A major gripe amongst my Asian friends and me is the lack of bubble tea shops in Dallas. When the trend hit fever pitch a few years ago in other major cities, I figured it was only a matter of time before Dallas jumped in on the craze. Unfortunately for…

Carmine’s Pizzeria 2006 San Jacinto 214-220-9039Quote Time: 45 minutes Actual Time: An impressive 35 minutes Pricey: -20 Coupons: 10 Interesting Specialty Pizzas: 25 Health Conscious Low-Fat Mozzarella: 15 Crispy Bacon!: 15 Fresh Toppings Selection: 15 Basic Pasta and Appetizer Selection: 10 Split pizza orders, even with Specialty menu: 20 Guy…

There are the blogs I can’t wait to write, and there are the blogs I put off until 4:30 on a Monday afternoon, tippy-toeing dangerously close to my deadline. This week’s would be the latter. After being repeatedly hounded by a friend to visit I Luv Pho in Las Colinas,…

When my friend, Rona, moved to Dallas, she asked me where she could find her native Filipino food. I had no idea. In my defense, when I asked my Manila-born boyfriend the same question, he didn’t know of any restaurants in Dallas that served Filipino food either. Figuring as how…

Yesterday, upon returning home to Dallas from Houston, I was craving a big bowl of noodle soup. I had spent the weekend in Houston attending a friend’s wedding and had no time to grab a decent Asian meal around Bellaire Boulevard, known for some of the best Asian food in…

Last Monday afternoon, my friend and I found ourselves taking an unplanned tour of the Dallas area, from Uptown to White Rock Lake all the way to Garland, after three restaurants we wanted to try were closed or out of business. Frustrated and starving at this point, I declared that…

Last week, my friend Rona hosted her parents who where visiting from Maui. They were staying for the whole week, and being of Filipino descent, they wanted to know where the nearest Asian supermarket was. And when my aunt from Taiwan arrives next month, she will be asking me to…

I look back in regret at the first time I ever tried sushi.During one of my visits to Taiwan as a teenager, my part-Japanese auntie took us to a sushi restaurant. Taiwan was a Japanese colony for 50 years, and when the Japanese left, they left behind much of their…

Each week in ‘Knockers’ we order from a different delivery restaurant, grading its efficiency and food. Delivery quote time: 30-40 minutes Actual delivery time: 35 minutes Tolerating my annoying “no-oil” request: 20 Ignoring my annoying request: -10 Grease factor: -15 Mistaking my “no oil request” for “more salt, please”: -18…

While DFW boasts significant Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese populations, one is hard pressed to find more than the random Japanese person every now and then, much less an authentic Japanese restaurant. Most sushi restaurants in our area are owned by either Vietnamese or Korean proprietors.Unless eating bad airport sushi during…

It took me a while to warm up to Korean food, to the chagrin of my many Korean friends. For inexplicable reasons, Korean food seemed to me to be the most foreign and odd of Asian cuisine. I suspect it has something to do with its extreme flavor profiles, everything…

With Texas continuing its onslaught of dysfunctional weather (today excluded), I interpreted last weekend’s abrupt cold weather as a sign for me to finally go and review Pho Bang, the popular pho restaurant in Garland. Along for the food ride was my friend Kelly, a Vietnamese cuisine neophyte. Once we…

This past weekend’s Pacquiao-Clottey fight marked my first visit to Cowboys Stadium. Being the ever-so-dedicated blogger that I am, I took this opportunity of being in Arlington to try out a restaurant about which I’d been hearing good things. Whenever I am in Arlington, I usually visit my old stand-bys,…

What started out as a fun idea to share my mom’s recipe for pho with City of Aters turned into something more nerve racking. My mom isn’t exactly Martha Stewart, fastidiously measuring out every tablespoon or gram needed for an exact recipe. She, like many Asian cooks, measures sauces and…

Between recuperating from a nagging illness that won’t go away and just plain hibernating, in general, I haven’t had much time this week to go out and eat. Luckily for me, mom made me a pot of pho that was meant to, at least, last an entire week. Since I…

The combination of rainy weather and sweat pants days defeated all efforts in healthy eating, causing me to crave a fattening blast from the past: Taiwanese food. I invited my equally fed-up-with-dieting boyfriend along for a meal I presumed he would enjoy. I should have known better. May’s Ice Cream…

I haven’t enjoyed Chinese New Year, aka Vietnamese Tet, since I was a child, when there was nothing to worry about except counting the monetary contents of the shiny red envelopes given to kids as part of a good luck ritual by their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends…

Now that Pinkberry’s opened its new West Village location, the Dallas frozen yogurt invasion may finally be complete.Alongside Uptown competitors OrangeCup, Red Mango and The Yogurt Shop Formerly Known as Yogilicious, how many more yogurt shops can one neighborhood support?All these options can make choosing your yogurt stop a little…

After a positive dining experience at the Super H Mart last week, I asked my mother if she was up for joining me on one more food expedition before she leaves town. She said yes, but any early excitement she held for Grimaldi’s pizza or Rise No. 1 baguettes soon…