Happy Valentine's Day

My husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day one day early. Ever since my husband retired from corporate life, he has taken over our kitchen. Not only does he cook, but he also does the grocery shopping. It's a great thing.
So for Valentine's Day, we took a cooking class at Susanna Foo's. It is a lovely restaurant in a suburb located a little west of Philadelphia. We had eaten in her restaurant in the city (which is now closed), but had not been to her suburban location. The main dining room was elegant with the most gorgeous Asian style chandeliers. We had our class in a private dining room. There were about 15 of us and Susanna Foo was our teacher and personal chef!

I found her to be gracious, humble and shy. It was important to her to share her knowledge and love of cooking and ingredients with us. To me it is amazing, considering that she is one of the preeminent Chinese chefs in the US., who has won the James Beard Award not once, but twice. Her philosophy revolves around the freshest ingredients that you can find.

We were treated like royalty. While Ms Foo was telling us that she had just returned from the hospital where she had been to see her new grandson, we were served wine and a beautiful plate of popcorn pork dumplings (not on the class menu).

The first demo was crab dumplings. After talking about the different types of crab and how these can be made and frozen, the wait staff served each of this with this beautiful dish of crab dumplings with a delicate coconut foam.

The next course was Kung Pao chicken. It was a little spicey and so delicious that I forgot to take a photo! The last course was Chinese Mushroom Risotto. Very nice.
This was a perfect Valentine's date. It was delicious. The food was so light and delicate, not like your neighborhood Chinese restaurant (which I also love.).If you are anywhere in the area and have an opportunity to either dine here or take a class, you must.

And one last photo of winter, here in Pennsylvania.