Sovandy Kien and her husband, Nouly Chhem, fell in love over food — pork fried rice, to be specific.

As young sweethearts in Cambodia, Chhem won over Kien with his repertoire of recipes. A self-taught cook, he had a knack for making friends through food, but it was a simple stir-fry of rice, soy sauce, vegetables and pork that stole Kien’s heart.

Her dream of opening a restaurant and his love of cooking aligned like stars. But when her family moved to Northern California eight years ago, he continued a cooking career in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Korea.

It would be nearly a decade before the couple opened their first American restaurant with the help of Kien’s sister, Kanha.

A dream realized

In late May, Kien and Chhem opened VN Flavor in a quiet corner of Raley’s Towne Center in Rohnert Park. A rotating cast of restaurants have occupied the space over the last five years, including an Asian bistro, a burger café and a bagel bakery.

VN Flavor might have escaped my notice if Press Democrat business reporter Melanie Nguyen hadn’t discovered that Kien’s sister Khana owns popular Savor Vietnamese Bistro in Santa Rosa and Windsor.

That led to more questions. Why would the Kien sisters open competing restaurants with similar menus?

The answer is simple, said Kien with a broad smile. After several years working at Savor, Kanha encouraged the couple to open their own restaurant in Rohnert Park, even helping fund the dream.

“I kept saying we weren’t ready,” said Kien. “But my husband said, ‘Trust me. I want to show people what I have.’”

A place of their own

The restaurant kitchen, with its noise and heat, is tucked away in the back, where Chhem reigns over pots of broth and a fiery grill. His garde manger is stocked with crushed peanuts, fragrant basil, limes, pickled carrots, cilantro and bean sprouts that garnish his flavor-packed dishes.

“When I’m cooking, I’m always thinking about my customers. I need to make it beautiful,” Chhem said. And it is.

But the L-shaped dining room has always been at odds with its function. The narrow seating area and spacious foyer work well for takeout, but previously felt disjointed for dining in. Kien has bridged that gap by personally bringing the steaming bowls of pho, crisp banh mi and sizzling short ribs to each table — creating a more connected experience.

“I just want to see this keep growing,” she said. “I hope we can open another (restaurant), maybe some day in Petaluma. But for us, it isn’t about the money. We really care about every customer.”

Best bets

Beef Combination Pho, $18: A long-simmered beef bone broth makes up the base for this hearty pho, filled with rice noodles, flank steak, brisket, meatballs and tripe. I’ve always shied away from beef pho due to its sometimes overpowering “cow” flavor, but Chhem’s clear, clean broth is soul-satisfying with its gentle fragrance and warm spices. The meat isn’t overly fatty, and the tripe has a satisfying chew without off flavors. I’m also a massive fan of the Wonton Egg Noodle Soup ($17), made with an 8-hour simmered chicken broth, pork-filled wontons and soft egg noodles.

Banh Mi, $13: The defining element of a great banh mi is the perfect baguette. Commercial soft rolls are too soft and crusty French baguettes are too hard. Kien bakes fresh mini baguettes every morning, with a gentle crisp crust and a pillow-soft interior that hits that Goldilocks zone. VN Flavor skips the traditional pâté on the baguette (which is a bummer, but not a deal-breaker), replacing it with a more American-friendly garlic mayo. The barbecue lemongrass pork is my favorite, but tofu, spicy pork, braised pork belly, crispy chicken and five-spice chicken are also available. Pickled carrots and daikon elevate this from a simple sando to a top-notch Vietnamese banh mi. Watch out for the sneaky jalapeños.

Korean BBQ Short Ribs, $22: At first, I ignored this entrée, but it turns out to be one of Chhem’s signature dishes. Thin flanken-style short ribs, cut across the bone, are marinated in a sweet-savory soy sauce and quickly flame-grilled. Crispy char and tender meat make this a finger-licking must-try.

Spicy Basil Fried Rice, $20: Spicy, wonderful fried rice that’s even better the next day. Like all fried rice.

