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Restaurant ReviewDe Yi Ju: Fantastic House Yunnan Mansion Eatery (Kunming, China)
| 0871-3633555
| just off Jin Ma Bi Ji Fang Square,
Kunming, China
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Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Spring Volume: 2012 Issue: 19(1) page: 25
This eatery, in English, is known as Fantastic House Yunnan Mansion Eatery. Owned for about five years by an ex-reporter, it is in a one hundred-fifty-year-old gray stone Qing Dynasty house. It and its two-story court-yard once had a rich family in residence. Then and now it is near Kunming's Jin Ma Bi Ji Fang Square; and eating here should be on your agenda.
The gorgeous menu inside a simple black exterior has magnificent color photographs of dozens of the dishes they serve. They whet the appetite be they called Iced Gastrodia Elata, Steam Pot Smelly Bean Curd, Truffle and Cod Fish, Steamed Pork and Yunnan Wild Herbs, Wind Dried Beef with Plum shown below, Rose Pies, A tower of Dung Po Pork, also Wotou, hich are steamed corn flour buns. There are dozens of them, each a beautiful picture, each dish arriving as illustrated, and each one served in an equally beautiful environment.
All the dishes offer many flavors of Yunnan, each one coming on a different dish or wooden box, each one looking as lovely as the picture from which ones orders. We had a dozen of them as a family meal, each dish served one by one as if we had ordered a banquet.
The dishes have both classic and modern tastes and extra modern looks. Each one tastes terrific, is presented magnificently on its gorgeous serving plate or wooden container, every one so beautiful it elicites many an ooh! and an ahh! They befit the lovely two-story building, are served by elegantly dressed staff, and prepared by a talented team in the kitchen. Words can hardly describe their beauty, and we can hardly detail their deliciousness. We have selected a subset of pictures to speak for their beauty and will waste no words to detract from how great they tasted. Other pictures are in the hard copy of this issue. 
Illustrated in the hard copy of this issue is the restaurant exterior and half of the dishes we enjoy. Some include: Iced Gastrodia Elata, Truffles and Cod Fish, Steamed Pork, Edible Fungus, and Walnut Cakes.
A friend of the owner drops in and joins us at the lunch we had there. She raises organic vegetables and advises there are twenty-three licensed organic farms, hers qualified for eight years and is among the only three qualifying for that long. 
Looking back on that magnificent meal, we know we ate in a wonderful place, enjoyed beautiful dishes that tasted great, were prepared with great talent, and this restaurant represents the forefront of where modern classic Chinese food really is and should be.
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