MATTERS OF TASTE
Yo Ja, 25 Rehov Emek Refaim, Jerusalem. Open Sunday through Thursday, noon to 11 p.m., Friday before Shabbat and Saturday night after Shabbat. (Kosher.)

Yo Ja is one of the latest in a long line of restaurants that have opened in Rehov Emek Refaim, turning the capital's picturesque German Colony into a new, almost all kosher, entertainment area. Most of the restaurants and cafes offer vegetarian, dairy, and fish menus, but Yo Ja, which offers an Asian cuisine, is one of the few specializing in meat dishes.

Although it is located in a typical old building, the decor is sleek, with light-wood tables and chairs. The main attraction is the open kitchen where one can watch the chefs wield their woks. On the night of our visit, the service was amateurish but enthusiastic.

Even before being served our meal, we received a bowl of fried noodles with a sweet sauce in which to dip them. The menu offers several types of dumplings, nearly all with rather fanciful names that don't really say what they are. However, our waitress recommended those which the menu simply listed, in phonetic Hebrew, as "dumplings." Served in a bamboo steaming basket, they consisted of five light packets of dough, filled with a spicy meat and vegetable mixture.

Yo Ja is a restaurant which provides diners with both knives and forks and disposable chop sticks and I was happy that the dumplings were of a size and shape which made it easy to pick them up with the chop sticks. They were also very tasty and the noodle covering was not overly thick.

The dumplings came with two sauces, one a fairly conventional soy sauce and the other, described as a tamarind sauce, which seemed to include peanuts and was both slightly sweet and slightly hot. If I have any complaint at all, and it is a minor one, it is that the dishes containing the dipping sauce are too small to hold the dumplings easily.

Although the restaurant has several noodle dishes - and I have tried and enjoyed some of them in the past - we decided to have some of the other main courses. I ordered something called the "Last Emperor," a stir-fry dish of tender pieces of chicken breast with sliced peppers, onions, and celery. Aside from being beautifully presented, with the different colored pieces of crisp pepper highlighting the white chicken, it was also delicious.

However, in a fit of health-consciousness, I ordered brown rice alongside and this was a mistake. The rice was tasteless and not really suitable for the dish.

My companion tried a creation called "Jakarta," which included stir-fried beef and vegetables in a very mild curry sauce. The beef was tender, the sauce was very tasty, and the white rice was a wise choice.

There are several desserts on the menu, including one intriguing parve cheesecake, but we were already quite full.

Had we had dessert, it would have slightly increased the bill from the very reasonable NIS 129 for the two of us, including soft drinks. This is definitely a place to try.

- Haim Shapiro

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