“There are Chinese menus and there are Chinese menus. Sometimes–especially when there are pictures–one can puzzle out what is being offered, compare it to the English menu, and try to get the dishes to line up. And sometimes there are brief descriptions in English–especially when it’s not a real secret Chinese menu.

But at Yea’s, faced with columns of Mandarin, no pictures, no symbols, no descriptions of any kind that I could read without a year’s study, a private tutor, or a friend who could speak Chinese, I was flummoxed. All I could do was imagine what Yea’s Chinese customers were eating, and the more frustrated I got, the more wild my flights of fancy became. I stared at the Chinese menu for way too long, trying to will myself into being able to read the tiny, lovely script, but to no avail. Spanish I can handle. French, too. Even some Vietnamese I can recognize like that chimp who learned sign language–repetition over years making me familiar with the shapes of certain words and letters. But Chinese was beyond me.”From this week’s review of Yea’s Wok in Newcastle.My first time at Yea’s Wok, I was there for takeout. It was a gut decision: I was in the neighborhood, I was hungry and Yea’s was right there. I could’ve gone with the Mexican place close by. I could’ve eaten Italian or gotten a sub or had Thai or bar food. All of this was available, within a block, maybe two. Out in Strip Mall Country, borders become meaningless and food cultures tend to smear together into a blur. I wasn’t expecting much of the place when I first rolled up, almost a year ago now. But I was surprised in the best possible ways.This week’s review of Yea’s is all about happy accidents, dedication, and getting what you want by any means necessary. It’s about restaurants with secret menus and the madness that can inspire in those hunting after the hit of weirdness and oddity that such things promise. It’s about food memories and how they can drive us for decades.Finally, it’s also about Yea’s–just another Chinese restaurant in an Eastside strip mall, a place you could drive by a hundred times without ever giving it a second glance. I stopped there just by chance. I continued stopping there, once or twice a month, for a year on purpose. But you’ll just have to read tomorrow’s review to find out why.Follow Voracious on Twitter and Facebook.