Articles for October, 2009
What I’m Drinking Now: Winderlea
On our recent trip to Oregon we found a new gem in the Dundee hills of Willamette Valley that I fell completely in love with for the quality of the wine, the sustainable practices, and how cool the tasting room was!
Winderlea Vineyard and Winery was created in 2006 by Donna Morris and Bill Sweat as an adventure, pursuit of passion and definitely second career. The elegance and sensuality of Pinot Noir became their passion in the 1990’s as they worked successful financial careers in Boston, Massachusetts. Traveling to France and enjoying some of the world’s best Burgundies was the foundation of their pursuit to start a new life making artisanal, craftsman style, small production wine in the part of the country most often equated to Burgundy. Continue reading "What I’m Drinking Now: Winderlea"
1 Comment »Wine, Women and Shoes
Can a wine loving, shoe devotee, community focused, girlie girl ask for anything more? November 7th at the Women’s Museum in Fair Park the 5th annual Wine, Women and Shoes event will take place, combing wine tasting and stunning fashions to benefit the Dallas Women’s Museum to empower women of all ages within our community.
The evening will feature tastings from BR Cohn, Coquerel Family Wine Estate, Adi, King Estate, Peju, Eagle Eye and more, along with a fashion show featuring Judy Ninman Designs matched with vintage and couture shoes.
Men are invited too. This year’s event includes a new Men’s Lounge, featuring a scotch tasting, cigar rolling and shoe shines. More info available here.
Do Love French Food, French Wine, and French Culture?
Then you must check out French Affaires in Dallas. They hold all kinds of French-inspired events all over town. On November 1, they are hosting a French wine and cheese pairing at Molto Fromaggio in Highland Park. On November 8, they will be at The Cultured Cup to “tour Provence its signature flavors and foods.” All the info you need is here. Berets optional.
2 Comments »Somebody Help This Poor Man: Turkish Food in Dallas
He has time but he needs your help:
Our organization Friendship Force of Dallas is going on an exchange trip to Turkey next year. We are looking for a Turkish restaurant that can accommodate a group of 50-60 people for a meeting next July. Can you provide me with a list of restaurants in the Dallas area that have a Turkish ethnic atmosphere and food? I appreciate any assistance you can provide.
Hit it and get it.
8 Comments »Foodie in a Warzone Says Hi to Dallas
- Make pasta not war.
Earlier in the week, I introduced you to Susan Marx and the Foodie in a Warzone blog she writes from her kitchen in Kabul, Afghanistan. Today she sends you a message:
I just saw your lovely post and link to my new blog on the Dallas Food and Wine blog and wanted to thank you very much for the support! This is something that is quite close to our hearts, and in light of the recent attacks in Kabul, something we do for sanity as well – your support is much appreciated. Warm regards,Susan.
Dishers, I say we add her to the blogroll on the right. Perhaps with a little support from us, Susan can find a little peace. And we can get some great recipes! What do you say?
3 Comments »Jack’s Porch Restaurant Opens in Southlake With a Lawsuit
A couple of months ago, a Disher in Colleyville asked me if I knew where Jack’s Porch was opening in her area. I did what most reputable reporters do, I Googled. I did find job listings for a Jack’s Porch but no address. Then I forgot about it. This morning a Disher with a head for the law and a bod for Law & Order sends word that Jack of Jack’s Porch is Jack Layman, the former manager of Rockfish in Southlake, and he has been slapped with a lawsuit for violating his employment contract. Layman quit his job at Rockfish and opened Jack’s Porch across the street with a Rockfish-rip-off menu. Rockfish is claiming Layman has violated his employment contract which prohibits him from working at another restaurant within 10 miles.
35 Comments »Material Connection of the Day: Peanut Butter Cookies From J. Dorian Chocolatier
Today we received a basket of peanut butter cookies from J. Dorian, welcoming us to our new offices. Dorian Isenberg, as you know, is one of our very best friends. He likes to bring us cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies. When I stopped by his shop recently–I was taking some white cupcakes with raspberry filling to a baby shower–I told him that I thought it was a real bummer that no one could make a decent peanut butter cookie. Most of the time they are too dry or too sweet. (Do you know of a place? Let me know.) Then I asked if he had thought about adding PB to his repertoire. He assured me he was working out the final recipe. And today we’re taste-testing.
The texture is perfect–the right balance of crumbly and moist. And here’s a revelation–it actually tastes like peanut butter, as opposed to some overly sweet sugar-dusted, dried-out hunk of cardboard. The verdict: “The best peanut butter cookie I’ve ever eaten,” declared one Web-ette. I concur. Later I will report how well they freeze, because that’s where they’re going–straight to my freezer to pull out on another rainy day.
