Articles about Dining
See Raya Ramsey Talk About D Magazine Valentine’s Picks While Seated Next to Lingerie
As noted previously, ShopTalk’s Raya Ramsey was on the telly early this morning.
WFAA Daybreak host Ron Corning got too caught up in his personal anecdote about the blue cheese chocolate at Dude, Sweet Chocolate and ran out of time to ask Raya about where she got the lingerie that she’s seated next to during the segment (much to Uncle Barky’s delight).
Don’t worry: Raya will explain more about the “sassy” undergarments a little later on ShopTalk.
You can find all our Dallas Valentine’s recommendations here.
Frito Pie, Plano, the Super Bowl, and the ‘Rise of Mesoamerican Civilization’
What? You're not using venison on your Super Bowl Frito Pie, like this version at Tillman's Roadhouse? Photo by Kevin Marple
While the organizers of last year’s North Texas Super Bowl are wondering why the football gods couldn’t have delivered us the weather we’re having this week in 2011 — instead of the Snow-and-Ice-Mageddon we got — Smithsonian.com reflects upon another Texas contribution to our country’s annual orgy on football and new television commercial campaigns: the Frito.
Those little fried corn chips were given birth in San Antonio in the 1930s, and they remain a cornerstone of business for the Plano-based Frito Lay company, which owns the trademark for the “Frito Chili Pie”: officially a “packaged meal combination consisting primarily of chili or snack food dips containing meat or cheese corn-based snack foods, namely, corn chips.”
But Smithsonian traces the true roots of Fritos much further back in the history of the Americas:
As much scorn and derision as today’s leading nutritional gurus heap onto processed foods, it’s worth noting that Fritos arrived here by way of a Mesoamerican staple and their invention and flavor owes a debt to one of the greatest food processing technologies ever invented: nixtamalization. The 3,000-year-old tradition adding calcium hydroxide—wood ash or lime—so greatly enriches the available amino acids in masa corn that Sophie Coe writes in America’s First Cuisines that the process underlies “the rise of Mesoamerican civilization.” Lacking this technology, early Europeans and Americans (who considered corn fit for slaves and swine) learned that eating a diet exclusively based on unprocessed corn led to pellagra, a debilitating niacin deficiency causing dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia and death.
Just a little something to think about as you’re dipping your chips this Sunday.
Where Did Khloe Kardashian, Kris Jenner, and Rob Kardashian Eat Lunch Yesterday? Do You Care?
"Celebrities" are "people" too.
The restaurant sent over this photo, and the details.
Today Khloe, Kris Jenner and Rob Kardashian ate lunch at Arcodoro & Pomodoro. They loved the carpaccio, pizza, and Khloe’s risotto. Rob had to slip out early in order to catch a beauty treatment. They spent most of the meal trying to teach Rob to be nicer to women. The girls were heading out to go shopping afterward. CHA-CHING.
Later in the day, Khloe shocked the world with this tweet before the Dallas Mavericks game:
My sisters just surprised me in Dallas!!!! @KimKardashian and @KourtneyKardash what what!!!! The game is going to be wild!
Someone give this woman a radio show.
What I Learned About Dallas From Watching Top Chef: Texas
As mentioned earlier, last night’s episode of Top Chef: Texas was the first set in Dallas. A sampling of what outlets across the country learned about our city.
Esquire: “What we learned here is that rich people in Dallas are freaking weird. One couple revealed that they had 1,200 people at their wedding. Another proudly reminisced about their gummy-bear wedding cake — they were hosting dessert, and dessert-team member Ed Lee, he of the facial expressions, shot them a look that said, ‘You people are from another planet, but okay.’”
Baltimore Sun: “The couple that owns the first insane mansion is Kim and Justin Whitman. Kim is an entertaining expert and seems to be auditioning for Real Housewives of Dallas … Keep an eye out for her on Bravo in the future. Kim hates cilantro, bell peppers, grease and things she has never tried. Basically she is a chef’s dream.”
Entertainment Weekly: “Cilantro is apparently public enemy number one on the Dallas version of Wisteria Lane.” (more…)
The Schlegels Do Bravo: Kim Whitman and Kari Kloewer on Top Chef: Texas
SideDish has a full recap of last night’s Top Chef: Texas episode on the way (UPDATE: Here it is.), but I wanted to remark upon the season’s first episode to be set in Dallas. What was the first impression that producers gave viewers of our city? Why, Highland Park, of course.
Sisters Kim Schlegel Whitman and Kari Schlegel Kloewer hosted two-thirds of a “progressive dinner.” I’ll leave the food talk to SideDish, except to say that the “gummy bear” that Court and Kameron Westcott (They hosted the dessert portion of the dinner. Kameron was one of our 10 Most Beautiful Women in 2009) said they had at their wedding sounds truly disgusting. And the Top Chef judges were taken aback when they heard that Kari’s wedding had 700 guests and Kim’s wedding had 1,200 guests. They thought the ladies were joking.
Never heard of the Schlegels? Umm, have you never visited this website before?
Wondering where they got all that money? Here’s how.
Love to Write About Eating? Want to Work at D Magazine World Headquarters?
We’re looking for a new online assistant dining editor. See the details over on SideDish.
