The Other Critics

Dumpling House Exudes ‘Restorative Heat’; Hay-Smoked Oysters Smell of ‘Greener Pastures’

• With each swallow of the “spiced with white pepper and puckered with white vinegar” hot and sour soup at Upper Darby’s Yang Yang Express (aka Dumpling House), Adam Erace feels the “viscous, almost chewy chicken broth” “restorative heat” circulate through his limbs and toes. “Gossamer wontons” in the beef noodle soup, he writes, are the “most delicate” he’s ever experienced. The “amber caramelization” on the fried pork-and-shrimp dumplings provide a “nice, crunchy textural contrast to the soft, stretchy dough,” and “tender orbs of shrimp, pork and leek inside thin skins” helps the “Three Delicious” dumplings live up th their name. [Citypaper]

• Ashley Primis raves about Oyster House’s hay-smoked oysters that “arrive scented like greener pastures” and “floating in a compound butter, made with herbs.” A black truffle-spike version is on the way. [Good Taste]

• Both the jicama-studded house salad and quinoa and rock shrimp salad “were tops” with Phyllis Stein-Novack and her crew on their visit to the still new-ish Fairmount Mexican BYOB Isabel. “Nicely seasoned” beef and a mix of crab and shrimp made the “melt-in-your-mouth flakey and not a bit greasy” empanadas an “inspired choice.” “Simply-prepared” scallops “needed a bit more seasoning,” but the pork carnitas fared much better. [South Philly Review]