8 Comments »The Naughty Kitchen With Blythe Beck is Not Canceled
A Disher tuned in to watch the Central 214 chef Blythe Beck’s reality show The Naughty Kitchen with Blythe Beck on Tuesday, and found a Hugh Grant movie running on Oxygen. (Snicker!) She asked me if the show had been canceled? I went straight to the source via Twitter.
ChefBlytheBeck how you feel about it not being on this week. The naughty Army on Facebook is pissed!! How do the twitter peeps feel??10:42 PM Oct 27th from web
ChefBlytheBeck The Naughty Kitchen will be back next week with a whole new episode but I think that the Naughty Army should go to Oxygen.com and tell them10:41 PM Oct 27th from web
DSideDish Nancy…the show took a break last night and will be back with an all new episode next week. It has something to do with sweeps week. about 16 hours ago
DSideDish Yes Nancy I knew it was taking a break. Oxygen had told me a while ago!! Thanks for checking though! I appreciate it!! about 13 hours ago.
Nancy’s Eat and Tweet
I’m headed out to do a restaurant review. Care to join me on Twitter. DSideDish.
Guessing Games With Andrew Chalk: WTF is This?
I love guessing games. Especially here on SideDish. It’s a great distraction from work and it drives my page views through the lower atmosphere. I was so happy when I opened an e-mail from SD reporter, Andrew Chalk. In it was a guessing game. So, here goes!
This is a picture of:
a) A new building in the Arts District
b) A modern sculpture
c) A new $64 chocolate truffle from Noka
d) Something caramelized
e) All of the above
f) None of the above
g) Whatever I want it to be
Go for it. I’ll post another clue a little later in the day.
UPDATE: 3:09 p.m. Clue number 2.
UPDATE: DGirl takes the prize. Oh, we didn’t offer one! Whoopsie. Here’s Andrew:
It is indeed a cheese. Gjetost from Norway, also known as Brunost, is a semi-hard cheese made from cow and goat’s milk to which caramelization during boiling of the milk contributes an unforgettable brown color. The caramel is also evident in the taste which is nutty and creamy. It is usually cut with a cheese slicer in order to create thin strips as the taste is quite intense and the finish long-lived. I bought it for $15.90/lb at The Wooden Spoon in Plano. A store for all things Scandinavian except, on my last visit, the famous fetid shark. I settled for herring.
Wine Dinner Wednesday
This week’s wine dinners include offerings from Bailey’s Prime Plus, Cafe on the Green, Ferrari’s Flight, Adelmo’s, Nana, two from Stephan Pyles, and Pappas Bros Steakhouse.
October 30
Bailey’s Prime Plus at Park Lane. Four-Course Wine Dinner featuring the wines of B.R. Cohn. Executive Chef Israel Voirin and Sommelier Jeff Ivy present an exciting wine pairing dinner. Full menu and pairings below.
Sunday, November 1
Cafe on the Green. Halloween Sunday Brunch. Let the kiddos dress in costume for one more day, and enjoy a great holiday brunch at Cafe on the Green! You’ll have a spooky good time! Kids under 12 that come dressed in costume dine for free! Menu and details below.
Monday, November 2
Ferrari’s Flight Neighborhood Oven. California Dreaming on November 2 at Ferrari’s Flight Neighborhood Oven at 7:00 PM. Chef Stefano Secchi will showcase a tasting that will feature 8 California wines with Thanksgiving side dishes. The cost is a mere $15.00 (per person) and will include cooking instruction from Chef Stefano on side dishes. Menu and details below.
Friday, November 6
Adelmo’s. Aldelmo’s is having a Wine dinner on Friday, Nov. 6 at 6:30. It features 5 wines and 5 courses for $50.00, plus tax and gratuity. Take a look at the menu.
Friday, November 6
Nana. Friday Night Flight. The first Friday of every month, Nana at Hilton Anatole hosts a wine and food flight trio for only $20 (excluding tax and gratuity), a gourmet tasting of haute cuisine paired with choice wines. For the month of November, the restaurant will highlight Cabernet Sauvignon, the premier red wine grape around the world, from Stephen Vincent, Obsidian Ridge and Cannonball wineries. November’s Friday Night Flight is on November 6 between 6pm – 8pm. Reservations are highly recommended by calling 214.761.7470. Menu and details below.
