Stir Crazy Do-it-yourself stir-fry restaurants cater to diners' desire to have it their way.

The food items on the menu can make or break a new restaurant.Before opening day rolls around, restaurant owners and their chefsspend hours planning menus and wondering whether their culinaryofferings will tickle consumers' taste buds and entice them tocome back for more. There is, however, a concept that offers asolution to this dilemma: Allow diners to choose ingredients from afresh-food bar containing a variety of meats and vegetables, selecta sauce or concoct their own, and then watch as a chef stir-friesthe dish in a wok or cooks it on a grill.

First known as Mongolian barbecue, the newest incarnation ofthis cuisine, do-it-yourself stir-fry restaurants, is takingAmerica by storm. Prior to the mid-20th century, restaurants in theUnited States serving Chinese and other Asian foods could only befound in the "Chinatowns" or other ethnic enclaves ofmajor cities such as Chicago and San Francisco. But by 1997, Asianrestaurants were cooking up nearly $10 billion per year in sales,and according to monthly magazine Chinese Restaurant News,today there are more than 30,000 such restaurants in the UnitedStates, a 36 percent increase since 1992.

Do-it-yourself stir-fry cuisine is just the latest in a longline of ethnic foods to undergo the transition from exotic foreigndelicacy to everyday staple. "In the past 20 years, there hasbeen a real ethnicization of Americans' taste buds," saysSusan Blank of New York City-based international marketing researchand consulting firm Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. "Ethnic foodsand concepts start out in immigrant areas and, over time, jump outto the population in general. This has happened with both Italianand Mexican food. Originally, Mexican food was only served in smallMexican-owned restaurants in ethnic areas, and gradually it becamea more American cuisine. In the process, the food has changed tosuit American palates, but eventually it gained universalacceptance."