Leading up to September's Best of Dallas® 2016 issue, we're sharing (in no particular order) our 100 Favorite Dishes, the Dallas entrées, appetizers and desserts that really stuck with us this year.
Some dishes are so warm and comforting that the chef might as well wander out of the kitchen, embrace you in a big hug while asking, "So how are you, really?" There's one dish on Rapscallion's snack menu that delivers that embrace without awkwardly sending the chef out for a round of human-on-human contact.
The duck and dumplings ($13 for small, $25 for large) features house-made ricotta cavatelli, a chewy, cheesy marvel of a pasta that makes standard pasta seem trite in comparison. Perfectly tender and juicy duck confit adds a little extra richness, and buttery veggies — baby carrots, spring peas radish and green garlic — come draped in a light but creamy sauce that you'd be crazy not to spoon right out of the bowl. A sprinkling of sharp Parmesan rounds out the dish to create the kind of snack that makes all other snacks feel downright silly in comparison.