The Mansion for Restaurant Week

Have you got your reservation yet?  I was really happy to hear that they were participating after all.

I’ll tell you what impressed me the most, though.  I wrote to them, 6 weeks or more ago, asking if they were participating.  I was politely told that they were not.  Well, I got a call from the Maitre D’ on Sunday night telling me that they were going to participate after all.  I got this call at my office because I had sent the email from work.  They cared enough to keep my information and get back to me.  I mentioned that to my friend S and he said, “I’d say that’s some great customer service”.  I think he’s right.  Very impressive.

I can’t wait.

Texas Death Row – Executions in the Modern Era

The modern era is defined as between 1974 and 2000.  This is weird.  My husband has a large collection of “Texas” books.  This is one of them. 

It doesn’t have a lot of information on each inmate who went to meet their maker. But, it does have their last meal.  It’s a topic that a lot of blogs have covered and I’ve always been fascinated with the question.  I’ve never been able to put together a “last meal” myself because I can’t even pick a tattoo that I think I want to live with forever.  Anyway, here’s what made me sad about this book.  Other than a lot of people being executed, you can only eat what the kitchen can provide.  So, no filet mignon, no goose liver, not even shrimp.  I am so disappointed by that.  Not that I expect to end up on death row.  But, it does seem like someone could make a trip to the grocery store.

Damn.  No shrimp?

Chocolates from Doughmonkey

That blue one was just stunning.  They have some even prettier ones.

A Walk Around Snider Plaza

You know, Snider Plaza really is a food destination, much more so than I realized.  I had been meaning to visit Flavors From Afar for quite some time now.  When I mentioned it to my friend, Lori L, she thought it sounded like a good idea, too.  So, off we went.  I had not been to Snider Plaza in years and then it was just to go to Kuby’s.  I didn’t know that so many food oriented businesses were right there in the same little area.  We not only visited Flavors From Afar, we went to Doughmonkey and Kuby’s, too.  If it had not been so hot we probably would have checked out a few other places.  But, there is only so much fun I can have with sweat dripping into my eyes. 

I fell in love with Flavors From Afar.  Not only do they carry a wide variety of Italian foods, oils, condiments, etc. but they are just the nicest people.  Often times, in small boutiques, I’m intimidated by the attitude of the place.  This is especially true in University/Highland Park.  Not here.  Everyone was so engaging.  The Krabills are so enthusiastic about their products that I found myself wanting to buy everything I touched and tasted.  There’s a lot of tasting going on at Flavors From Afar, too.  Today they were celebrating the fig.  All fig products were 50% off.  I think we actually did buy every fig thing we tasted!

I got those cute bamboo spoons.  Four pint sized beverage glasses.  A can of Bellini mix.  Balsamic Glaze with Figs.  This stuff called Dinamite Calabrian Viagru.  It’s like a chili pepper pesto.  And look how cute the packaging is.  It’s over to the right.  Looks like a wick is coming out of the top, resembling dynamite.  I almost don’t wan to open it.  I bought some Sulla Honey with Hazelnuts.  A Calabreze hot salami.  And a jar of Carmelized Red Onion & Fig dip-topping-spread.  All of this with an additional 20% off the non-sale items.  I recently subscribed to their newsletter and this coupon was at the bottom of the page.  Oh!  And a bag of free figs for each of us!  I felt like it was Christmas or something.  Free figs?  Are you kidding me?  I can’t wait to go back. 

A couple of doors down we freaked out on Doughmonkey.  Those chocolates are absolutely beautiful!  They let us sample a couple.  Then we bought a little box of them for home.  Those ended up at Lori’s house or I’d have a picture to show you.  I also picked up a bag of Cayenne Peanut Brittle.  I love peanut brittle.  There were so many things there to try.  Unfortunately, we had lunch planned after shopping.  So, I was not so sure how a bag of pastries would do out in the car during lunch.  Lori was right.  We should have brought a cooler.   

Then over to the sign-less Kuby’s.  It almost looked shut down.  But, all you had to do was open the door to smell the German goodness that has been Kuby’s for so many years.  I first visited Kuby’s when I was in high school.  I had to have a little wurst salad.  Lori bought some pig ears for the dog. 

