Bradford Pearson over on FrontBurner has been following the Twinkie story very closely since the beginning of Hostess’ dissolution. The evidence? Here, here, here, here, here, and oh, here. (Your theories about his Twinkie obsession are as good as mine.) The latest news on the Hostess front: they’ve been bought. By a billionaire. This means their snacks are back foreverrrrrrr.
6 Comments »It’s an awkward week for recipe bloggists — big holiday last week, Christmas isn’t for a month. Sigh. There’s nothin’ to do, man*! What am I gonna talk about, cheeky uses for Thanksgiving leftovers? You know years in advance the kinds of depraved things you’re going to do with your leftovers; you don’t need me to remind you that tacos are in play.
Alas, there’s a job to be done here. I’m not that big into snacking**, so I wouldn’t usually get too excited about something like chips. Likewise, I try to dispense with the superlatives in regard to my own recipes. Whatever, walls are coming down today.
These are the best mother-expletiving chips I’ve ever had.
Continue reading "Look What I Made: Root Veggie Chips"
There’s a reason why the pecan tree is the official state tree. (Mob connections, maybe?) They’re also located, conveniently enough, all over*- including a gigantic pair right behind my apartment.
Continue reading "Look What I Made: Candied Pecans Recipe"
4 Comments »I don’t know where or when the great sweet potato fry deluge began. One day sweet potato fries are a novelty on bar menus, the next you can order them at (wait for it…) Burger King. It just… it all happened so fast. Not that I’m complaining. I love a good french freedom fry, but after consuming roughly eleventy billion of them over the years, it’s nice to have options. An option, anyway.
For the make-your-own-food crowd, sweet potato fries present, shall we say, a challenge. Simply put, sweet potatoes are way effin’ different than potatoes. They have different levels of starch and sugar and water, so you have to treat them differently than potatoes to yield similar results.
Jump. Continue reading "Look What I Made: Sweet Potato Fries Recipe"
3 Comments »
Before Central Market was built on the corner of Lovers and Greenville ten years ago, that spot was occupied by LouAnn’s nightclub, the “hub of the Dallas dining scene.” Performers like Lawrence Welk and Jimmy Reed use to bang up the stage with their music. Plenty of you, I’m sure, have stories to tell about this corner – stories that you may or may not remember, depending on how many Regal Beagles you had back in the day. So, to honor the 10th anniversary of Central Market, we’re asking you to tell your story in the comments down below.
Jump for the rest of the 10th anniversary celebration.
Continue reading "What Do You Remember About the Corner of Lovers and Greenville?"
It’s 1 a.m. and you have a massive cupcake craving that’s ruining your entire night. What do you do? Suck it up? Brave the night, albeit cupcakeless, as man was designed to do since the very beginning of time?
No, because starting as early as fall, word has it that you can go to a cupcake ATM at Sprinkles‘ Plaza at Preston Center location for a late-night snack. The machine is supposed to hold 600 cupcakes at one time, and, according to Bradford Pearson on Park Cities People, “the cupcakes are cycled out to maintain freshness. All uneaten cakes go to a local charity.”
Pray, tell me which local charity would want stale Sprinkles cupcakes? The fresh ones are honestly scary enough. It’s a simple mathematical formula for those of you who understand equations. 1 Sprinkles cupcake consumed = 1 new cavity created.
Convenience has reached a whole new level of ridiculosity. I fear for future generations.
18 Comments »
Alan "Patric" McClure stands in front of his demo table at Central Market's Chocolate Festival (photos by William Neal)
Alan “Patric” McClure, owner of Patric Chocolate, is the kind of guy who blushes when you tell him, “My editor sent me here because you’re famous.”
We’re standing in the middle of Central Market’s busiest intersection – a place where people and grocery carts collide – and it takes him a couple minutes to recover from my forward introduction. When McClure gathers his thoughts, he launches into his insane foodie-ism and then does something completely unexpected: he starts modeling with his chocolate. Tyra would be proud.
Jump for some funny photos.
