Stylishly Asian

Orange Sesame Chinese Chicken at Eight Cuisine & Wine in Sebastopol. (Crista Jeremiason / The Press Democrat)

The idea behind Eight Cuisine and Wine in Sebastopol — or as the proprietors spell it, “Ei8ht” — is to offer a wide range of Asian food styles, not just the cuisine of a single culture.

And so there are dishes from some of the famous “eight culinary traditions of China,” from Japan and from Southeast Asia, including appetizers, small plates, side dishes, soups, salads, entrees and, most interestingly, some of the street foods of Southeast Asia.

Singapore Laksa

One that particularly caught the fancy of the quartet of diners at our table was the Singapore Laksa ($12 ***½), a delicious soup that’s a staple Nyonya street food in Malaysia and Singapore. It’s labeled “Nyonya” because during the Ming Dynasty (C.E. 1368-1644), an emperor cemented political ties by marrying his daughter to the Sultan of Malaysia. She and her retinue produced a generation of mixed Chinese-Malaysians that has come down to us today as the Peranakan culture, where the males are called “babas” and the females “nyonyas.” The nyonyas’ cooking melded Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisines in a delicious synthesis, which you can enjoy at Eight. The laksa is a rich, creamy coconut curry lavished with organic chicken, rendered citrusy with aromas of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, given a slight bitterness with candlenut and a piquant bite with hot chilies. As you dig down through all this goodness, you discover rice noodles garnished with cooked egg and chunks of sweet pineapple, all flavored with hints of mint, basil and cilantro.

The building that houses Eight was built from scratch with non-toxic materials to be solar-powered and energy-efficient. The main dining room is plain, but a second room contains a wine and beer bar and is a bit warmer and cozier. What can be improved is the service, which, though earnest, is sluggish.

The wine list reflects wise choices of beverages friendly to Asian food. A bottle of Seikyo junmai ginjo sake is $48. A 2009 S.A. Prum “Wehlener Sonnenuhr” Mosel, a light, refreshing Riesling, will also enhance this kind of food, and a bottle is $32. Among the many reds, the 2009 Goldeneye Pinot Noir from the Anderson Valley is a beautiful bottle of wine for $70, while a 2009 Stuhlmuller Cabernet Sauvignon goes for $48.

Mango with Grilled Lemongrass Prawn Salad

We chose sake to augment the Mango with Grilled Lemongrass Prawn Salad ($11 ***½), a hands-down winner as best dish of the evening. The kitchen whipped up a mango-lime dressing to dab onto a salad of snapping fresh organic greens, cubes of sweet and smooth mango, diced sweet onion and smoky grilled prawns. Stalks of grilled lemongrass added a hint of lemon.

A plate of Sichuan Salt and Pepper Calamari ($10 **) was less successful, and I’m guessing that you won’t find this dish in the landlocked Sichuan province of western China. Also, it’s made here with black pepper, not the Sichuan pepper that food writer Harold McGee says produces “a strange, tingling, buzzing, numbing sensation that is something like touching the terminals of a nine-volt battery to the tongue.” Further, the battered and fried pieces carry way too much oil, and the calamari inside can be chewy. These defects relate to the temperature of the oil in the deep fryer — something that can be easily fixed.

Things were set right by the arrival of a plate of Orange Sesame Chinese Chicken ($12 ***), small bites of griddled chicken coated in a tangy, citrusy orange sauce sprinkled with white sesame seeds. Fun to eat, sweet, and the kids will like it.

Sichuan Spicy Lamb

Sichuan Spicy Lamb ($18 ***) had virtues: the tender lamb was wok-seared to bring up the flavor and cooked with onions and scallions and, according to the menu, spiced with Sichuan peppers. There was none of the tingling, buzzing and numbing of real Sichuan peppers going on, but rather just a nice, warm, spicy glow in the mouth that you get from chili peppers.

We tried the Cantonese Chow Fun ($11 **), a dish familiar to anyone who patronizes Chinese restaurants. Beef strips and vegetables are wokked and mixed with flat rice noodles, then served over a bed of bok choy. Good but not exciting.
A house-made cheesecake for dessert was entirely uninspired.

To sum up: Eight picks and chooses wisely among various Asian cuisines.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for the Sonoma Living section. You can reach him at jeffcox@sonic.net.

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EIGHT CUISINE AND WINE
Where: 7501 Healdsburg Ave., Sebastopol
When: Lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. Dinner from 4 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays, except to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Tuesdays
Reservations: Call 823-8189
Price range: Moderate to expensive, with entrees from $11 to $22
Website: eightcuisineandwine.com

Wine list: **½
Ambiance: **
Service: **
Food: ***
Overall: **½

**** Extraordinary
*** Very good
** Good
* Not very good
0 Terrible