Chinese eatery hopes petition will prevent closure

"Ninety-three! Fifty-four! Fifty-six!" Priscilla Yang shouts from behind the counter at Chinese Star, a popular family-owned fast-food restaurant on the University of Houston campus.

Students jump up from their tables to collect platters of spicy Hunan bean curd, three-ingredient kung pao and Mongolian beef - three of the hodge-podge of inexpensively priced dishes on offer.

But Yang, a first-generation immigrant to the United States from Taiwan, may be giving her voice a rest after almost 27 years at the restaurant. The university announced last fall that Chinese Star's lease in the converted Pizza Hut restaurant will not be renewed.