Many of the Asian restaurants in Central Oregon offer both Chinese and Japanese dishes. Sushi and traditional Japanese food is available alongside Chinese meals. While traditional Chinese restaurants are known for takeout and delivery options, these restaurants have taken on, or stepped up their to-go options due to the coronavirus shutdown.

If you are in the mood for Chinese or Japanese food, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent mid-priced Chinese food options in town. Chan’s Chinese food in Bend and Redmond have consistently tasty dishes with fresh ingredients available for pickup or delivery through Postmates. Double Happiness also offers pickup and delivery. Bend-o-Bento offers excellent Japanese food in bento box lunch plates brought to your car.

5 Fusion and Sushi bar

5 Fusion waited to open for takeout until James Beard nominated chef Joe Kim could put together a menu of items that he knew would travel well. The result is a menu that would satisfy both Asian fusion and sushi loving fans. Online ordering is available with the option to pick up at a scheduled time. I started with a Geisha sushi roll—spicy tuna with avocado topped with salmon mango and tobiko (fish eggs). It was salty, sweet and wonderfully fresh. Next, was my favorite dish on the regular menu, a Thai red curry bowl which now has kale and eggplant instead of bell peppers. I ordered it with lobster and shrimp. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this dish of perfectly balanced curry and Asian flavors, and it translated to takeout beautifully.

Kim’s wizardry was apparent in the Yuzu Butter Salmon that had a perfectly crispy exterior and was juicy inside. The farmed fish from British Columbia was so tasty that it didn’t need a sauce. On the side was miso-glazed succotash with mushrooms, corn, sweet peppers, and asparagus. Wakame sunomono seaweed salad was a colorful, sweet and sour complement to the rest of the dish. A side of wok beans in garlic soy rounded out the meal. If you are eating as a family, consider ordering the Lasagna Family meal. It is sure to be a treat, and I doubt it will be on the menu in the future.

Chi Chinese and Sushi Bar

Chi is another Asian restaurant that offers both Chinese and Japanese food. Chef Di Long’s skilled hand is apparent in their wide variety of traditional Chinese dishes. We started with the crispy Pan-Seared Potstickers that are generously stuffed with pork shoulder, scallions, and cabbage in a soy-ginger sauce. We chose Twice Cooked Pork Belly entree cooked with cabbage, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, and red bell pepper in a spicy hoisin sauce. We also got the Dragon & Phoenix, which combined tiger shrimp and chicken breast with zucchini, baby bok choy, broccoli, and shiitaki mushrooms.

From the Sushi side, we ordered a Rainbow Roll. A real “sampler” of sushi it has crab, cucumber and avocado inside. It is topped with salmon, tuna, ebi (shrimp), hamachi, avocado and escolar. It was fresh and satisfying.

Bend Izakaya Ronin

Having just reviewed Ronin before the shutdown, I was happy to see that they chose to stay open and was curious to see how they altered the menu for takeout. Chef/Owner Scott Byers has been running out of a food truck for years, so he knows how to do takeout.

Byers’ take out experience is evident in the Japanese Fried Chicken that is part of the Ronin Bento Box. He uses the nutritious dark thigh meat that is marinated in a handful of Japanese spices. It’s then dusted in potato starch and fried golden brown. The result is a delicious, juicy fried chicken with savory spices that has almost no grease. We chose the salmon with smoked poblano chili sushi roll rather than the six-piece vegetable roll. Assorted pickles, goma wakame, edamame, rice with peppers and spices accompanied the chicken and sushi box.

The Kobayashi Hot Dog sounded so unusual that I had to try it. The bacon-wrapped all-beef dog is served with kimchi, Goma wakame, pickles, dragon mayo, tonkatsu sauce, spicy mustard, green onion on a thick, soft sesame seed toasted bun. That’s a lot of authentic Japanese condiments, so here’s a primer. Goma wakame is a seaweed salad with sesame seeds that adds a sweet vinegary flavor. Kimchi is fermented vegetables that, in this case, was a great balance as it wasn’t too vinegary or sour. The tonkatsu sauce adds a salty yet sweet, fruity flavor, and the creamy dragon mayo rounds it out. It was a Japanese party in my mouth.

