Cox: Tasty flavors of Vietnam in Cotati

Here are some simple lessons in Vietnamese cuisine, courtesy of QQ Noodle Bistro in Cotati.

Start by ordering a bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup ($9.25 ?? ), which is called by its Vietnamese name, “pho,” and is pronounced “fuh.”

Your server will ask whether you want round or flat noodles. Unless you have a fondness for round noodles, ask for the flat. These are rice noodles and are very slippery. Since you’ll be eating with chopsticks, the flat noodles will be marginally easier to manage than round ones.

You’ll notice that when you try to lift the noodles with the chopsticks, they will all slide off. At this point, you can go to the fork that’s at your place setting, but that is admitting defeat. Try this: Twirl your chopsticks in the broth until you have a large lump of slippery noodles twisted around your sticks, then quickly lift them to your mouth and bite off a mouthful. Suck in any danglers.

Continue until the noodles and bits of shredded chicken breast are all eaten. Now put both hands around your bowl and raise it to your lips to drink the nourishing broth. When the broth is gone, your work is finished.

But maybe your lunch or dinner isn’t finished, for there are other treats at QQ Noodle Bistro worth trying. Understand that this is a noodle house in a college town. The dishes aren’t expensive, which is good for the penniless college students from Sonoma State University, but they also aren’t fancy. They tend to be simple, like the Chicken Salad ($7.75 ?? ½), a generously proportioned bowl of shredded romaine lettuce studded with stringy and chewy chicken breast and slices of fresh but bland winter tomatoes topped with a small handful of crushed peanuts.

Shrimp Spring Rolls ($6.95 ?? ) are three fresh rolls of lettuce, small shrimp, and rice noodle wrappers served with an unremarkable peanut sauce. Each roll is cut in half crosswise, making six pieces designed to be finger food for dipping. These rolls could be much improved without much cost if some crunchy white-bean sprouts were tucked into the filling.

QQ Noodle Bistro is in Oliver’s Market shopping center on East Cotati Avenue, just to the west side of the supermarket. It’s a storefront with 12 tables. The walls are painted black. There’s a cold drink case and a flat screen TV. Wine is limited to house wines and beer is $4.95 a bottle. Strong Vietnamese coffee is available along with Thai iced tea, which you can have plain or with boba (tapioca).Service is snappy and friendly.

The food at QQ Noodle Bistro focuses on Vietnamese and Thai dishes. For instance, Pad Thai ($10.95 ?? ) is on the menu, although it doesn’t taste much like the familiar dish at most Thai restaurants. No one in our party could find any prawns, and the dish was heavy on shredded cabbage and bean sprouts.

The menu includes red, green, and yellow curries that you can order with chicken, pork, or tofu. We chose Yellow Curry with Pork ($10.95 ?? ½) and were pleased by its strong spiciness, its tender slices of pork loin, its creamy cooked potatoes and cauliflower florets, sliced carrots, cucumber, and cilantro, and its full-flavored curried yellow broth.

A couple of nightly specials were posted on the west wall. We chose the Roast Duck Special ($12.95 ?? ½). It too was a curry with the same vegetables as the pork dish. Everyone at the table likes spicy food and was happy to discover that the duck special was even spicier than the pork curry. The duck was a roasted breast chopped into bite-sized pieces, with its layer of fat still on. If you’re trying to lose weight, the fat comes off easily, but if you’re one of those skinny college students, some extra fat might do you good.

To sum up: Here’s a simple, accessible Southeast Asian noodle house. Don’t miss the pho.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.