November 8th
Stephan Pyles. A Decade Of Dining. 10th Anniversary Of Stephan Pyles Celebrity Chef Dinner
Stunning Dinner and Auction Funds $15,000 Stephan Pyles Culinary Scholarship. Five celebrity chefs from throughout the state including Chef Pyles will present a spectacular five-course wine dinner along with a live auction to fund one of the nation’s largest culinary scholarships. Five-course menu, chef line-up, and details below.
November 9th
Stephan Pyles. Stephan Pyles will host a special five-course dinner paired with Truchard wines in the restaurant’s private dining room on Monday, November 9. Truchard Vinyards is a small, family-owned winery that has been producing exceptional wines in the Carneros region of Napa Valley for over 30 years. Tony and Jo Ann Truchard will join Chef Pyles to educate diners on the wine and food pairings.
November 13
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. Bubbles bring in the holidays! Our last tasting of the year celebrates all things sparkling, so join us as we get ready for the 2009 holiday season. This “sparkling” tasting, on November 13th, $45 per person plus tax and gratuity, begins at 6:00 p.m. Reservations are required. Call 214.366.2000 or visit pappasbrosdallas.com. Jump for more info. Continue reading "Wine Dinner Wednesday"
FDA To Ban Sale Of Raw Oysters From Gulf Of Mexico
Well, here comes another topic of conversation—the FDA will ban the sale of raw oysters harvested in the Gulf of Mexico during the summer months starting in 2011. Under the new guidelines, oysters pulled from the Gulf after the summer of 2011 will have to be “pasteurized” (heated with mild heat to kill bacteria) before they are sold (Gold Band Oysters). Louisiana is way ahead of Texas on this front.
Hmm. About 15 people a year die from eating raw oysters infected with Vibrio vulnificus and most of those people had existing conditions such as AIDS, hepatitis, cancer, cirrhosis, diabetes, or kidney disease. It sounds like an easy solution—stay away from summertime oysters if you have any of these conditions, but many people are infected with these life-threatening illnesses and don’t know it until they come in contact with a bad oyster.
In 2003, two people died from eating raw oysters at Rockfish in Dallas. Photographer Nan Coulter and I traveled to the Texas coast and poked around oyster processing plants and talked to fishermen. You can read the whole story here. We talked to people in the seafood industry on both sides of the “pasteurization” argument. The only fact they agreed upon was that anti-bacterial procedures are expensive. No doubt, the Texas seafood industry, which supplies about two-thirds of the oysters to the U. S. market, will feel wronged.
- Processing plant near Texas City. (Nan Coulter)
Buried at the bottom of this Associated Press report:
Anita Grove, executive director of the Apalachicola Bay Chamber of Commerce in Florida, said a ban would be crushing. She said oyster harvesters, shuckers, truckers and dealers are “the backbone to our economy. It’s always been that way.”
Yes Anita, it has been that way for a long time. But I’d like to see the identification documents of most of the harvesters, shuckers, and dealers I met in Texas. Most of them were Vietnamese, couldn’t speak English, and they ran from our cameras. I’d also like to see more enforcement of the regulations designed to control where those harvesters are allowed to pull their catch—so many break the rules and fish in closed polluted waters and haul them back to shore on unrefrigerated boats.
12 Comments »Shameless Plug for D Home‘s Restaurant Issue
Perhaps you read the print product, D Magazine. If so, perhaps you are familiar with our home magazine, D Home. If not, this month is an excellent time to head to the nearest newsstand to pick up the November/December issue, with the 2009 Restaurant Design Awards on the cover. Then, while flipping through the pages, you’ll also see Todd Johnson’s foodie gift guide. Or you’ll notice how I went to the home kitchens of four of Dallas’ top chefs. Sure, you can read these stories online, and it’s my duty as a member of the web team to encourage traffic. But, really, these online stories hardly do justice to the magazine. It’s a good one. And as food enthusiasts, you will appreciate it. IJS.
Material Connection of the Day: Free Cupcakes from Citizen Sweet in Dallas
Hmm. Looks like the cupcake industry is trying to beat the new FTC guidelines that go into effect on December 1. Once the rules kick in, I can’t eat a free cupcake without telling you I accepted a free cupcake. The same goes for other products such as food, wine, or free dinners. The revised rules require you to disclose how you received the products you review or endorse. So, I’m not going to review these—I hate cupcakes anyway. You can send all you want but I’m not eating any of them or writing about them. The cupcakes in the picture were sent, unsolicited, to our offices at 750 N. Pearl St. Suite 2100, Dallas 75201. They come from Citizen Sweet.