Sneak Peek: The New Show at Medieval Times
I like Medieval Times. I had a birthday party there a few years back, which you might want to read about here. (Perhaps not. Your call.) I also love puns. So when Tim forwarded a press release entitled “Resistance is Feudal at Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament,” I was buying whatever they were selling. In this case, they were touting a new performance—the first since 2007—and an upgraded menu, and they wanted a fair lady or lord of the media to attend. Jump if you care about my adventures.
Former Prison Cook Offers To Make Last Meals For Free
On the topic of last meals — or lack thereof — there’s this former prison cook, who has volunteered to make all the last meals for death row inmates for free. Brian Price apparently prepared 220 final meals while serving time in Texas. Now he owns a restaurant in Houston County Lake. He says he was struck by the “cold-hearted” decision to not allow condemned inmates their final meal of choice.
“I am offering to prepare, and/or pay for, all of the last-meal requests from this day forward,” he told the Associated Press. “Taxpayers will be out nothing.”
The state politely declined his offer.
Publicis Dallas Brings CiCi’s Pizza Account to Its Cool Plano Office Space
Congratulations to Publicis Dallas, not just for having one of the coolest offices in Dallas-Fort Worth, but for now landing the CiCi’s Pizza account.
The Coppell-based pizza chain should generate plenty of work for Publicis, given that CiCi’s CEO Mike Shumsky told me last year that his company has identified 73 markets nationwide in which its low-cost buffet restaurants would work, and that they hope to add 500 new units during the next eight to 10 years.
Dallas-based Richards Group was also reportedly in the running for the account. CiCi’s was looking for a new agency after bringing in a new chief marketing officer last year. As Stan Richards, principal of the Richards Group, recently told me (when we were discussing other matters): “Anytime the CMO changes, the agency is in jeopardy.”
A new CMO likes to signal a new direction right away, which usually means a new ad agency. Richards said he wasn’t surprised when his own firm lost Red Lobster as a client last year, after that restaurant chain hired a new CMO. ”It’s one of the hazards of the industry. The average life of a CMO is under two years, so it’s a constant issue,” Richards says.
I’m sure then that Publicis hopes CiCi’s remains happy with its CMO. And that they can keep the company’s penny-pinching target customer happier than this guy.
Death Row Inmates Never Got Fancy Meals
Texas is making international news today for ending the practice of giving those about to be executed whatever they’d like for their last meal. The end of a tradition like that made me sad. But now Bruce Tomaso over at the DMN explains that the whole “last meal” thing has always been bunk. And that makes me even sadder.
Will John Tesar Drive Newsstand Sales?
This month we’re doing something a little different at D Magazine. Normally as soon as a new issue hits newsstands, we put (nearly) all of the content online for free. That’s not the way a lot of monthly magazines operate. Your New Yorkers, your GQs, your Texas Monthlys — they don’t just give it away. They put up the beginnings of stories and kindly request that you buy a copy of the magazine if you’d like to read the rest of the story. That’s what we’re doing this month with our cover story about John Tesar, “The Most Hated Chef in Dallas.” There’s only one F-bomb in the lead to that story. If you want to read the rest of em, you’ll have to stop by a Tom Thumb or a Wal-Mart this weekend, and plunk down your $4.99. OR, you can buy a copy on Monday at Tesar’s Commissary and get some free tacos and beer thrown into the deal. He’s throwing a “Haters Party” to celebrate the publication of our profile.
UPDATE (11:58): You can’t buy a copy of the magazine at the Haters Party. You’ll have to bring one with you.
Want a D Magazine Poster Featuring Dirk Nowitzki?
We’ve been overwhelmed with queries regarding how a person might obtain one of the Best of Big D posters that sport the image of NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki, which can be seen at Best of Big D award-winning businesses all around Dallas (and at right).
We now have a way. Posters are available for $20 plus tax. Alternatively, you can buy one of the smaller cards intended to sit on store counters for $10 plus tax. Just e-mail receptionist@dmagazine.com or call 214-939-3636 with credit card and shipping information. This offer is extended to individuals for non-commercial purposes only.
UPDATE: Thanks for your requests regarding posters of our December 2009 cover featuring Bolsa’s pork jowls. Unfortunately those remain unavailable.
This Item Will be of Interest to Richardson Residents Only
(But people who commute to UT-Dallas might be interested as well.)
I live in Richardson, where a new restaurant is being constructed on the West Campbell Road site where a KFC once stood. Since there are no signs indicating what kind of restaurant this will be, and there’s no information about it on the Morning News’ anemic Richardson blog, I decided to do some digging. A friendly lady at the Richardson Chamber of Commerce told me it’s going to be Carl’s Jr.
So there you go. Not as exciting as an In-N-Out Burger debut, but at least I can get on with my life.
Mother Nature Blessed Katy Trail 5K
Part of the crowd headed to the after-party.
As I watched the incredibly dark, ominous clouds roll in Wednesday, I thought there was no way they’d clear up in time for the Katy Trail 5K. (I know what you’re thinking. The race was on Thursday, not Wednesday. Regardless, I was concerned). No need to worry. The weather for my favorite annual 5K was absolutely perfect. And all 5,000 participants seemed to be thinking the same thing. A few highlights of the after-party run after the jump.
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