Recently in Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese Category

Chinese New Year

Fresh China in Santa Rosa has some solid Chinese eats

How does a restaurant last two decades? And not just last, but thrive. What keeps people coming back year after year, Friday night after Friday night, season after season? What brings in families, couples and seniors in equal number?

With Lynn's delicate touch in the kitchen and constant-presence in the dining room, it's a welcome relief to have another reasonably priced go-to Thai in town. Call it your appetite stimulus plan.

Despite a menu that runs for several pages, Thai Issan needs to go back to basics. The recently-opened Sebastapol restaurant may have bitten off a little more than it was ready to chew when it comes to flavorful Thai cooking

Your favorite Chinese Restaurants

Just a quick hit on the new Saigon Bistro in downtown Santa Rosa. BiteClub and Co. hit the revamped spot on Mendocino Ave. which previously housed the ill-fated Vivere, which was previously Nirvana, which was previously Tahini Grill. The interior hasn't undergone much change, aside from repainting and the upstairs balcony is slated to be open for dinner.

Time to tighten the money belt and suss out lunches with a slimmer economic profile. But hey, let's not get crazy. They've still got to taste, well, reasonably good.

Chicken feet and duck tongue have finally gone mainstream in Santa Rosa. And this, believe it or not, is a good thing. Because tag-teamed with these well-loved Chinese specialties are a whole mess of more easily translated dim sum dishes from San Francisco's historic Hang Ah restaurant. Think Shanghai dumplings, Shiu Mai, leaf-wrapped rice, potstickers and pork buns. Now serving the North Bay

Going Pinoy is the name of the game at Trisha's Lumpia House, Sonoma County's first (as far as anyone we talked to knows) Filipino restaurant. Hidden in Petaluma's G&G Shopping Center, Karen tells us that much of the clientele are curious, um, obviously non-Filipino eaters like us and she's always happy to walk folks through the menu. She locks us onto Pork Adobo, lumpia (think fried spring rolls), pancit noodles (think Pad Thai or chowmein) and Sitaw at Kalabasa (long beans and squash in coconut milk).

Steamed pork buns are a love 'em or hate 'em kind of thing. All puffy, white and doughy, they're a bit like eating a pillow stuffed with meat. There's a certain nursery-like comfort to them, as well, though. When done right (and they rarely are), they're a steamy, sweet-savory treat that has no real English translation "other than a sort of pork-filled jelly doughnut.