We would have gone farther.  It was just too damned hot to walk around outside.  We left Highland Park with a car full of goodies and headed back to the other side of Central for a visit to Sushi Axiom for lunch.  There we talked of life and death.  Sampled each other’s sushi and tossed back a couple of cold Kirin beers.   

Rough morning, huh?

The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper

Recipes, Stories and Opinions from Public Radio’s Award-Winning Food Show

Have you checked out this book?  I’m really liking it.  It’s by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.  I really bought it just because it was associated with Public Radio.  Then I listened to the podcast and was totally sucked into their whole thing.  I listened to the podcast that is devoted completely to this book.  It’s a short one, about 10 minutes or less per episode.  The banter between the two of them is nice and they talk about the basics of cooking and food.  I listened to the The Splendid Table podcast of the radio show that existed long before this book.  There are guest speakers, call-ins from great chefs and food personalities, discussion of food trends, etc.  At the end the open the phone lines to questions from listeners.  Very entertaining and fun to have going while I’m cooking.

The book is a very good read.  Simple, yet intriguing recipes.  I’ve only tested a couple so far and I was happy with the results.  Overall, I love a cookbook that reads like a book instead of just a compilation of recipes.  Lots of thoughts and ideas are shared.  If I still road the bus to work, this one would for sure be in my lap.  Good purchase.  Unlike a lot of books I’ve bought and sent to the re-sell shop, I think this one is going on the main shelf in the kitchen.

Check it out.

Camera Question

So how do you guys take such great pictures in restaurants?  I mean, often the light is very low.  If I were going to take a picture I wouldn’t want to call to much attention to myself.  Is there a certain camera that is good for that kind of thing?  How do you pull it off?  I mean, I never see people taking pictures of their food.  But, obviously it’s happening!

Sushi Axiom in Dallas

First of all, this place is majorly decked out.  Gorgeous decor.  Much more modern and sleek than most of the sushi places I’ve visited.  They definitely dropped a few bucks on that.  When I told my friend S that I was going to Axiom he volunteered to hop off the treadmill and come and pick me up.  We sat at the bar.  Very cool red bar stools.  Facing a huge saltwater coral tank.  A few tiny fish swim amongst the corals.  We couldn’t help but wonder if those little fish knew about what was going on just a few feet away.  The man behind the bar said, “How would you like to start?”  S said, “Toro” and we were off.

The toro was the best piece of raw tuna I’ve ever eaten.  Then came a couple of pieces of red snapper.  S had a cocktail and because I couldn’t decide on the sake I wanted I had a flight of three tastings.  I love little tastings of just about anything.  We had the tuna & crab nachos as an appetizer.  They were cute tiny tortilla cups with spicy filling.  S wasn’t that impressed.  I thought they were really tasty and that Hubbard (who was busy meeting college buddies at the Knights of Columbus pool) would have liked the little nachos quite a lot.   Then we moved on to the rolls.

In true S and Margie fashion, we ordered too much.  But, guys, I have seriously got to start thinking about taking pictures of my food.  Especially in a place like this.  These rolls were just lovely, almost decorative.  We had the Sushi Axiom roll – salmon, crab and avocado in a soy wrap with wasabi cream.  I like the soy wrap, as opposed to the typical nori.  It’s much easier to bite through.   Following that, the Cherry Blossom roll – shrimp tempura, crab and cucumber garnished with tuna.  Very tasty.  And the Lady In Red – now, I’ve forgotten the details on this one.  But, S said it was basically a spicy tuna roll without the nori.  I think it was wrapped in red soy.  Everything was just beautiful and tasted so nice and fresh.