House Special Vermicelli Noodle, $20: Cold rice noodles, shredded lettuce, barbecue pork, shrimp and a sliced egg roll doused in nuoc mam cham (a sweet, citrusy fish sauce) is my desert island meal. I could eat it every day and never tire of the sweet, sour, fatty, crispy, noodly wonder that is bún.

Vietnamese Desert, $9.95: Many Southeast Asian countries have a version of Chè Ba Màu, a refreshing drink made with crushed ice, coconut cream, lychee, brown sugar, daong, grass jelly, red beans and garbanzos. It’s not for everyone, but I love it (without the garbanzos).

VN Flavor is at 90 Raley’s Towne Center, Rohnert Park, 707-843-7585. No website; go to bit.ly/4laGOfq for online orders.

You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at heather.irwin@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.

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In a village outside Hanoi, Vietnam, an unassuming food vendor cooks what chef Tony Ounpamornchai considers the best banh xeo he’s ever had. The sizzling Vietnamese crepes stuffed with seafood and vegetables have been a street-food staple for centuries, favored by farmers working long days in the fields.

“This lady was making them come out just perfect every time,” Ounpamornchai said while sitting inside his newest restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen (formerly Tony’s Galley) in Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village shopping center.

Framed by the restaurant’s 500-gallon fish tank and its soothing purple glow, the longtime restaurateur talked about the sources for his culinary inspirations: walking the streets of large cities and small villages and observing what people eat.

“I just like to walk around towns and find things wherever I go. Traveling is part of my journey,” Ounpamornchai said.

Now 54, he’s getting personal with his menu, with dishes pulled from his childhood memories and the expansive culinary landscapes of Vietnam, Malaysia, Bali, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos.

Central to the Mandarin Kitchen menu are recipes from his family’s Chinese and Thai traditions. It’s the memories of learning to make his mother’s massaman curry and picking fresh water spinach from the pools around his family’s floating house in Thailand that are particularly powerful.

“This is truly the food that I love,” said Ounpamornchai, who is also executive chef and co-owner of Sea Thai Bistro, also in Montgomery Village, and Sea Noodle Bar, in Santa Rosa’s Coddingtown Shopping Center.

The former Tony’s Galley opened in 2021 with a seafood-focused menu and closed in late March. After a quick menu revamp, it reopened in early April as Mandarin Kitchen.

Ounpamornchai said the high cost of very perishable seafood led him to change the concept, though seafood still figures prominently on the new menu. Sea bass in banana leaves and sauteed eggplant with sea scallops are among the best dishes here.

The restaurant’s namesake, a mandarin orange, symbolizes luck and happiness, Ounpamornchai said. But with a menu this endearing and filled with happy memories, luck already has found Mandarin Kitchen.

Best Bets

Savory Vietnamese Crepe, $16: This hard-to-find street food is the perfect mix of sweet, savory, crisp and fresh. The sizzling crepe (“xeo” means sizzling in Vietnamese) is filled with prawns, bean sprouts and cabbage and is accompanied by a side of romaine lettuce, mint, fennel fronds, basil and cilantro meant to create a second shell of flavorful produce. The mix of cold greens and hot crepe dipped in chile sauce brings a surprise to every bite. It’s a must-order.

Stir-fried Morning Glory, $13 and Mee Goreng, $18: In Bali, you’ll find these staples at many warungs (small eateries) as a side dish to suckling pig or even for breakfast. Mandarin Kitchen’s smoky-sweet black soy sauce sticks to wide rice noodles that slip and slide off your chopsticks (use a fork instead). Chicken, fried tofu, egg, bean sprouts, bell peppers, mushrooms and zucchini round out the dish.

Grilled Sea Bass in Banana Leaves, $24: The star of this dish is Jungle Curry, a Thai-style curry studded with zingy red chiles and cooled with fresh herbs and perfumed makrut lime leaves, galangal and lemongrass. Mild sea bass swiped with curry paste is steamed in a banana leaf (adding a distinct earthy flavor) and served atop a pool of sweet-salty Chinese black bean sauce with onions and zucchini. It’s an incredibly unusual fusion dish, but worth checking out.

