One of the places I take people to eat is a popular restaurant called Joy Yee Noodles (located in Chinatown). It’s usually a popular place because of the smoothie station. During some parts of the summer the smoothie station will be set up like a small town ice cream shop where you order at the window, but usually there is a crowd in the doorway waiting on their drink orders or trying to decide staring up at the giant menu. They have a ton of options, many of different mixes, anything from the regular fruit smoothies to freezes, shaved ice and sprite concoctions. They have tapioca pearls*, jelly, miniature pearls, and popping boba. The popping boba is my favorite, I found out about them while in Prague at one of favorite tea places. They come in different flavors such as strawberry or mango and are small balls (smaller than the tapioca pearls) and filled with the liquid flavoring of whichever kind you get.
My default smoothie is taro. Taro is a corm, sort of like a root but not quite. It has a purple color whenever I get it as a drink (as a smoothie or in tea). Taro has a sweet nutty flavor. Another interesting flavor I’ve tried recently is the chocolate freeze with strawberry popping boba. It was a wonderful desert drink that reminded me of valentines day and chocolate covered strawberries.
Joy Yee Noodles in chinatown usually looks pretty packed, however give it a try, they have an upstairs that they use as well and the wait is rarely long, it’s the smoothie line usually that is so deceiving. They have a wide range of food and everything the people I’ve taken with me have tried they’ve loved. I usually get curry which is one of the few ‘spicy’ foods I can handle. (I have sensitive taste buds so table pepper is too spicy for me, however I enjoy spices which curry falls into the category of) I tend to get the chicken curry with the coconut fried rice. It use to come inside a hollowed out coconut but the restaurant has stopped doing that, but it’s still delicious, though I can never finish it because eventually it does get too spicy for me. The udon is also a popular choice when I take friends.
Note on Tapioca Pearls:
*I’m not super fond of these I can handle about three before getting tired of them, they are little squishy, chewy, black pearls that they fill the bottom of the drink with them. (You’re given a large straw) They can be found in bubble tea or the smoothies in chinatown. The tapioca pearls can be called Boba or bubbles. Popping Boba is completely different. They are small pearls with a clear covering and filled with a flavored liquid. So when you bite into one it explodes. They can come in many different flavors, such as lychee, strawberry, mango and more. Popping boba is one of my favorite additions to a smoothie.
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