What's Cooking

Get Out!

by Claire Bullen

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Susanna Foo Dumpling Olympics

In celebration of the Beijing Olympics, Susanna Foo's Center City and Radnor restaurants have debuted a dumpling-only tasting menu. Traditional varieties like pork and vegetable potstickers will be on hand, but the menu also features unusual combinations like shrimp and Fuji apple dumplings. Diners can vote for their favorite, and the winner will be crowned an Olympic champion at the end of the month. Dumplings, too, can dream. Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, 1512 Walnut St., 215-545-8800; Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen, 555 E. Lancaster Ave., Radnor, 610-688-8808, susannafoo.com.

Bryn Mawr's Yangming restaurant will be hosting chef Ren-Wei Jia, executive chef at Shanghai restaurant Shun Feng, throughout the month of August. He's preparing an a la carte menu of traditional Chinese dishes free of Americanization — no General Tso allowed. Instead, expect dishes like Hangzhou duck, braised with cinnamon, star anise, bay leaves and mushrooms and served with honeyed lotus root and Chinese broccoli tips. Yangming, 1051 Conestoga Road, Bryn Mawr, 610-527-3200, yangmingrestaurant.com.

White Dog Café's 22nd Annual Caribbean Street Party will explore both traditional and modern influences in Caribbean cooking, with a focus on Haitian dishes. Sample dishes like curried lamb over rice and peas and vegetarian ital stew. The celebration will get started by Richard Jah Ace and the Sons of Ace, a local reggae band, as well as a litany of rum-based drinks. White Dog Café, 3420 Sansom St., 215-386-9224, whitedog.com.

The normally ladies-only In Pursuit of Ale Beer Club turns co-ed for an evening at N. 3rd. IPA founder Suzanne "Beer Lass" Woods will provide attendees with a taste of a one-off Sly Fox Imperial Red Ale that's being poured at only five bars in the city; the special sampling will accompany a showing of campy classic The Blob in the bar's back room. N. 3rd, 801 N. Third St., 215-413-3666, norththird.com.

Xochitl will be offering this five-course tasting menu with three varieties of El Mayor tequila as an accompaniment. Chef Dionicio Jimenez's menu will include a pork chop with tamarind and apple pico de gallo, fried tacos with coffee-braised brisket and figs poached with cinnamon and basil and served with chocolate ice cream. Reservations required. Xochitl, 408 S. Second St., 215-238-7280, xochitlphilly.com.