Lo mein, soba, banh pho, Cantonese, Shanghai and udon noodles are the base of the restaurant's signature dishes. Zyng opened last week in Squirrel Hill at Forbes and Murray.

Nu? You were expecting maybe luckshen?

Luckshen, which is properly spelled luxon, is Yiddish for noodle.

When most Americans think pasta, they think of shapes such as linguine, macaroni and ziti. Those and the myriad other shapes are made of semolina flour, water, salt and often eggs.

What distinguishes Asian pasta from ours is the large assortment of flours. Wheat flours are typical of northern China, Korea and Japan. Southern China uses wheat but also rice flour and even a noodle made from the flour of the mung bean. Other Asian pastas are made from buckwheat, soybean flour, bean curd and even fresh shrimp.

Pasta was born, at least in the form we recognize -- round, flat and spaghetti-like -- in Northern China around 100 B.C. The Chinese slurped a lot of noodles before Marco Polo supposedly returned to Italy from China in 1295 to introduce pasta to the Western world. But Italians aren't the dinner table champs. Per capita, Japan may be the most noodle-consuming country in the world, favoring ramen, udon and somen noodles.

To rephrase the old Sara Lee commercial, "Nobody, it seems, doesn't like noodles."

Here and now

Noodles have gone mainstream in today's restaurants, while interestingly, the restaurants themselves have become more specialized. Two of the most popular cuisines are Italian and Asian. Today's "Italian" is often subdivided into, say, Tuscan or Neapolitan, while "Chinese" has become Szechuan or Cantonese.

All in all, everything is considered "American."

Americans like foods that are delicious, healthy and economical. They also like foods that are fun. In Chinese, zyng means fun. And that's what Zyng Asian Grill delivers. The big draw is the create-your-own-dish menu. It works just like the Italian version where you choose your pasta and your sauce.

The Asian Market section of the menu has you choose a noodle and a topping, such as chicken, shrimp, tofu, zoya (a soy product) or beef. Then you choose a sauce, and this is where it gets tricky. Will it be sesame garlic ginger or spicy peanut? Chinese black bean or spicy Thai? Yakisoba or Szechuan? You really can't make a mistake because servers, playfully called tour guides, will offer advice on combinations.

To complete your order, you leave the table, go to a salad-type bar and tong up as many fresh stir-fry vegetables, including bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and those mini cobs of corn, as your bowl can hold.

Then the chef picks up the order, takes it to a sizzling grill and in about the time it takes to pronounce the names of the noodles, your dish is grilled. Dinner is wholesome, fresh and custom-made.

If that sounds like too much fiddling, turn the menu page and point to comforting classics, such as pot stickers, Kung Pao chicken, General Tsao's chicken, mu shu lettuce wraps, miso soup, pad thai or Singapore curried noodles. Jasmine and brown rice are also served.

Vegetarians and vegans may bliss out with the soy choices. Kids under 10 could find their own menu "way cool," and they get to use rookie chopsticks. They might even eat a weird vegetable just for fun.

High-spirited types will find that Zyng has a full bar and tableside martini service. The wallet of the house will find a $12 dinner check average.

Will a noodle chain restaurant work in Squirrel Hill? If Location could talk, it might say, "You can walk in the rain from the Carnegie Library, Barnes & Noble, the Manor theater, the Jewish Community Center and the second busiest bus stop in Pittsburgh without bothering to put up an umbrella."

Rick McMaster, a 35-year food service industry veteran, is enthusiastic. Zyng's director of operations, McMaster is the former proprietor of the Grand Concourse.

"I think 9/11 changed us profoundly in terms of how people are now willing to spend or conserve their time and resources. I think our sense of family is stronger," McMaster says. "We think people want to eat comfort foods, and eating together is important. Zyng's menu is based on whole foods, freshness and whole grain noodles. Rather than serve classic recipes, we give the Pan Asian cuisine a contemporary spin.

"My wife, Betty, likes to eat spicy food, but I like less fire with my flavors. We have many choices here."

McMaster has firsthand experience with the cuisines of five of the six Zyng countries, courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

One way Zyng accommodates neighborhood tastes is reflected in the wine list. McMaster pioneered afternoon wine tastings at the Grand Concourse, and he knows what Pittsburghers like. He is as close to a sommelier as you will find in a Pan Asian restaurant in these parts.

"We have a wide range of wine, more so than other Zyngs. We have a variety that is priced to sell," he says. "We also have Japanese sake and American saki. The vowels 'e' and 'i' are the clue to the country of origin."

Zyng buys as much locally as possible, using local merchants and purveyors. Once the eatery is established, McMaster hopes to work with local farm associations.

The chef is Jason Casassa, 22, of Italian, German and Irish descent, who grew up in McKees Rocks. "I never tasted this food before I came to this job. I wanted to work with Mr. McMaster, first. And second, I wanted to get into the next chapter of my career. When I walk in the kitchen door I see a red wall. I turn the corner and it becomes bright yellow, one more corner and bright green. The food I cook is as vibrant and exciting as the colors."

Zyng began as a noodle restaurant in Montreal after a businessman who traveled extensively in the Far East became frustrated when he couldn't find good noodles back home. Long story short, his first modest noodle shop became Zyng International, now based in Alexandria, Va.

Wholesome Living, the parent restaurant development company, owns the exclusive franchise rights to open six Zyngs in the Pittsburgh area and six more in the Cleveland area. Its partners are Randir Sethi and Raji Sankar, two young entrepreneurs who share business development backgrounds and a love of good food.

Fortune cookie say, "Versatility is one of your outstanding traits." Fortune cookies never lie.