Texas Restaurants~Nonna

Nonna is a small family-owned Italian restaurant in Highland Park, Texas.  A co-worker of mine recommended this restaurant a long time ago to me and for some reason or another, Mike and I have not made our way down there until now. Nonna is also on the Dallas Magazine's Top 100 Restaurants in Dallas. 
Reservations are a must for this tiny restaurant that has a bar area and about 15 tables.

 Best service at a restaurant ever! Well at least the best service that Mike and I can remember we've had for a long time.  I swear there were either microphones/video cameras at our table or our server was extremely attentive to our actions. 
Mike and I decided to split an appetizer and the 5 course pasta tasting. Throughout the meal, Jonathan, the Sous Chef came out and explained each pasta dish to us. Crazy.

 Charcoal grilled Monterey Bay squid with salsa verde, controne beans and taggiasca olives

 The first pasta dish, Tonnarelli with razor clams, fennel Spaghettii alla  that arrived was just a tad bit on the bland side, so Mike and I added a tiny pinch of salt to it. 

Carbonara: guanciale, farm egg, pecorino, English peas and black pepper. The carbonara was the next dish and it was extremely salty, almost unbearable to eat.
The next dishes had just the right amount of salt.

Tortelloni of porchetta with dried orange zest and fennel pollen

Ravioli of Maine lobster

Pappardelle al ragu Bolognese

Praline Nougatine Semifreddo with Pistachios and Acacia Honey. This dessert was recommended by our server. I did not care fot the dish and he saw the look of disappointment on my face.  Soo...he brought out the sticky toffee pudding for it. Yummy!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

So would we go back to this restaurant? Mike and I are still debating this. The food was good. I'd give it 3-3.5 stars out of 5. But the service was exceptional. If the service was mediocre, would scratch this restaurant off our list.  Face it, we were in Highland Park (one of the richer areas in Dallas) and Mike and I look much younger than we are.  Servers could have written us off as little kids, but no, the staff was extremely attentive. 

Nonna
4115 Lomo Alto Drive
Dallas, TX 75219
(214) 521-1800

Open Mon-Sat 5:30pm-10pm

Traveling and Status

In the past week and the weeks to come, I will have clocked 17 days of travel in 23 days.  That means I will have travelled more than 70% of the days and slept in my own bed only 6 of those nights.  I am not at the level of George Clooney's character in "Up in the Air" but maybe after all this year's travel I might feel like it.  This also means that the blog post will be limited...again.

 

Travelling has its perks such as loyalty rewards programs. As of today, these are the statuses I hold in loyalty programs.  I don't know if I should be proud or sad.

American Airlines: Platinum Status
-note-worthy perks: double miles, four free 500-mile upgrades for every 10K miles traveled. 

Marriott Hotels: Silver Status
-note-worthy perks: not sure. late checkout?
Based on this year's work schedule, I will probably hit Gold status by July.

Starbucks: Gold Status (this wasn't achieved as a travel perk)
-note-worthy perks: a free drink on your bday, one free drink for every 15 drinks purchased, free refills on tea and coffee while in the store.

Gap Card: Silver Status (okay this isn't a travel perk either)
-note-worthy perks: free basic hemming at Banana Republic, free shipping

Here's a quick tip when traveling and renting cars.  Do you know how to determine which side of the car the gas tank is on?  If you look near your odometer there is a picture of a gas pump.  Next to the picture of the gas pump is a little triangle. If the triangle is on the right side of the gas pump, your tank is on the right and vice versa.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate

For the longest time, I've been wanting to go to a store called "Dude, Sweet Chocolate" far off in Oak Cliff (South Dallas). Last year, during a white elephant gift exchange at a Christmas party, I was fortunate (as compared to the Harry Potter Malfroy figurine Mike ended up with) to end up with a box of rose petal-containing truffles from this store. I do not even like rose flavored foods or rose petals, but found myself enjoying this strange combinations of flavor in this box of truffles.

Here's a picture of the different products Dude, Sweet Chocolate sells.

Dude, Sweet Chocolate is a tiny little store that almost looks like a warehouse.  One side of the store houses the kitchen where the chocolates are made (I think), and the other side serves as the store front. 
The saleperson was beyond generous with the chocolate samples. I think I tried about six different items, including an artisan chocolate (~$2/a piece).  The salesperson let us sample "crack in a box" which was like an extremely nutty rocky road. Dark chocolate coating a mixtures of macademia nuts, soy nuts, hazelnuts, and almonds.

