the plan was to eat at Manam, but as usual there was a line outside, I was cold and we thought ‘What the hell, let’s try something new!’

I had actually eaten there years ago (like, 12) when I first moved here. I ordered a Thai dish. I thought maybe that was my mistake, ordering something from the ‘Pan Asian’ menu rather than stick to something Chinese. Nein.

Our decision looked like a good one when we were seated next to a large round family-style table full of Chinese business men…but then I saw him, the old German dude in the middle. Their awkward English dinner conversation helped me quickly size up the situation; A German-Chinese business meeting and this clueless old German codger thought ‘Oh! I’ll take zem to zat vunderbares Chinese Restaurant in zee Motorama!’

Too be fair, our food wasn’t that bad. It was fine, in fact. It was just generic, run of the mill Chinese food. I ordered a soup with shrimp dumplings (I would eat it again.) Mr. Wahlmünchner, however, ordered a starter which, sort of tasted like burnt plastic, and then made the terrible blunder of ordering a Thai(!) curry (despite my warnings.)

I have heard people talk up Kam Yi. I’m curious, have you had a different experience? Should I give it another try? Is there a certain thing to order (like the Dim Sum?)