Sauteed Eggplant and Sea Scallops $24: At first, the combination of eggplant and seafood seems, well, odd. Initially, I didn’t order it. But on a second visit, I couldn’t resist the adventure. Five plump scallops float on a raft of sweet Chinese eggplant in a salty-sweet mix of soy and hoisin sauce studded with garlic bits. We couldn’t get enough of the sauce.

Matcha Green Tea Cheesecake, $10: Matcha is divisive. Either you love the herbaceous, slightly bitter green tea or you loathe it. In desserts, it can be overpowering, but the light touch of matcha mixed into a creamy crustless cheesecake is charming. Ounpamornchai also has a light hand with the scoop of sesame ice cream on top. The whole thing could easily come off as a mouthful of dirt with the intense earthy flavors of both, but it ends up perfectly balanced.

Other great picks: There’s almost too much to choose from, including other dishes we loved such as Hot and Sour Soup, $10; Shumai and Har Gow Dim Sum (lunch only), $12; and Chicken Massaman Curry, $20.

The restaurant has a full bar, with light and fruity cocktails including Beach, Please ($13) made with RumHaven Coconut Rum, pineapple liqueur, coconut milk, pineapple juice and orange juice; and the Magic Dragon ($13) with gin, dragon fruit, elderflower liqueur and fresh lemon. The standout, however, is the easygoing Easy On Me ($13) with a peculiar mix of bourbon, creme de peach liqueur and fresh lemon.

Mandarin Kitchen is located at 722 Village Court, Santa Rosa, 707-303-7007, mandarinkitchensr.com. Open 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 to 8:30 p.m. daily.

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(Update: Now known as Savor, the restaurant is focused exclusively on Vietnamese cuisine. You’ll find simple, fresh and tasty fare along with boba, milk teas and slushies. A recent remodel has updated the look and feel of the spot).

Tasty Vietnamese food at a donut shop? It’s a thing at Savor Vietnamese restaurant in Santa Rosa.

Though it seems like an odd pairing, there’s a long history of immigrants from southeast Asia opening donut shops that also serve the foods of their homeland. You can thank Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee who is widely credited for not only building his own donut empire in the 1980s but providing seed money for hundreds of other immigrants to purchase the high-profit sweet shops throughout the state.

 Formerly known as Corner Park Cafe, Savor had a slightly different trajectory, owned by longtime donut-maker Frank Whigham and his Cambodian wife, Champa, for more than a decade. The couple typically worked 18-hour days, sticking to fresh donuts of every strip. At 89, Frank was ready to retire, recently transferring ownership to Kanha Kien, another Cambodian who owns Santa Rosa’s Yo Panda. The Corporate Center Drive cafe offers — you guessed it — donuts and Vietnamese food.

Go for the pho, barbecue pork banh mi, fresh rolls, and noodle bowls, but save some room for mango shaved ice, a specialty. Mango ice cream is shaved into impossibly thin stacked ribbons of flavor, topped with a pile of fresh mango and sugar syrup. They’ve also got a taro root version with strawberries that’s a more exotic take.

Of course, you can’t leave without a couple of donuts too. 4275 Montgomery Dr, Santa Rosa.

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Lots of hubbub about the sudden closure of longtime Vietnamese destination, Simply Vietnam on Dutton Ave. in Santa Rosa. We sat down with co-owner Jon Nguyen at his family’s second location, Simply Vietnam Express (3381 Cleveland Ave, Santa Rosa), to see what happened and what’s in store.

“It’s been an emotional few weeks,” he said. After 10 years, the family was unable to come to an agreement on continued leasing terms with the property owner, according to Nguyen. “We were hoping to relocate, but couldn’t find anything,” Nguyen added.

The owner of the building did not immediately return calls.

So, the family has moved their operations to their second location. The team is working on the transfer, bringing staff, recipes and new equipment to the Cleveland Ave. location which has a smaller kitchen. “We’re not leaving. It’s the same owners, and we’re gonna tune this restaurant up,” Nguyen said.

