Taste of the Week - February 15th-21st

This was a good week with a number of tastes that would have been my "taste of the week" in many another week, such as the Vietnamese lobster chowder at Chez Sophie in Saratoga, and a variety of items at a group dinner at Yang Ming in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. My family and I were in Philadelphia to attend the bat mitzvah of the daughter of very close friends. We arrived on Friday, attended the Yang Ming dinner that evening, the service and lunch the next morning and the party that night. We had part of the afternoon free, which we utilized to take a trip in to central city Philadelphia. I came across the much heralded Capogiro Gelato store and now I understand why the gelato is so highly regarded. I bought a cup of Sicilian Pistachio and Cioccolato Scuro to share with my wife and son. Though not inexpensive, that is truly great gelato and my taste of the week!

Capogiro Pistacchio Siciliano and Cioccolato Scuro


The Capogiro gelato case

Comments

[Jennifer]

And they deliver on dry ice :)

[John Sconzo]

If they do mail order that would be something to think about for a special occasion.

[llcwine]

tell us about dinner at Yang Ming please.

[John Sconzo]

I was there as a guest as part of a celebratory party and didn't take photos or notes. The evening started with trays of appetizers including spring rolls, mushroom potstickers, Pekin duck, and crab shumai, all excellent and well prepared. We then sat down to either hot and sour or wonton soup. The h&s was very good. My son absolutely raved about the wonton, which happens to be one of his favorite soups. Then arrived platters of fried rice, pad thai, sauteed string beans, orange beef and walnut honey shrimp. A few of these I never would have ordered myself thinking they would be sickly sweet as is too often the case. Fortunately, that was not at all true. The sweetness of the honey in the shrimp was controlled and balanced as it was with the orange beef. Most importantly, the textures were superb. Items that were supposed to be crispy were. The shrimp in particular, were large, flavorful and perfectly cooked. Even the ice creams (vanilla and chocolate) served at the end with a chocolate coated fortunate cookie. Nothing we ate was unusual, exotic or beyond the scope of most Chinese-American restaurants. However, everything contained good ingredients prepared very, very well, much better than the typical Chinese American restaurant. The only downside was that the place was humming and parking was a real bear!