VIRGINIA BEACH — Where can you find yock on the menu in our coastal city? What a fantastic street food to eat as a Friday or Saturday lunch or dinner with family or friends. There is no more unassuming dish to prepare, but yock is nearly nowhere to be found in Virginia Beach.
Yock is a Chinese-American dish that developed as a kind of regional soul food. It is sometimes found under different names, but it is not yock-a-mein to aficianados.
It is yock.
Being a gourmand, most friends usually see me as a pre-Google source for locating haute or regional cuisine. Maybe even something from their childhood. Or their parent’s favorite treat.
I asked Christine Newby of Green Run, who volunteers in the soup kitchen of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, about the sometimes-elusive yock. She thought for a minute.
“I make my own,” she said.
Michael Woodhouse, a Virginia Beach chef, agreed with her in the Basilica’s parish hall kitchen. It’s a traditional “old school” dish, but it can be hard to find.
A friend asked where he could buy some Yock without traveling to South Norfolk. The query vexed me. Where do you buy yock in Virginia Beach?
Yock is a simple dish created to provide a cheap, hot meal for the working class in the early 1930s. It was created as a lunch or quick take-home dinner for families. Some spots known for serving the dish sell its noodles for the home cook.
It’s easy to prepare in about 14 ounces of stock, and it can be high in protein. There is your choice of proteins, usually pork, shrimp or chicken. Add the required condiments of hard-boiled egg, catsup and chopped onion. It can be accompanied by red pepper inside a piece of wax paper to be cleverly folded in. Hot sauce – Texas Pete, in my experience, but try your favorite – and soy sauce are in the mix. It often comes in a white quart box that can be unfolded and used efficiently as a plate.
A quart of Yock goes a long way. It is an acquired taste, and it is a taste I have acquired. It’s delicious.
Anton Gunn, the author of The Audacity of Leadership and former Kempsville High School and University of South Carolina football star, recently visited his mother, Mona Gunn, who is president emeritus of the National Gold-Star Mothers.
She raised her sons in the Beach, and she fixes yock for him and his family on nearly every visit. A week later, the meal was on Facebook. His mother got a request from a former Beach resident in Florida asking where you can purchase yock in Virginia Beach?
Yock spots can be found mostly in Norfolk or South Norfolk, which is not so far.
“When I was growing up in the 1960s, I bought yock from Frisco and Toy Sun, both on Church Street in Norfolk,” said Rodney Johnson, a retired shipyard worker who lives in Indian Lakes with his wife, Dawn.
Both are yock lovers.
“Frisco was across from the House of Prayer,” he said. “Toy Sun was one block away across Princess Anne Road. Both places sold it for 35 cents a box.” He chuckled at the memory. “Now I get my yock from Mak’s Restaurant in South Norfolk. …
“We would send my sister-in-law five-pound packages of dry noodles and soy sauce to New York, so she could make her yock because she could not buy yock there,” Johnson added. “Her neighbors loved it the few times she would be lucky enough to share it with them, but they couldn’t get it because they had never heard of it.”
“I played with the ingredients until I achieved the taste I was looking for,” said Thea Cromwell, who lives in College Park. She “fixes” yock for her church family and childhood friends about twice a year.
“When I was growing up, yock was always available in most Chinese restaurants, but you have to go home,” she said, noting that cupboards sometimes helped fill out the flavor. “Add the condiments to your container to achieve the taste you desire.”
Cromwell has her signature ketchup-soy sauce combination that her crew likes. She does all the work. They stir and enjoy.
“I live in Woodland Meadows, a subdivision of Green Run,” Addison Porterfield told me. “If I want a box, I’ll usually go to Ming’s on Lynnhaven Road, about 15 minutes away from the house. But if I want some good yock, I’ll jump in my car and drive somewhere in Norfolk may be to Chen Garden on Church Street or maybe Kin’s Wok at Wards Corner.”
Yock can become habit-forming. You just want some sometimes, and you search for the right spot. You never have to add more ketchup to “good yock.” Somehow it’s always served with a perfect amount.
It’s a regional dish with a unique flavor. It can be a bit hard to find, but fans know where to look. Or make it themselves.
The author is a writer and documentary filmmaker who grew up in Norfolk and lived in Virginia Beach for much of his life. He ran a production company, worked in college athletics and was curator at an art gallery in Virginia Beach for years.
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