Expect to see their stir fry, pho, and other favorite dishes, along with shaking beef and fried rice appear at Simply Vietnam Express. And, while the fast-casual tea, noodle and banh mi spot will remain a walk-up counter during the day, Nguyen plans sit-down restaurant seating after 4p.m. in the near future.

Current menu online at simplyvietnamexpress.com.

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I’m a banh mi junkie. If there’s a crusty roll somewhere with bbq pork, pickled veggies and a hunka jalapeno on it, you’ll probably find me noshing on it. An intrepid BiteClubber gave me the heads up on a Thuan Phat, a rough-around-the-edges Vietnamese cafe that recently opened on Santa Rosa Ave.

Expect little more than a walk-up counter with just a handful of stenciled menu items ranging from the aforementioned banh mi (which comes in various porky flavors from ham to bbq pork) to the very mysterious “Get Breakbread sandwich” and bbq pork vermicelli noodles with spring rolls.

Bring cash, because they don’t take anything else, and expect to do a lot of pointing and smiling to make sure that they’ve gotten your order mostly correct. Skip the Vietnamese coffee — it’s too sweet and comes premixed–and think about taking your order to go. There are only two tiny tables, so it can feel a bit like eating in someone’s kitchen — which depending on your level of daring can be awesome or awkward.

Thuan Phat: 3020 Santa Rosa Ave., Santa Rosa, 889-3966

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After moving from San Francisco to Santa Rosa last year, Hoang Cao and Paula Cruz-Cao couldn’t find the strong iced coffee drinks they craved.

They experimented with brewing Vietnamese iced coffee at home, and Hoang, who is first-generation Vietnamese-American, was struck by inspiration: Why not make condensed milk instead of using canned? No surprise, the sweet and creamy blend of dark-roast coffee and condensed milk over ice — ca-phe sua da — was a hit with friends. In July, the couple launched Phin Bar, a pop-up devoted to the craft of cocktail-inspired Vietnamese iced coffees.

“Los Angeles and New York have farm-to-coffee cocktails but no one had brought that concept here,” Paula said. To make the drinks, Hoang steeps ground beans in a phin (pronounced feen), a stainless-steel, single-cup filter popular in Vietnam. With the finesse of a hotshot bartender, he shakes up coffee, ice and condensed milk in a cocktail shaker.

The minimal menu includes the popular Phin & Earl, black coffee, condensed milk and an Earl Grey tea-infused syrup. Versions with muddled mint or lavender syrup and nondairy coconut condensed milk appeal to vegans and lactose lovers alike. Most of the ingredients are organic and sourced locally: The milk is from Clover Stornetta in Petaluma, the beans from Taylor Maid Farms in Sebastopol.

Find Phin Bar at the West End Farmers Market in Santa Rosa every Sunday through Dec. 13 and the Petaluma Farmers Market every other Saturday through Nov. 21. The company also caters and offers delivery.

“The response has been great,” Paula said. “People have told us this was much needed in Sonoma County.”

phinbar.com

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Get out your chopsticks because not one, not two, but three new Asian eateries have opened in the last month.  In Sebastopol, Eight Cuisine and Wine (7501 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol, 823-8189), it’s a geographically-inspired menu spanning the eight culinary regions of China — from spicy Szechuan and Hunan styles to Cantonese dim sum and lesser-known Northern Chinese culinary traditions.

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It’s a, well, Chinese menu of dishes, ranging from cream cheese wontons and minced chicken lettuce cups to sizzling rice soup, steamed dumplings, sweet sour pork and wok classics like Mongolian beef, mu shu, walnut prawns (natch) and Kung Pao chicken. Not enough to choose from? A number of dishes take a quick trip South to street-food inspired flavors of Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore with crowd-pleasers like fresh spring rolls, fried prawns, pad thai and spicy laska soup. Expect an upscale, but affordable experience in the new, eco-friendly space owned by the Sushi Tozai folks. http://www.eightcuisineandwine.com/