Continue reading "Alan “Patric” McClure is a Full-Time Chocolate Maker and Part-Time Model"

Poutine from the Greenhouse Tavern, Cleveland OH (photo from Columbus Underground @ www.columbusunderground.com)
A couple of weeks ago I gushed about my love for the burgers at Kenny’s Burger Joint. One of our Sidedishers, “Kirk,” commented that they offered “the closest facsimile of poutine in the DFW area.” When I heard this, it was not long until I found my way back to sample the Kenny’s version. As you likely know, “poutine” is a classic Canadian dish, traditionally composed of crispy French fries, cheese curds, and a brown gravy. The most successful variations of poutine are able to serve the fries thick and crisp, the cheese curd soft but not so completely melted that they lose all their texture, and the gravy incorporated into each bite, but not so much as to turn the whole thing into a soup or make the fries overly soggy. However, this dish is incredibly hard to find in Dallas. I don’t understand why this is so. Perhaps it’s our distance from our neighbors to the North? Perhaps there are not enough Canadians here in the Lone Star State? It really is a travesty.
Continue reading "Pouting Over Poutine"
14 Comments »It’s Wednesday and time for Eat This Now by Daniel Walker of DeepinthegutofTexas.com:
I’ll admit, it’s been a while since my high school Spanish class, but I’m pretty sure “Empa Mundo” translates loosely to either “world of empanadas” or “empanadas-so good-they’ll-melt-yourface-off.” Although this humble establishment may be a bit off the beaten path, this is one path is filled with richly rewards for those willing to traverse it.
Owner Raul Gordon is a man who understands one simple culinary concept: if you are going to do only one thing, then do it well. And when it comes to empanadas, Raul does his job superbly. His quiet dedication to the empanada has produced a nearly perfect little pocket of love.
Every empanada is hand-made to order and fried to order right before your eager eyes. The crispy exterior shell is light and flaky, never too oily, and creates a perfect vessel for each of the tantalizing fillings awaiting you inside.
There’s more…
Continue reading "Eat This Now: Empanadas from Empa Mundo in Irving"
4 Comments »
I am not sure when a trend becomes a tradition, when a flash in the pan becomes an American classic, but I suspect we are at the tipping point with the cupcake.
Before you tell me to put a macaron in it, please allow me to introduce you to the very cupcake that I think might be over the edge: Trailercakes.
Jump for the rest of the glory.
Continue reading "Trailercakes Cupcakes Take D Magazine by Storm"
6 Comments »He specializes in the food of Italy, a country that pioneered ice cream as we know it. However, in the event chef David Uygur decides not to make his own ice cream at Lucia, he might want to source it from just a few blocks away at Paletas Fruititas on Jefferson in Oak Cliff. Two of the many interesting flavors are shown here.
We were told Paciugo was doing some special things for its anniversary. So we sent Taylor Walker, one of our fearless interns, to dig around the gelato giant. Read on to see what she found.
As I sat in my car outside the Paciugo Gelato corporate headquarters waiting for my digital clock to read 10:20 (I had wildly overestimated my morning commute), I applied some Burt’s Bees, went over my interview questions, and made a wish on a rogue eyelash. Prepped and ready, I entered the building where a perky and animated Cristiana Ginatta, co-owner and founder of Paciugo, greeted me. After handing me a hairnet (if only I were kidding), she guided me into the gloriously scented kitchen and began to discuss her family history.
Continue reading "Exploring Paciugo"
14 Comments »Tonight is Thursday night and almost time for one of the most mind-numbing single hours of television experience. Families used to gather around the TV for Bonanza. Now we snuggle up for Wipeout. Admit it. You love it or you know someone who loves it.
So help out a snack-challenged family. I’m tired of microwaved popcorn stinking up the house. Give me snack ideas for guilty TV pleasures that don’t require Kent Rathbun skills.
And PS: Don’t you really, really want to try, just once, your shot at the Big Balls? Come on, tell me.