We both had another drink as we finished up the rolls.  I settled on a single glass of Northern Skies sake.  Very easy to drink.  Then our server suggested that we finish with an uni shooter.  We had already asked what the strange yellowish stuff in the special little container was about and we were told it was sea urchin.  Wouldn’t have guessed that.  We agreed to try the shooter.  This is undoubtedly the strangest thing I’ve had in a sushi joint.  Hey, if Zimmern can do it, so can I.  I don’t have all the details on this interesting little mouthful.  S noticed that ”the man” seemed to show up just about the time they started talking about putting these shooters together.  Someone dressed in street clothes and looking like he was in the know suddenly appeared behind the sushi bar while the shooters were being put together.  He watched over our man as he poured out most of the sake that was given to him in two shallow shotglasses.  Then he added the uni, a little more uni than I thought I actually needed.  Very odd consistency.  S and I looked at each other.  Were we doing the right thing?  We didn’t even ask how much this was going to cost.  Then, he added some kind of brown sauce (soy sauce?  eel sauce?).  That was topped with three different kinds/colors of roe – red, black and green.  Finally, he cracked a quail egg on top and handed them over.  We looked at each other again and went for it.  S just slammed his back.  I’m not the kind of person who can do that.  I managed to get it all in my mouth at once.  But, I took me a couple of seconds and swallows to negotiate the whole thing.  Very interesting.  Very full flavor that I really can’t describe.  And a thousand little pops of the fish eggs just to give it all a bit of zing.  Would I have the shooter again?  Probably not.  It wasn’t a $13 experience in my book.  Am I glad I did it?  Sure I am.  I’m not sure I can say what uni tastes like because it was mixed with so many other flavors.  I think the texture is what I liked the least about it.  The flavor was good. 

So, $72 a piece after tax and tip.  We were offered a little desert of some kind of banana snack cake and a weird pink ice cream and two plastic spoons.  We ate a couple of bites.  But, it wasn’t necessary.  Somehow dessert really isn’t what I’m looking for after sushi.  Especially not with a plastic spoon.  It was a cute touch, though.  At home, I was in bed about 30 minutes after I hit the door.

Should you go to Sushi Axiom?  Absolutely.  It would be a great place to take a date.  You could easily dress up or down.  Most of the people there were very casual.  There are so many new places to try on that stretch of Henderson right now and I’m certainly excited to have a new sushi place in our neck of the woods.  Go.  You’ll like it.

My friend Lori let me use her photo of this Tower of Pisa that she had for lunch on Saturday.  This is typical of how pretty the food is at Sushi Axiom.  Thanks Lori!

Thinking of Sushi

I am seriously thinking about going to Sushi Axiom by myself within the next half hour or so.  I looked at the website today and I’m obsessing about it. 

I really should have had children.  Maybe it would have taught me some self control!

Yutaka Sushi & Bistro for Lunch

So, one of my food friends at work had a birthday today.  What better reason for a couple of us to take her to lunch?  I had been dying to go to Yutaka since my friend S went there and spent over a hundred dollars by himself eating and drinking.  He said it was all fabulous.  So, we scooped up B and off we went to Yutaka for lunch the minute the doors opened. 

It’s a small place.  Smaller than I thought.  No wonder they don’t take reservations.  The service was perfect.  Of course, if you were needing anything they could hear every word you said because the waitress was only standing about 8 feet away.  S and I are known to order too much at sushi places.  At least that’s what the ladies at Sushi on McKinney told us a couple of times.  The twist is that we eat it all.  It’s not too much after all.  We didn’t go too heavy this time because we had to go back to work.  The birthday girl and I ordered the sushi lunch.  It consisted of 8 pieces of California roll and 5 pieces of “chef’s choice” sashimi.  Everything was super fresh and very good.  A bowl of miso soup and some seaweed salad came out first.  S had the bento box with the cod.  It was darling.  Tempura with a sauce that tasted much better than the dishwater I’ve had with tempura at some places.  Much fuller flavor.  A small piece of cod with a miso glaze.  4 pieces of California roll.  S loved the ginger dressing on the salad.  There was a little fruit on the side.  He gave it all high praise. 

We ordered tuna tataki with cilantro sauce for the table, along with the soft shell crab roll.  The tuna was perfect.  I could have eaten all six slices myself.  The crab roll was super tasty, but a little hard to manage.  I always like to take a piece of roll and eat it in one bite.  These slices were so large it was a bit difficult to manage.  S said, “Go for it.  I won’t look.”  In fact, I had to go with two bites and ended using my hands.  The flavor was incredible, though.  In fact, everything was great. 

We’ll go back.  I want to try everything on the menu.  S said he had a wonderful meal by himself at the bar on the evening of his first visit.  Hmmm…  maybe dinner tonight would be good!

Is there anything…

…like the fragrance of applewood smoked bacon frying?