FYI Philly | Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- This week on FYI Philly, we get cooking lessons from a celebrity chef, sample a new spot for a traditional Chinese hot pot and go on a bubble tea tasting tour!

Check out Cupid's Bookshop, Philadelphia's first romance bookstore. There are contemporary, historical and vintage romance novels, tales of alien, werwolf and vampire love. Cowboys and hockey players are having a moment too. Whatever your escapist fantasy, Cupid's Bookshop wants to help you find your next read.

Cupid's Bookshop | Instagram
106 Grape Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19127
(215) 754-0210 | [email protected]

Eat Cetera Philly offers cooking classes from a celebrity chef. Chef Clara Park promises 3 things: you eat, you learn, and there's always enough left over to take home. She partnered with Drexel to host the classes in the university's professional commercial kitchens, and she promises that if you take her classes, you will become a better cook.

Eat Cetera Philly | Instagram
[email protected]

Drip Vietnamese Cafe opens up in Philadelphia's Chinatown. The coffee is served cold and brewed from Vietnamese beans, which is said to deliver double the caffeine. The most popular drink is the drippy, using Vietnamese coffee with house-made coffee jelly added for texture. They also serves the traditional Vietnamese sandwich on a croissant.

Instagram
225 N 11th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Mahalo Hawaiian BBQ brings aloha spirit and flavor to South Street. It specializes in authentic Hawaiian plate lunches for take out or you can dine in the island themed restaurant. Heaping portions are part of the experience.

Mahalo Hawaiian BBQ | Facebook | Instagram
117 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147

Feng Hotpot is bringing Sichuan style hotpot to Philadelphia. There are more than one-hundred menu items available and guests cook many of them at the table in the broth. There is a DIY sauce bar where guests can dial up the heat or dial it back depending on their capacity for spice. It's a communal experience meant for sharing.

Feng Hotpot | Facebook | Instagram
1310 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107

Boba Tea Shops are bubbling up around the region so we went on a tasting tour.

Tsaocaa Manayunk opened in 2019, bringing the flavors owner Andrew Chang enjoyed during childhood visits to Taiwan to Main Street in Manayunk. They import all of their teas from Taiwan.

Tsaocaa Manayunk
4415 Main Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19127
(267) 583-8000

A giant bubble tea beckons outside the Bubble Tea Room in Old City. Inside you'll find Juan Li whipping up more than two dozen varieties of bubble milk tea, along with a wide variety of fruit teas and boba smoothies. She also offers a whole menu of Asian eats-from sushi and ramen to fried pork dumplings, eel rice box and poke salad bowls that can be customized with your choice of proteins.

Bubble Tea Room
319 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19106
(267) 324-5546

For the true tea enthusiasts, we head to Chicha San Chen in Chinatown. There's no food here; it's just tea. The most popular is the classic bubble milk tea with black tea, cream and boba. The fruit teas are super popular as well.

Chicha San Chen
932 Race Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107