Handling non-Latin characters in searches

[eGullet]

In our current Sphinx setup we use a charset_table to make sure that accented characters map to their non-accented equivalents when doing a search (for example, searching for "brûlée" gives the same results as searching for "brulee"). How is this done now that we can't use Sphinx?

Second, how do we configure out site/database so that other non-Latin searches work correctly? Right now, for example, a search of our site for "肉骨菜" yields no results (it should). The same is true for things like ก๋วยเตี๋ยวผัดขี้เมาไก่ and Tôm sốt cà chua. While we are an English-language site, many culinary terms are expressed in other languages, so I'd like those searches to work.

[rgf100]

Also a concern for me - we have plenty of Chinese content mixed in with an English-language forum (and our food subforum shares a member or two with the excellent eGullet, I believe). 

[eGullet]

I should note that the problem has been reduced to only the Chinese, all of the other characters I've tested are working in the latest code. Of course, Mandarin being a hugely popular language, it's still a problem!

[rgf100]

When I did a search on here for  ก๋วยเตี๋ยวผัดขี้เมาไก่  I got an error, do you see the same thing?  肉骨菜  just returns no results. 

[eGullet]

I do, which is confusing me because I could swear that the last time I checked, both here and at my site, that one worked properly.