Year of the Takeout Day 157: Kingdom Food (A Tale of Two Soups and Piety!)

House Special Seafood Tomato Soup and House Special Yat Gaw Mein from Kingdom Food (170 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-599-2489)

Confession: we got a little confused tonight.

We ordered delivery from what seemed to be a new place, realizing it was a restaurant we had previously tried and that has seemingly changed names four times in recent months. (We haven’t kept track to see whether new nomenclature has been reflected in signage shifts, too.)

Turns out, our Kingdom Food used to be King’s Food, which was formerly known as Grace Food.

When we called to ask the owners what’s up — because holy shit, what is up? — they said that the eatery had previously been called Happy Garden, too, which was news to us. They emphasized, however, that the same management team had weathered all of these revamps. Worth noting, of course, is the vague evangelical motif.

And, unlike other Chinese restaurants — which have become a bastion for hungry non-believers, as they tend to operate on all holidays religious and legal — this one closes part of the day on Sunday. As per the menu:

Dear Customer: Sunday We Open On 3:00pm

We Are Attending Church Service in the Morning.

May God Bless You !”

How this brings us back to soup, who knows? But we’ll get there!

Anyway (see, we did it!), did you know that the best way to stay cool on a hot day is to drink something even hotter, like soup or tea?

You didn’t? Well, that’s because it’s not true. At all.

In fact, ordering near-boiling broth was probably the dumbest thing we could have done in our air conditioning-less, top-floor steambox of an apartment, but who doesn’t try mysterious, anonymous seafood on a sultry summer day?

If Kingdom Food changed its name again, accidentally leading us to believe that we were ordering delivery from a new joint once more, we would hope to avoid this $4.95 quart. Baby shrimp and imitation crab, suspended in a thinner version of cornstarchy “lobster sauce,” just ain’t that great.

The $4.75 yat gaw mein, on the other hand: Yowzer!

The broth outright brimmed with fat, so much so that it was an almost opaque yellow. This gave the chicken stock an unusual intensity, making this meaty noodle soup anything but ordinary.