Nearby, Formosa Bistro (799 Gravenstein Hwy. South, Sebastopol, 823-6688) has replaced Tosaki Sushi, offering a massive menu of sushi, along with teriyaki, spring rolls, sweet sour pork and curry beef and dozens of other Asian entrees. One has to wonder how one kitchen can do it all. Lunch specials from 11:30a.m. to 3p.m. weekdays. In Santa Rosa, O Sushi! has opened in the heart of Roseland (433 Dutton Ave., Suite 2, 544-1799) in a revolving space that’s seen its share of culinary concepts come and go (Laotian, Indian, Ice Cream). It’s solid “strip mall” sushi, what most folks refer to as “utility sushi” for when the craving can’t be denied, but your wallet’s a bit thin.

The post Eight Cuisine and Wine, Sebastopol appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

The owners of Boathouse sushi have opened Kettles, a Vietnamese restaurant, near Coddingtown Mall.

The menu runs several pages, with familiar items like pho, bun (rice noodles) and banh mi (Vietnamese Sandwiches), but it’s worth straying a bit off the beaten path and tucking into some less known items including lime marinated beef carpaccio served in a cocktail glass; a Vietnamese crepe that’s sweet and savory, filled with shrimp and bean sprouts; iced coffee, served in a drip-pour glass with sweetened condensed milk and exotic fruit sodas with banana, strawberry or raspberry. Shaken Beef is a top pick, with tender cubes of filet mignon and sliced onions in garlic and fish sauce that’s rich with tart, umami and peppery flavors. Don’t worry about the name, though which refers to the cooking technique of shaking the pan, not the beef itself.

At the former Panda Buffet, 1202 W Steele Ln., Santa Rosa, 528-3747.

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Kettles Vietnamese Bistro has opened in Santa Rosa. A sister restaurant to the two Boathouse Sushi locations (Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa), the restaurant features Banh Mi, Pho, Clay Pot Chicken, Vietnamese Crepes and other Vietnamese specialties.

The restaurant at 1202 W. Steele Lane replaces Panda Palace.

More details to come….

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Mei Ibach always seems to have something cooking. From her involvement with last year’s market hit, Hot Cheese (with friend John Ash) to dim-sum and tea pairings, teaching at SRJC or working on new recipes, Ibach is a culinary whirlwind.

But her newest project may be the closest to her southeast Asian heritage: Banh Mi sandwiches and Asian sauces and curries.

Mei has already set up shop in Windsor at the Sunday farm market where she launched Malaysian Mei green and red curries, pineapple chutney and a peanut sauce recipe cultivated after tasting dozens of sauces in Singapore. Made with nuts she roasts herself, it’s slightly chunky, with hints of kefir lime leaves, fish sauce, chilies and lemongrass — not the peanut-butter sauce often served at Thai restaurants. “I begged and pleaded with a chef in Singapore to give me the recipe. I said, ‘I’ll make you famous!'” So what’s his name. “I’d have to look that up,” she laughs. Good enough to eat straight from the container, they’re $5 and $6 each.

Starting on Thursday nights in Windsor, along with alternative Saturdays at the Santa Rosa Veteran’s Hall Market, she’ll also be selling the coveted Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches from her stall as well. Stuffed with pulled pork, lemongrass chicken or five-spice tofu, they’re crunchy hoagie rolls with layered with mushroom pate, spiced homemade mayo, carrots, daikon, jalapenos, cilantro and cucumbers. Each gets a dousing with one of her curries or peanut sauce as well. For $6 they’re a steal with the culinary stamp of approval of several local chefs (John Ash and Roger Praplan from La Gare were early testers, along with several food writers).

Where to get Malaysian Mei sauces and banh mi…

Sauces only:
– 5/1 to Dec 18 – Sunday Windsor Farmer’s Market
– 2nd/Fourth Saturdays: Healdsburg Farmer’s Market

Sauces & Banh Mi:
– 6/16 through 8/24: Thursday Night Windsor Farmer’s Market
– Starting in June, first and third Saturdays: Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market (veteran’s building)

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