Inside, Taste of Asia is modern and slightly upscale, although the paper rather than cloth napkins stuffed in the glasses will throw you off. The menu is mostly Thai but with some Vietnamese and Chinese dishes.

I've been there three times so far and expect to keep going. Everything I've had so far has been good: Steamed fish with lime ($9.95), with minced garlic and carrot, and lime sliced thin as communion wafers; yellow curry chicken ($8.95), yum seafood salad ($10.95), Vietnamese hand rolls ($5.95) and, most notably, off the "chef's recommendations" list, tropical salmon ($14.95), which comes grilled on a bed of spinach and topped with mango, tomatoes and onions.

Yes, I love Mix Bowl in Pomona, but Taste of Asia is on a different order of magnitude, slow food rather than fast food.

It's a family operation, and Chef Virada comes into the dining room every time to go table to table to chat with customers and make sure everyone is satisfied. Framed diplomas in the hallway to the restrooms show that she trained at a culinary school in Bangkok. But she was working at Bausch and Lomb before opening Taste of Asia.

"This is my dream, to have a restaurant," she told me. We can all pinch ourselves and be happy her dream is our reality.

Virada Khowong is a certified chef having completed many culinary programs in Thailand. It was great seeing her in a chef's coat cooking her heart away in the kitchen.

However, once you have eaten Chef Virada's food, you will be a regular, like I am.

For starters, I recommend the egg flower soup, $4.95, and the homemade Laotian sausage. I normally do not order egg flower soup because it is usually boring and tasteless, but the egg flower soup served here is outstanding. It's undoubtedly the best I ever have had! The richly flavored broth had a nice even balanced mixture of tofu, peas, green onion, cabbage and scrambled eggs. Who would think egg flower soup could be so memorable?

The Laotian sausage featured lots of dense-textured sliced sausage made with ground pork, lemon grass and other seasonings and served with peanuts, cabbage, chilies and fresh ginger on the side.  

Only after devouring the sausage was I informed by the polite server that you are supposed to wrap the sausage in the cabbage with the peanuts, chili and ginger. Oh well, it was still great, especially with the homemade chili paste that came with it.    

Next came some sensational entrees from the chef's recommendations section of the menu, like the spicy garlic shrimp, $14.95, Taste of Asia mussels, $14.95, crispy beef, $12.95, and tropical salmon, $14.95.  

The spicy garlic shrimp featured 10 partially shelled jumbo shrimp cooked in a wonderful garlic chili soy sauce, topped with crispy fried basil. The sweet succulent shrimp and the boldly flavored sauce was a perfect marriage of flavors and textures.

The Taste of Asia mussels was a very impressive dish featuring steamed green-lip mussels stuffed with an assorted seafood, herb and chili mixture and topped with a Kaffir lime leaf. It was served on a bed of fresh basil with coconut milk. The dish was very good and very creative.

The crispy beef was another terrific dish. How can slices of crispy fried beef saut ed with a delicious sweet oyster sauce, sugar, vinegar, wine and sesame oil sauce not be good? It kind of reminded me of orange peel beef but much better! 

Another winning dish was the tropical salmon, a grilled filet of salmon topped with a fresh mango, tomato, onion salsa and served on a bed of fresh spinach. If you like salmon and mango, you will love this dish.  

Other dishes that I have had on previous visits and enjoyed very much include the spicy drunken rice, $9.95, made with regular or brown rice, the pork jerky, $7.95, and the barbecue pork with sticky rice, $8.95. 

In closing, the Taste of Asia restaurant is a nice change of pace for those of us who love Asian foods. It's one of the best of its kind in the Inland Empire. Having such a talented owner/chef in charge of the kitchen is definitely a big plus!  

TASTE OF ASIA  
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5) 


Hear Allan Borgen every Saturday afternoon from 3 to 6 p.m. on the "Let's Dine Out Food, Travel & Entertainment" radio show on KTIE 590 am. You can contact Borgen at (909) 910-3463. Visit his Website, www.letsdineoutshow.com, and sign up to join him on a restaurant review.