Recipe demonstrated by Amy Green, 2nd place in Sutter Home Build a Better Burger Contest Football season is in full swing. With football season comes game day food, and what’s the best game day food? Burgers…and of course, hot dogs and chips. But let’s focus on meat patties today. Amy…
Batman is suspended over the ocean waves with a shark clinging to his leg. Beating the beast on its nose fails to knock the 6-foot monster loose, so the Caped Crusader takes a desperate, last-gasp course of action. “Quick, Robin,” he yells up to the Boy Wonder, strapping himself safely…
When it’s raining balls all week, the “Let’s stay dry” part of me starts saying drive-through is the only way to go. And driving down Buckner Boulevard, I came across a drive-through with barred windows, chipping paint and zero cars in line. Count me in. The menu at John’s Seafood…
Each week, Pairing Off attempts to find just the right bottle of wine to go with ordinary food.As a cereal, Rice Krispies were never a favorite. Yeah, they had that snap, crackle, pop gimmick, but you still needed five or six tablespoons of sugar to make them palatable.Then someone came…
Some say that T.G.I. Friday’s invented the potato skin.This was back in 1974, with the country reeling from Watergate, the withdrawal of combat troops from Vietnam, inflation and–worst of all–the introduction of all those sluggish mid-70s cars. Chrysler was, in fact, buying up the world’s production of rich, Corinthian leather…
On The Range is a weekly exploration of the history and lore of Texas menu items.”If everybody had an ocean/Across the U.S.A/Then everybody’d be surfin’/Like Californ-I-a/You’d see ’em wearing their baggies/Huarache sandals too…” Despite the popularity brought to them by the Beach Boys way back when, huaraches aren’t just a…
We often wonder why anyone would decide to own a restaurant. Not only can profit margins be thin, they also rise and fall on whims. Hire an inept server? Customers at that table will never return.It’s a precarious business.From the guest’s point of view, however, there’s no reason to reward…
Willie’s Place101 Cornelius Rd. NorthCarl’s CornerDude Factor: 8, or Grandpa Simpson, on a scale of 1 (Grandfather clauses) to 10 (Royal Tenenbaum)Our trip to Willie’s Place was more than just dinner for my Grandpa Neudecker. It was nothing less than a pilgrimage. Since health and vision problems have kept him…
If Memory Serves chronicles moments from my dining past, perhaps explaining why I’m so damn strange.I was a kid when I started to pick up on the the existence of regional differences in what and how people cook. My dad grew up on a poor Southern farm and thus favored…
Ok–I’ll admit it. The Shops at Legacy are pretty cool. Now if only they weren’t all the way up in freakin’ Oklahoma…erm…I mean Plano. I met up with my vegan buddy Drew at Legacy NAAN last week, where he’d set up a multiple-course vegan food tasting. It’s located in the…
The folks from Marketing have been hanging around my office, coughing up a storm and pointedly refusing to use Purell, despite the containers placed all around the office. I think they’re hoping that, weakened by a particularly nasty strain of swine flu they’ve been incubating for months (and you thought…
I’ve spent some effort avoiding this day, hoping it would never, ever come. But all of my valiant, last ditch efforts–a quick search for an apartment in Allen, begging to work from a Starbucks in Oklahoma City for a day or two–fell through.Now I’m trapped. Although I’ve spent much of…
El Fogon3636 Frankford972-820-6440Does it matter if a funky little ethnic joint is lodged in a far north strip mall? Is character defined by the shell or what is inside?Some would have you believe that location and setting matter more than unique flavors. So the fact that El Fogon is hidden…
Each week in ‘Knockers’ we order from a different delivery restaurant, assessing their efficiency and keeping a running score.Nara Pizza & Oven3716 Belt Line, Addison972-488-3663Promised delivery time: 40 minutesActual delivery time: 27 minutesScoring summary:Beating–nay, crushing–the promised delivery time: 23Five minutes spent in limbo on the phone as they figured out…
Author, beer judge and Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver will be in town Wednesday for a couple of Brooklyn Beer-related events. One is free, while the other costs $58 per person plus tax and tip. Guess which one we’ll be attending. First, Oliver will offer samples with food pairings and…
It’s State Fair time. Time to make out with Big Tex, take a ride on the Texas Star and maybe even do a little balloon-darting on the Midway. But more important, it’s time to get your fried-food game face on. This year there are some brand-new contenders vying for some…
When David Pedack fires up his rickety ZAP car—a three-wheeled all-electric bug assembled in Hong Kong—and clatters down the street on a pizza delivery run, it may be the only time he feels real solitude. The pressure of opening Urbino Pizza e Pasta, his second restaurant, eases just a bit…
We’ve discussed this in the past, though in regards to restaurant reviews. Critics generally allow a new place one month to work out the kinks before we pounce.This practice has drawbacks, of course. Years ago New York Times writer Eric Asimov called it “bullshit” when I mentioned that chefs expect…
It was certainly a vocal week on City of Ate. People like bc, jamey, curmudgeon and DallasDude churned out more words that I did–at least it seems that way.Of course, we’re still on our ‘no prizes’ kick so their efforts earn them little more than our appreciation. We did have…
Great. The full force of Texas winter is upon us…for a day…in October.Another month and Europeans will start seeing mulled wine stands open. Decades ago these probably held a big, steaming pot of red wine spiced with cinnamon, vanilla, cloves and other seasonings. Nowadays, of course, you find commercial-sized stainless…
This week Dave visits Henderson Avenue’s new Urbino Pizza e Pasta, where owner David Pedack delivers to his neighbors in an electric ZAP car, but the friendly waitstaff make a visit in person worthwhile.For a look around the new place, including that special place in the kitchen where pizzas come…
The day I have been waiting for since I bought my starter kit back in August finally arrived yesterday, as Lady Hophead and I popped open our first couple of “H.M.N.I.” home-brewed beers. (The initials, incidentally, stand for “Hi My Name Is,” for the name-tag stickers we’ll probably use to…