3 Comments »
I am hard at work on the next issue of D Magazine. (Translation: I am perfecting the fine art of procrastination by reading every blog in town.) In a post on December 14 on Eatsblog, Leslie “Catch a Falling Pound” Brenner, announced that frequent foodie blog commenter Dallas Dude was “a real person” and was joining the Eatsblog as a community blogger. She writes:
You may know him from his comments as Dallas Dude, but Steven Doyle is a real person — one who, in his job in high-tech sales, does a lot of driving around the DFW. As he does so, he keeps an eye open for great-looking spots to eat. I’m pleased to tell you that Steven will be joining us as a community blogger… Steven Doyle loves Indian, Chinese, “other ethnic cuisines,” and taqueries; his favorite restaurants include La Calle Dolce, York Street and Kalachandji’s Palace and Restaurant.
A few minutes later I discover a City of Ate post written on January 4 by Mr. Dave “Fairies” Faries. Mr. F announces the new line-up for City of Ate 2010 which includes this:
On Thursday, newcomer Steve Doyle pits one restaurant against another in Toque To Toque. It’s a dish against dish battle for supremacy.
I’m confused. Is Dallas Dude a real person or is Steve Doyle a real person? Is the City of Ate Steve Doyle the same as the Eatsblog Steven Doyle? Do both Doyles love Kalachandji’s? Dallas Dude, (I know you’re there), what’s going on? How can you be two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?
9 Comments »
New holiday whoopie pies at Society Bakery.
Last week, Nancy told us about whoopie pies at Tart Bakery and and Maple & Motor Burgers and Beer. One more, and whoopies were a trend, she said. Well, here’s our third: Society Bakery is selling them, and they brought us some to try. In the box: chocolate mint (gourmet Thin Mint, they say), brown sugar, bread pudding, and spice. The pies are saucer-sized and make a great cupcake alternative, IMO. My favorite was the brown sugar. Loved the maple whoopie filling, which is like vanilla frosting but much less sweet. The cake-to-frosting ratio will also likely be appealing to pepole who get overwhelmed with mile-high frosted cupcakes.
If these look good to you and you want a sample, stop by Society tomorrow night from 6–8 for their joint open house with the Corner Market. They will be giving away samples of these new flavors as well as some of their other goodies.
3 Comments »
Pinkberry owner Adam Saxton smiles pretty and eats yogurt.
Last night was the grand opening party of Pinkberry Dallas, the frozen yogurt store that started the tart frozen yogurt craze in 2005. Back then, you couldn’t open up an In Touch without seeing a photo of Leo DiCaprio or Lindsay Lohan chowing down on the stuff, and rumor had it that lines were so long you had to wait an hour for a taste of the Swirly Goodness (not our term: that’s what Pinkberry press release calls it). We didn’t see any celebs last night (does Lucy Wrubel count?), but there was a searchlight, and there was a line out the door for the yogurt, so there. Our location, at Preston and Royal next to Barnes and Noble and the Merge clothing store, is the first in the U.S. outside of New York and California. The party was also the debut of Chocolate Pinkberry, and for now, we’re the only city that has it (woot!). It was explained to me that the chocolate comes from Mexico and is very expensive, because it’s tough to find chocolate that would mix with their yogurt and taste good. I thought the chocolate flavor was fine, but I like Pinkberry (and others like it) because of the tang, and chocolate doesn’t have it. I’m sticking with the original. Jump for photos and more info.
Continue reading "Pinkberry Dallas Opens With Chocolate Yogurt and Champagne"
1 Comment »
This Little Piggy Went Downtown
Oh yeah, it's for real.
We’re suckers for any press release that contains the following sentences:
It seems a couple well-intentioned entrepreneurs have teamed up with J&D’s Foods to create a little something they’re calling baconlube—the world’s first bacon-flavored, water-based, American-made, personal lubricant.
Billing itself as the “gold standard of meat-flavored massage oils” (natch) baconlube, they say, is like the McRib of sex: it’s delicious, makes men crazy, is here for a limited time, and is in short supply.
If you’re thinking “stocking stuffer!” (let’s stay on track here), we’re right behind you. But the boys only made 3,000 bottles of this pork-flavored nectar. It hit the interwebs yesterday at www.baconlube.com. How much, you ask, for a product that promises such a satisfying holiday season? Only $11.99.
you know you want more. jump for it… Continue reading "This Little Piggy Went Downtown"
13 Comments »