The best time of year is when the Halloween decorations come down, the pumpkins get mushy and the candy aisle goes on sale for half-price. We're inching closer to Thanksgiving and the blogosphere is buzzing and roasting and stirring. It's a food-filled, recipe rich, seasons-eatings time of year. So this week in:
The Dallas Morning News:
Leslie Brenner checks out and reviews Sevan G&G Café, Mextopia and Victor Tango's.
Eats:
Kim Pierce tells us that Eats Blog will be doing a countdown to Southern Thanksgiving. The Wednesday GuideDaily section will post tips, recipes and advice to help you get ready for Thanksgiving. I bet it will be a lot more useful than my own Thanksgiving guide, which begins and ends with "Don't ever, ever, ever bring salad."
Sidedish:
Is it possible for an adorable, frosted cupcake to be synonymous with corruption? Pamela Gwyn Kripke says yes.
Nancy Nichols reports that the Nantucket Bay scallop season is officially open. That means these delectably plump, briny sea-pillows will be in restaurants just as soon as fisherman can pull them out and pack them up. Prepare yourself accordingly.
Pegasus News:
Pegasus News says the AT&T Performing Arts Center has come up with "Need to Eat?" which will allow customers to pay for their dinner and their show in one fell swoop.
Also on the PegNews wire, Fort Worth's American Airlines will offer Java City coffee on flights. Java Coffee is eco-friendly and grown on sustainably managed farms. So you have one less thing to feel guilty about.
The Brad's Adventures in Food:
Brad checks out Tei-An, Pho 2006 and El Ranchito, and they're all so delightful he lets their scrumptious pictures do most of the talking.
Chowhound:
Every year, my mother sets the turkey on the table with an air of finality and announces, "Next year, we are eating out." This year she's refused to budget for turkey trimmings and we're starting to take her seriously. How high class can we get if we eat Thanksgiving dinner at a hotel buffet? Chowhound says that depends and offers suggestions.
City of Ate:
Hanna Raskin is met with frustration as she tries to find out more about the In-N-Outs that are supposedly all over the city, like a dormant virus. She isn't the first journalist they've shut out. The private company doesn't like to chat about much - no potential locations, no customer numbers, nothing. We're still waiting on a confirmation that they will actually serve hamburgers.
Taco Bell secretly a-salts its customers by cutting the sodium in some menu items in 150 stores, Hanna Raskin reports. And amazingly, no one was in-salted!
Andrea Grimes calls Dean Fearing out for charging $12 for a Bloody Mary made with mix. You can be the king of Southwestern cuisine and fry a quail until it reaches sainthood, but if you don't make your own Blood Mary, you ain't shit.
Dean Fearing proves that he is the shit when he reacts accordingly and rolls out his revamped Bloody Mary, loaded with flavors and garnishes.
In other fine dining news, Patrick Michels names the five ways to enhance a McRib. Apparently the McRib is supposed to be as offensive as a Double Down. So a McRib Double Down is, I guess, offensive squared, and something akin to punching the pope.