Dish Will Bring Fresh and Delicious Simple Cuisine To Dallas
That’s what the PR peeps promise. Dish, an “alfresco dining and premier nightlife destination” will open in the Illume on November 5th. You will recognize some of the folks behind the scenes: Tim McEneny (obar, LIFT, Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa, and partner and concept chef Doug Brown, from Beyond the Box)and Shawn Horne (Five Sixty, Star Canyon, Aquaknox, The Green Room, Abacus, Ferre, and Kitchen 1924). Executive chef Brian Sommers (Jaspers and Rick’s Chophouse) headlines the kitchen. Jump for more. Continue reading "Dish Will Bring Fresh and Delicious Simple Cuisine To Dallas"
2 Comments »The Princeton Tigertones to Perform at Hector’s on Henderson
Hector Garcia has booked The Princeton Tigertones, an cappella male choral group from Princeton University, for two shows at Hector’s on Henderson. The Tigertones formed in 1946 and have over 30 recordings. They “encourage harmony, spontaneity, and brotherhood.” This past summer they toured Europe for six weeks. Their nine tours abroad have taken them to Europe, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Japan, Jamaica and many other exotic locations. The first dinner and show (6:00 p.m.) on November 1 is sold out, but owner Hector is adding a 9:00 p.m. show. Limited seating. Call 214-821-0432. Details below. Jump. Continue reading "The Princeton Tigertones to Perform at Hector’s on Henderson"
Dinner and Dancing: Where do You Tango in Dallas?
I used to love to eat dinner and dance at the Chaparral Club in Dallas. It’s gone but a few place remain. There is good music at Kirby’s in Southlake and I think you can dance in the lounge at Bailey’s Prime Plus near NorthPark. Any other favorites out there?
Mini-Review: Chicken House in Dallas
Today, with a renewed attitude to drive across town to discover food, I hit Chicken House in East Dallas to buy a big butt bucket load of fried chicken for my hard-working cube mates. Chicken House is the semi-new name for the joint formerly known as Brothers Fried Chicken.
The speaker in the drive-through is in desperate need of repair. The crackling high-pitched screech cooked my cochlea and fried my synapses. Somehow I managed to order a 10-piece family pack, sides of okra and cole slaw, and a fried pie. As I waited by the window, I asked the nice lady, Naomi, if the recipe was the same as Brothers. She said it was—I didn’t actually hear her, but luckily I’m a great reader of lips.
Anywhoo, imagine my co-workers surprise when I walked in with a free lunch! Well, the whole deal was only $19.45 and it made even the skinny people happy. Vegetarians, not so much.
Here is my take: The chicken pieces were huge and the crust was crunchy and crispy. (No extra salt was needed. I drizzled jalapeno juice on mine.) Cole slaw was not great—too much mayo. Fries reminded me of my ex-husband—they were soft and wimpy. Fried okra were State Fair quality—nothing but crispy little balls of probably frozen okra. But Naomi was nice and the chicken was worth the drive. Co-workers, let me hear from you. (909 Fitzhugh @ Gaston. 214-370-0800)
14 Comments »Dallas Restaurants: What Do We Need?
- What kind of restaurant would Major Tony Nelson and Jeannie do in Dallas?
I was having a conversation with a “highly educated” person the other night and he said, “Dallas really needs a great burger place.” I was stunned. When I asked him what places he liked, he reeled off spots—Chips, Goff’s, Neighborhood Services—that were in his neighborhood. I asked him if he ever went out of his way to discover or try new places and he admitted that he didn’t really. He has now been downgraded to “somewhat intelligent.” I mean talk about closed minded. (They don’t even melt the cheese at Goff’s.)
The inside-the-loop-outside-the-loop foodie argument drives me nuts. There is great food all over this area if you are willing to drive. But if you had one restaurant wish, what would you like to see in Dallas? I know what I want, it’s a fleet of these, STAT. Your turn.
52 Comments »Subscribe
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Dallas Candy Corn War: Pick a Side and a Personality
Yesterday at 2:59 p.m., Dave “Fairies” Faries announced on City of Ate that he hated candy corn. At 4:29 p.m., Leslie “Catch a Falling Star” Brenner proclaimed, “Here at the Dallas Morning News, we love it.”
I’ve gotta go with Faries on this. That stuff is nasty. It tastes like wax-coated “sugar.” But if Dave Faries would ever talk to me, I’d like to ask him why he insists on doing these silly wine and “food” pairings. Why would you pair a wine with candy corn or Frito’s or other random junk food? I’m just curious.
However, Mr. Faries inspired me to explore the Internet and search for my identity. Here are the results.
So, there you have me. What about you? La Brenner and Mr. Faries, I think it only fair you weigh in here. And Teegster, spit that candy corn out of your mouth and play. Anything goes!
5 Comments »