The Banh Mis at Sandwich Hag Are Damn Near Perfect

She was her mom’s sous chef. Reyna Duong was born in a small fishing village on the southern tip of Vietnam — a tattoo on her forearm bears the city’s name — and grew up in California’s Orange County. Sharing food using the right ingredients from home was a non-negotiable…

What Happened to the Cats at Ten Bells?

Oak Cliff’s self-proclaimed cat lady may soon lose that title. Meri Dahlke, co-owner of Ten Bells Tavern, has a colony of cats on the property, registered through local organization Feral Friends Community Cat Alliance, but the numbers have been dwindling. “I think when we registered, the colony was 13, and we’re…

Watch the Stretchy, Mesmerizing Process Behind Mozzarella Co.’s Famous Cheese

For 35 years, despite the ever-changing neighborhood around it, Mozzarella Company has been making incredible queso Oaxaca, burrata con crema and, of course, fresh mozzarella in Deep Ellum. Owner Paula Lambert started the company after a trip to Italy, where she experienced truly fresh mozzarella for the first time. Knowing…

From Chocolate to Fried Cheese, the Best Tacos at This Year’s Tacolandia

On Saturday afternoon, 3,500 people filled Dallas Farmers Market for this year’s sold-out Dallas Observer Tacolandia festival, an all-you-can-eat taco bonanza that brought together many of the city’s biggest taco heavy hitters. A panel of judges nobly sampled every taco at this year’s fest, and from the dozens available, they chose…

The Show-Stopper Hot Chicken Wings in Dallas

We consume them in cascading mountains. The stats from the National Chicken Council read like satire: The NCC’s 2017 Wing Report (Americans are so batshit about chicken wings that the National Chicken Council does a Wing Report annually) projected 1.33 billion wings would be eaten on Super Bowl Sunday earlier…

Settle Up: The Parlor on Commerce is an Anomaly — a New Dive Bar

Settle Up is a column that critiques cocktail bars with the same gravitas that food critics apply to restaurants, exploring Dallas’ cocktail concepts, menus, execution and service and steering discerning imbibers toward all the booze that’s fit to drink. You cannot build a dive bar. Dive bars are formed slowly,…