We ended up purchasing a box of chocolate toffee and a box artisan chocolates. I really wanted to like the "Fungus Amoungus" which was a chocolate/toffee containing porcini mushrooms and pumpkin seeds-but the earthy musty flavor was a little too much for me. I kept thiking of moss and cleaning a stuffy room.
I also sampled the "Luchador" which was a chocolate toffee with apple butter and tamarind.
I settled on the "Vincotto" which contained red wine vinegar, figs, and argon oil. Mike and I didn't know what argon oil was and thought that it might be a chemical on the periodic table. We asked the salesperson and she said it was an oil from almonds or something. This toffee was pretty good.

I didn't realize it at the time, but after looking at the company's website did I find out that I bought the "DUDE" chocolates.  I think the chocolate flavors are geared to men's taste buds.  It's $12 for a box of six pieces.

This is a picture of the DUDE chocolates that came in the box I purchased. 
Parique -Louisanna tobacco, cognac
Irish Channel - Laphroaig Irish Whisky, pure pine
Marakesh - fresh dates, raz al hanout
Black Gold - black garlic, sweet wild mushrooms
Puro and Olive - 74% San Dominican, black olive salt
Miso Happy - red miso, tahini, black sesame

SWEET chocolates, that I decided against purchasing. I think I would have enjoyed the sweet chocolates better.  I did not care for any of the DUDE chocolates. Mike and I both concluded that some of the DUDE chocolates tasted like chemicals and had odd flavors too them. The best one that I could stomach was the black olive salt one.

Tahitian - passionfruit, ginger salt
Sassy Frasy - banana, sassaparilla, birch bark
Hill Country - Zip Code honey, lavender, Dallas Mozz. Co. goat crema
Lemon Buttermilk - fresh lemon, buttermilk
Indian Rose - rosepetal jam, marzipan
Baccus - Texas cabernet, golden raisin

I have mixed feelings about "Dude, Sweet Chocolate." I'd like to think I have an adventurous palate, but I'd prefer chocolates with simple flavors and additions. I admire Dude, Sweet Chocolates flavor experiments, but I think that the flavor combinations are too extreme for me.  My advice would be sample the adventurous flavors of chocolate prior to purchasing them. 

Dude, Sweet Chocolate is a  small cute hip place to visit in Oak Cliff. I kind of enjoyed my first visit to the Oak Cliff, Bishop Arts District. It kind of reminds me of West End in Brisbane, Australia or what I imagine Portland, Oregon would feel like. 

Dude, Sweet Chocolate
408 West 8th Street
Dallas, TX 75208
(214) 943-5943

Korean Mandoo Making

Korean mandoo was one of the recipes I wanted to attempt to perfect this year.  It is time-consuming to make, but you can make a lot of it and either give it away or freeze it for future dinners.  

Chinese potsticker wrappers(~$1for the pack) and Korean mandoo wrappers (~$3.50)

Buying mandoo wrappers at the Asian market is a tricky process.  Some of them say "potsticker wrappers," "wonton wrappers," or "shumai wrappers."  Some contain eggs, some contain only wheat flour, while others also contain rice flour. 

In this past season of "Top Chef" one of the contestants purchased the incorrect wrapper, and ended up steaming wrappers that were supposed to be boiled.  Be careful when purchasing the wrappers.   

I gambled when I purchased the wrappers and hoped that they would work for mandoo making based on the pictures on the packaging. 

Sweet potato noodles.

Cabbage, chives, chopped round onion

Crumbled drained tofu

Mixture of ground pork, tofu, noodles, chives, cabbage, onion, raw eggs, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and salt and pepper.  I did not measure the ingredients, I just arbitrarily added amounts of ingredients, skewed to a filling containing more vegetables than meat. 

I like to place a lot of filling into the wrapper.

Frying the mandoo. We first pan fried the mandoo in oil, then added water to the pan and "steamed" the mandoo. 

Both the potsticker wrappers resulted in a similar product. The Korean mandoo wrappers were a little bigger than my mandoo press, so there was extra noodle edge. The wrapper tastes were similar, so I would personally buy the cheaper wrapper from now on. 

Mike and I enjoyed the mandoo, but as we started eating the frozen mandoo a couple more times, our enjoyment started to wane.  At the moment, we prefer Ajinomoto's frozen gyoza much more than my mandoo. 
If I am going to pursue Korean mandoo making this year, 1)I have to make less mandoo, 2) invite people over to eat the mandoo, or 3)or develop a super awesome flavor profile for my mandoo that we enjoy a lot more.