The tare ramen broth is separate from the other ingredients — noodles, Negi, chase pork, roasted shallot and garlic and nori so we could put it all together when we poured it into bowls at home. Our favorite ingredient is the delicious shoyu (sweet soy marinated) egg that was split in half so we could share the soup. Every. If you order this, get extra broth to go with the generous portions of noodles and other ingredients.

Chomp Chomp

A new Asian kitchen in Central Oregon, I hadn’t experienced Chomp Chomp before the shutdown. The takeout menu is a truncated version of the dine-in menu which typically has a large variety of skewers, tonkatsu fried pork cutlet, and noodles. We kept with our run of trying ramen at each place. Chomp Chomp’s ramen is unique as it is a northern style ramen that is thicker and richer than the other broths in town. However, the ingredients were otherwise similar, including a whole soft boiled egg, garlic fried baby bok choy and local pork belly.

To go with the ramen, I chose a Bahn Mi sandwich with fries. Local pork belly was topped with pickled veggies, cilantro, bean sprouts, and mild jalapeño, then topped with sweet chili and okonomiyaki sauce. It was a juicy sandwich with a variety of spicy, sweet, creamy, and other Asian flavors. While a Bahn Mi sandwich is traditionally served on a baguette to hold all that creamy goodness, Chomp Chomp is making do with the bread they find available fresh daily. In this case, the Bahn Mi is on a Sparrow Bakery bun that is also used on their Wagyu burger. The crispy crinkle fries are the perfect accompaniment topped with a blend of Japanese herbs.

Miyagi Ramen

A list of Asian restaurants wouldn’t be complete without Miyagi Ramen. The quintessential place to get ramen now offers to go and delivery. They offer three types of ramen— tonkatsu, black Sesame Dan Dan and Spicy Miso Ramen. The menu also offers Spicy honey tare wings, cabbage salad and steamed buns. The ramen broth has a satisfying umami taste, and the chase pork belly is tender and flavorful.

These restaurants offer a variety of Asian dishes that are sure to satisfy a variety of your family’s desires.

While we can’t offer any guarantees, it appears that ordering from restaurants may be safer than going to the grocery store. Many health organizations around the world, including the World Health Organization, have stated that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is not a foodborne illness; it is a respiratory illness. In other words, you shouldn’t be able to catch it from food. 

Most restaurant owners and managers assured that restaurant workers are in heightened mode. Those handling food wash their hands twice as much as before, between each meal prepared or more often. Gloves are changed after each order, or after 10 to 15 minutes.

Any employee who doesn’t feel 100%, no matter their symptoms, are not allowed to come in. Hand sanitizer is available where servers are handling or packing food.

If you are still worried about the food, cooking reportedly kills the virus so you can heat the food at 149 degrees for 3 minutes. Note that freezing does not kill the virus.

As the virus may be able to live on plastic or cardboard for more than 24 hours, you must take care in handling the containers. Therefore, care should be taken on getting your food from a container to a clean plate.

To further reduce exposure to the virus:

1.Insist on curbside service. Open the passenger window and have the server place the food on the floor or seat. Wear a mask if you are concerned about any close contact.

2. If you have to touch the bag or handles, use hand sanitizer before you touch anything else in your car. Note: Joolz servers carry the bag from the bottom and never touch the handles.

3. Use one hand to carry the bag into the house and your clean hand to open the doors.

4. Put the bag on the floor.

5. Pick up a food container and dump the contents straight into a bowl or onto a plate if that is possible.

6. Otherwise, put out two plates. One should be a plate or platter on which you can place the food container so you don’t put it on your table or counter. Scoop the food from the container to a clean plate. Use one hand to touch serving utensils, the other to handle the container.

7. Anytime you touch a container, wash your hands for 20 seconds.

8. Drop used containers in the original to-go bag and take it to the trash.

9. Wash your hands again before touching clean plates, utensils or food. Disinfect door handles and other items you may have touched.