The Saturday Inquirer contained a big surprise. Susanna Foo is expected to close on Walnut Street in August June.

65-year old owner Susanna Foo is selling the building and closing the business. She says the closure isn’t related to the economy but rather a want to work a bit less and concentrate on teaching cooking classes and doting on her two granddaughters.

Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen, which is run by her son Gabriel will continue to operate and Foo will be involved.

Susanna Foo has been a mainstay on Walnut Street’s restaurant row since it opened in 1987.

UPDATE: Closing date has been moved up to June 13th.

Susanna Foo restaurant expected to close in August [Philadelphia Inquirer]

David Snyder says skip the Japanese food at Sakura and focus on the Chinese portion of the menu for some winning fare.

Sakura’s authentic regional Chinese cuisine — spanning Shanghai, Szechuan and Mandarin traditions — is already a winner. The ginger and plum I detected in a secret sauce granted a cold Shanghai marinated duck appetizer a deep, resonant intensity. Elemental sweet and tangy flavors helped rice wine chicken shine. It took only a few seconds for the moist, buttery pork of the “Lion’s Head” meatballs to melt on my tongue. Thick, chewy, pan-fried udon noodles swam in a simple yet comforting brown sauce.

Temple of Bloom [City Paper]

Trey Popp dines at Chifa and finds the flavors outweigh any complaints about price or a few misses.

[I]t is a mouth-watering ride from first cocktail to the last crumb of dessert. It is also the rare kind of restaurant that demands evaluation not just as a culinary enterprise but as a cultural and political statement.

Commander in Chifa [City Paper]
Chifa [Official Site]

Adam Erace goes to Chifa and questions whether it is worth the price even as he spots some bargains.

Garces and Williams treat the Chifa Chicken like a duck—a Peking duck, that is. They poach, hang and lacquer half an air-chilled Giannone bird in molasses, soy, vinegar and spices for six hours straight. Roasted crisp and juicy, the chicken is paired with bok choy, almonds and soy consommé for one of the most flawless, flavorful roast chickens in town.

I washed this $22 bargain down with pastry chef Ann Giles’ clever root beer float; it foamed and fizzed like a science experiment when rice pudding ice cream met house-brewed root beer infused with molasses, sarsaparilla, vanilla and canella.

Chifa Isn’t Cheap [Philadelphia Weekly]
Chifa [Official Site]

Craig LaBan heads out Rt-422 for some real Szechuan food at Han Dynasty in Royersford.

There was a platter of the most intensely smoky tea-smoked duck I’ve ever eaten. The elaborately prepared meat (marinated, dried, smoked, braised, and then flash-fried to order) exuded a spice box of star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, and fennel wrapped inside smoky wisps of jasmine tea and cedar. The “dry pot” of delicate flounder fillets, meanwhile, served in a mini-wok over a blue flame, blazed across my palate in an ethereal whoosh of peppercorns, chiles, and hot bean paste that obviously turned me into a beet-colored, smoke-blowing cartoon.

Also of note to suburb fearing urbanites, owner Han Chiang is talking of a branch in West Philadelphia. 

Two Bells – Very Good

Han Dynasty [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Han Dynasty [Official Site]

It must be good to be Craig LaBan. On Tuesday during his weekly chat LaBan lamented:

Craig:  David – I’m being very selfish here, but what I really, really want is a great spot for Chinese delivery/take-out in West Center City. In theory, it’s one of city life’s simple pleasures, but I’m so often disappointed with the current options. Is this asking too much?

And over the weekend it’s reported that Susanna Foo will now be doing takeout and delivery from her four-bell Walnut Street restaurant.

New deals in Center City dining [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Susanna Foo Gourmet to Go Menu (PDF) [The Insider]

The Peking Duck at Joe’s Peking Duck Original 1984 is worth seeking out. The rest of the menu, it’s a mystery.

Poon later explains how his love of fusion grew from being trained in Italian and French cooking as well as Chinese. I give him props for creativity, but so much of the fused fare seems grounded in arbitrary experimentation rather than the tenets of good taste. Philadelphia Cream Cheese appeared in an inordinate number of dishes, laid thick on the candy-sweet demi glace-and-soy-glazed eggplant pizza and bound tiny bits of lobster inside some greasy wontons.

Duck and Cover [Philadelphia Weekly]
Joseph Poon [Official Site]

David Snyder has one of the most exotic meals of his life as he dines on duck tongue, jellyfish and more at Wokano in South Philadelphia.

But the most challenging dish, by far, was the fried pig intestine. Four-inch-long tubes are sliced in half and marinated in a secret sauce, deep-fried and colored to give the crispy skin a bright red hue. The flavors, at first, were deceptively pleasant — a sweet and spicy blend akin to a light barbecue sauce. Even the texture, in comparison to some of the other dishes, was relatively benign. But the unrelenting aftertaste — which can only be described politely as an unholy decay — was so profoundly haunting that the experience will never be far from my thoughts. Whether it was in spite of or because of the finish, though, a number of us still went back for seconds.

But don’t worry, there’s safer things on the “American” menu.

Wokano Wild Side [City Paper]

David Snyder dines at Joseph Poon’s newest restaurant, Joe’s Peking Duck Original 1984. And the name isn’t the only mouthful as the portions overwhelm.

But what stands out most at Joe’s is how generous Poon is with the portions — especially for lunch. The duck pizza’s soft ginger, scallion and cilantro crust comes buried beneath a mountainous nest of sweet, savory meat. A deep bowl of soup teems with heroic chunks of sweet roast pork, bok choy and shrimp-stuffed wontons.

The Lovin’ Poon-ful [City Paper]
Joseph Poon [Official Site]

There aren’t many exotic foods we turn away from but we have to tell you we’re not excited to try fried duck tongues at Ken’s Seafood.

Philadining on the other hand not only tried them but liked them.

As it turns out, we liked them a lot. There’s not a whole lot of meat on a duck tongue, and what there is has a slightly fatty, gelatinous texture, but when it’s encased in perfectly-fried batter, the combo is very pleasing. To be fair, I think our table was evenly split about how good they were, but two of us really loved them. Someone likened them to the very tip of a chicken wing, where there’s just a little bit of meat, more fat and skin and crunchy coating. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a matter of perspective.

There is a weird thing about duck tongues: they have a piece of cartilage going right down the middle that’s inedible, so the crunchy treat needs to be eaten with a little care, and that little boney spine needs to be gingerly extracted from one’s mouth, so this might not be a great food on the occasions that pulling bones from one’s mouth wouldn’t be considered polite.

Things you didn’t know you wanted to eat pt. 1 – Duck Tongues [The Philadining Blog]