Dishes

If you're in the mood for good Chinese food, and you're looking for it in Center City, with prices more closely related to Chinatown, try Wok, at 1613 Walnut St. Luncheon specials, from $5 to $6, are substantial. Except for a lo-mein dish and one with fried rice, all are served with steamed rice. And dinners aren't going to send your budget to a financial trauma unit. Entrees average $7 to $8.50. Wok has something for just about everyone. What I particularly like is the fair number of vegetable dishes, and the sauces with definitive tastes that are used to flavor them.

From the outside, La Grotta Azzurra ("The Blue Grotto") looks like any other shopping-center restaurant, but inside is some of the finest northern Italian cuisine this side of Florence. The Mount Laurel restaurant has a lot going for it - superbly authentic dishes, moderate prices, an informal setting that evokes memories of Italy and friendly, efficient service. This could easily become one of my favorite South Jersey restaurants. Dinner begins with a complimentary dish of marinated green bell pepper strips touched with homemade tomato sauce, and a basket of marvelously crusty rolls and piping-hot rounds of heavily garlicked bread drenched with butter and crunchy with a sprinkling of cheese.

Even on dull, overcast days, Cafe Zesty sets a bright, colorful and cheerful mood. But that's certainly not all there is to like here. The food is consistently good, plentiful and, well, even looks great - without any of that contrived, architectural fiddling. Vegetable dishes, as lustrous as a spring day, are an important part of Zesty's Italian and Greek menu, which puts stong emphasis on the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. This bistro-flavored restaurant in Manayunk has expanded to nearly double its original size.

Hot and sour soup. Caesar salad. Chateaubriand. Rack of lamb. Bananas Foster. Chocolate souffle. What do these disparate dishes have in common? They're almost always served "for two. " The approach of Valentine's Day got the Guerrilla Gourmet thinking about dishes for duos. Appetizers, entrees and desserts portioned specifically for pairs turn up frequently in restaurants that cater to romantics, but that's not the only way to share something wonderful. Nowadays, couples may split an entree-sized pasta or fancy salad as an appetizer.

Dining at Frankie's Seafood Italiano at 11th and Tasker Streets is an experience to be enjoyed by both those who love seafood and their companions whose tastes are more land-oriented. Frankie's is just a little more than three years old. From the time it opened, it has been worth the trip (and the driving around required to find a spot to park). And now there are new attractions to recommend. The menu has been changed considerably and includes a number of innovative dishes, with something there to satisfy the tastes of most diners.

When leaves lose their green, there is nothing more inviting than an old country inn surrounded by fiery foliage and nestled near a running stream. So when we happened by the Newportville Inn, in Bristol Township, this former grist mill by the Neshaminy beckoned seductively. Until eight years ago, the homey inn had been strictly a local tavern. But its owners, Art and Lynne Ridge, slowly began to transform the 1734 building into a small restaurant. "This was originally a miller's house," Art Ridge told me by phone following some visits to the inn. "It had been a grist mill.

La Fontana. In Italian, it means "the fountain. " In South Philadelphia, it's the name of a new restaurant in an old spot, where food flows like water and cordiality bubbles over. The menu at La Fontana is moderately priced and features dishes prepared in sauces made with wine, cream, and butter and lemon. There is a fairly imaginative use of ingredients - with such marriages as artichoke hearts paired with Gruyere cheese and prosciutto, fresh peas and heavy cream paired with tortellini.

This is one in an occasional series of profiles of local chefs and restaurant owners. Marion Kamilatos may never be a celebrity chef. For one thing, she gives lots of credit to her three children - Elena, Theo and Tony Procopos - for helping her run Lourdas Greek Taverna, a tiny 40-seat BYO restaurant that opened in December 2000. It was a lifelong dream for Kamilatos, who named her restaurant after her father's hometown on the island of Kefalonia. Kamilatos herself grew up in Philadelphia and raised her family in Havertown.

More than a decade after a digital revolution swept through hi-fi products, a similar transformation is overtaking video entertainment. As breakthroughs are made in the ability to reduce audio/video signals into blocks of ones and zeroes (the "digits" that underlie all computers), home entertainment devices as we understand them will enter a period of swift and remarkable change. Whether video consumers will embrace every emerging digital product is the big unknown, but this uncertainty hasn't slowed the pace of innovation.

Momi, a small, new eatery off South Street, is majoring in nostalgia foods with a '50s flavor. From its TV dinners and Ovaltine to the tables, tiles and dishes, this is a time warp to be tackled with knife and fork. Remember Rice Krispies Treats, those slightly sticky, somewhat sweet squares made from the popular crispy rice cereal and marshmallows? They set the stage here for a cast of food characters that includes Fluffernutters, Tater Tots, potluck dinners and Jello. And if you like, you can wash it all down with Tang before leaving for home, pockets filled with complementary molasses-flavored Mary Jane chewies and sticks of bubble gum. Momi (it's pronounced Mommy)