SUMMIT, NJ - What do you do when you desire Thai food but your spouse is in the mood for Japanese cuisine? Sunny Asia in Summit has a solution for that dilemma.

"We specialize in cuisine from several different Asian regions including Japan, China, Malaysia and Thailand," manager Audrey Tan stated. "Let’s say that you have family members who all want to eat some different Asian food for dinner. You don’t have to go elsewhere. You can just come to Sunny Asia."

Owner Peter Qiu opened the Morris Avenue location on June 8th of this year. Qiu, who has been in the business for over ten years and also owns a restaurant in Staten Island, fell in love with the town of Summit when he worked as a delivery boy before opening his own business. Sunny Asia marks Qiu’s first solo business endeavor.

"We think that Summit needed something a little different when it came to Asian food. We want people to venture more into Asian foods and not just traditional Chinese," Tan said.

Cuisine

Both Qiu and Tan give chef Dennis Chen credit for an innovative menu. "Chef Dennis brings traditional food to our menu as well as unique dishes as well," Tan said. Qiu is proud that the business only uses the freshest ingredients available. "Each morning, I purchase fresh vegetables from local markets," Qiu explained. "You can taste the difference in our cuisine. People in this area are very health-conscious. I wanted to cater to their needs." Tan added that all of Sunny Asia’s cuisine is free from starch and only pure, white meat is used to make dishes. "However you cook your food at home is how we cook it here. We only use fresh seasonal vegetables, ensuring freshness and quality."

Qiu and his staff chose the most popular dishes from each country to be on the menu including Pad Thai, broccoli and garlic, teriyaki, and curry dishes. "We choose foods that people like the most," Tan said, noting that Sunny Asia recently updated the menu to include more vegetarian dishes. The chefs can also custom make selections according to customers’ preferred tastes.

Appetizers

"We get orders for our Sunny Asian lettuce wraps all the time," Qiu stated. In this dish, large leaves of romaine lettuce are served with a side bowl of sautéed chicken (or tofu) mixed with a sweet hoisin sauce and garnished with the toasty flavor of pine nuts. Customers then add the desired amount of the hoisin-glazed chicken to the lettuce, thus creating their own wraps.

Vietnamese summer rolls are another well-liked menu item. Cold, boiled shrimp, baby green mango and fresh cilantro are stuffed and rolled into thin rice paper. The appetizer is served with a rich sesame-peanut dipping sauce on the side. "Both appetizers are very popular because they are so refreshing," Qiu noted.

Sushi

Sunny Asia offers a generous selection of Japanese cuisine including sushi and sashimi, cut rolls and hand rolls, specialty rolls and combination entrees. One of the more popular selections is the sushi and sashimi platter, featuring five pieces of nigiri sushi and nine pieces of sashimi accompanied by a tuna avocado roll. The vibrant colors of the fresh fish make for a stunning visual presentation.

Specialty Items

A "Chef Dennis" specialty item is the mild mango sauce entrée. This dish combines a protein (chicken, beef, tofu, jumbo shrimp or scallops) and fresh seasonal vegetables with strips of lightly cooked mango combined in a sweet sauce accented with a light mango flavor. Thai curry dishes, available in yellow curry or panang, are another popular menu attraction. In this dish, a protein (chicken, beef, tofu, jumbo shrimp or scallops) and fresh seasonal vegetables including snow peas, onions, carrots and mushrooms are merged with a Thai curry sauce.

Sunny Asia also does a unique take on brown rice. Chefs blend Malaysian-style brown rice with Japanese-style brown rice creating rice with a deep purple and brown color with golden hues. "People really love our rice," Tan stated. "Sushi dishes can also be made with our brown rice."

Sunny Asia is a take-out only restaurant. Daily lunch specials are available on many of the entrees as well as a selection of sushi bar items. Delivery is available to the towns of Summit, Short Hills, Chatham, Madison and New Providence.

Sunny Asia is located at 519 Morris Avenue between Springfield Avenue and River Road. The business is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner except for holidays. The phone number is 908-273-1688.

Coupons for Sunny Asia can be found at The Alternative Press web site at: http://thealternativepress.com/PDF/sunny_asia_coupons.pdf  

Kerry Law can be reached at Njkerry@yahoo.com Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/njkerry Check out her podcast at http://njkerry.podbean.com, which has audio versions of many of the events she attends.