Dallas Restaurants~Yucatan Taco Stand Tequila Bar and Grill

The first time we went here was back in December 2010 on a whim during my lunch break. A few of my friends wanted to eat at the Yucatan Taco Stand (I guess I had a say in the restaurant choice because they asked me if I wanted to eat sandwiches or tacos. I chose tacos). Since Mike was off that day, I quickly called him and told him to join us for lunch and at the same time drive over and meet us at the restaurant because I had left my coupon at home. I also forgot to tell him to grab my camera so that I could take pictures of all the food.

Chips and Salsa. I like the thin tortilla chips here. 

So this is the second time we are eating at the same restaurant, in a span of weeks. Woo....that must mean that we liked this restaurant. Nah, really what happened is that a friend from back home was road-tripping it from the East Coast to the West Coast and happened to be in Texas. He wanted to eat at a hole-in-the-wall type of restaurant and Mike and I were racking our brains trying to brainstorm a restaurant. We live near Dallas and over the past year, we've determined that Texas has almost all the American chain restaurants.
We finally settled on Yucatan Taco Stand, because it's close to my work place and I don't like to drive into Dallas.

Carne de Puerco Grilled Latin Sandwich with plantain chips

Mike ordered the spicy aged chorizo burrito, and was underwhelmed with this dish. So underwhelmed that I some how managed to lose the picture of the burrito. His lunch choice of the fish tacos was a better selection. I think we determined that if you stick with the tempura battered fish in the tacos or taco salad, you cannot go wrong.

Nachos with garlic shredded beef. These nachos are massive!  The first time I ate at the Yucatan Taco Stand, I saw other people order these nachos and I thought, "I have to order those!"  The nachos were good, but I actually preferred the salad with the original tempura fish with balsamic shallot vinaigrette and spicy herb buttermilk dressing. 
Yucatan Taco Stand Tequila Bar and Grill
2809 Preston Rd.
Frisco, TX 75034
Phone: 469-362-6161

Texas Restaurants~Miyoshi

Every so often Mike has a craving for Japanese food, especially sushi.  We've been hesitant to eat sushi in Texas because we have been spoiled with all the fresh fish back in Hawaii.  A friend of mine mentioned that Miyoshi's has a pretty good all you can eat sushi for $15 (lunch) or $25 (dinner). Dinner is more expensive because rolls containing more fish are offered at that time. 

The rules for the "All You Can Eat" sushi were the standard rules as all the typical "all you can eat" places. If there is a lot of extra food on your plate, you are charged a fee.  Also, at Miyoshi's you have to order the sushi in rounds. The sushi is made fresh at the sushi bar (which is a plus), and I personally think that the extra time in between rounds reduces the amount of sushi you can consume because you tummy becomes full. 

Round 1: We ordered the spicy tuna roll and the cowboy roll (crab meat mixed with chopped calamari tempura, crunch flour, served with a spicy mayo and unagi sauce). Mike ordered a piece of salmon and hamachi to test out the nigiri. 

We tried the cajun roll (Fried crawfish inside with a spicy mayo and unagi sauce) and the crunch roll (masago, scallion on a spicy tuna roll topped with spicy mayo and unagi sauce).  Mike was satisfied with the nigiri, so he ordered more pieces in the next round.  I stuck with trying the different specialty rolls. 

Chicken Teriyaki. It is also part of the all you can eat sushi deal.

Las Vegas Roll (California roll deep-fried, served with eel sauce on the top). I didn't care for this one because the inside sushi was warm due to the deep-frying.  The cowboy roll again.

Repeats of our favorite sushi. The spicy tuna roll, the crunch rolls, and Mike's nigiri sushi.

As you can see by all the pictures, we got our money's worth at Miyoshi's.  I think that the staff was surprised that two little Asians could consume so much food. 

So far, this is the best sushi we've eaten in Texas.  But, we haven't had a lot of sushi in Texas. We tried a conveyor belt style sushi bar near our house and it was disappointing.  Two small pieces of sushi for about $2 with sub-par fish.   I think this positive experience at Miyoshi was encouraging enough for Mike and I to start venturing out to other sushi restaurants. 

Miyoshi

3400 Preston Road
Plano, TX 75093-7454
(972) 801-9097