Food & Drink

The Observer this week set out to sample all the new fair foods that didn’t make the Big Tex competition finals. Here, our favorites:…

It’s tough to know just how to feel about this year’s competitive eating lineup at the State Fair of Texas. On one hand, on this Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., the main stage is featuring some world-class eating talent, racing to put away sandwiches faster than a team of Jimmy…

There is simply nothing simpler and more delicious than the utilitarian taco. And they seem to be everywhere days. You can’t turn around in Dallas without seeing a taqueria, gringo stand or renegade gas station selling these tasty morsels. Another advantage: The taco is generally cheap, selling for about the…

There are cake people and pie people. Adam Carolla, headlining a special two-night event at the Addison Improv Tuesday and Wednesday (October 5-6), is a confirmed pie man. More about that in a minute. If all you know of Carolla, 46, is from the 1990s on cable’s The Man Show…

As we learned from Smoke’s Tim Byres earlier this week, he enjoys making his own charcuterie. The day we visited the chef he had just finished carving up half a hog for use in the restaurant’s various barbecue recipes. And that was just for a single day’s use. We were…

There are probably single-subject food books still to be written. Nobody’s yet taken on cucumbers, walleye or pumpkin preserves. But travel writer Mark Schatzker recently tackled steak, and I’m glad he did. Schatzker’s written a terrifically entertaining romp through red meat that focuses not on the history or politics of…

Yesterday, we profiled Tim Byres, chef at Smoke, the restaurant in the Belmont Hotel that serves what Byres describes as “heritage inspired cuisine.” (Traditional style cooking, smoking, canning a preserving updated for modern palates, served with a touch of Southern friendliness.) In the second part of our interview with Byres,…

Rahm Fama, host of the Food Network’s new meat-centric show Meat and Potatoes, wants you to know he’s not fixated on oversized meat – but that’s what brought him to Texas. In an upcoming episode entitled “Oversized Meat,” Fama pays a visit to Fort Worth’s Cowtown Diner to tackle the…

Fried beer has started its march to the sea, with the much-publicized snack scheduled for a second outing at Savannah’s 27th annual Oktoberfest this weekend. “Believe it or not, fried beer will be available,” the Savannah Morning News reported today. Fried beer has not been universally beloved by State Fair…

Animal rights activists may disagree, but beef is delicious. It’s primal and earthy and packed with protein, which is probably why many Americans eat more red meat than they should. But the Texas Beef Council’s aggressively pushing another rationale for red meat consumption: It’s good for you. The organization is…

You’ve heard of Two Buck Chuck? How about three-buck Wink? The $2.99 Winking Owl Merlot is found exclusively at Aldi, the deep discount grocery store. Bottled by Gallo, it’s a thoroughly respectable little bottle of grape with hints of cherry and other sweet fruits. I dare you to put it…

School lunch reformers this past weekend salivated over a CBS Sunday Morning dispatch from Paris showing schoolchildren munching on ratatouille turnovers and mussels. Fresh, organic, local produce is the norm in French schools, says the city of Dijon’s spokesman Fabian Forni, who’s in town with a cadre of chefs to…

At the start of last night’s Top Chef Just Desserts, Princess Dexter was not really lamenting his huge blow-up — wait, make that blow-ups, plural, because he clearly didn’t remember all of them — on last week’s episode. Others were sad that Mama Bear Tim had been kicked off, and…

It was bound to happen. Here we are hurdling hurtling through space, and no one has created a bust of Kevin Bacon, made of bacon yet? Wait no longer! From the people who brought you “bacon salt,” partnered with “What Would Bacon Do?,” it’s bacon Kevin Bacon! More literally: “Statue…

​Each week City of Ate will give you the lowdown on a local happy hour in Quittin’ Time, with the details and why you should or shouldn’t take up the featured bar or restaurant on its drink specials.Where: Renfield’s Corner, 2603A Routh St., 214-397-0300When: 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through…

Walk into Smoke early on any Saturday afternoon and you’ll get the sense that the year-old restaurant hums along effortlessly. Simple preparations, a small, amiable kitchen crew, a mastery of the menu. Truth is, the food takes hours to prepare and there is meticulous care in the execution of what…

Sports venues are increasingly relying on celebrity chefs to bring glitz to their concession stands, but the American Airlines Center is trying to strike publicity gold by showcasing one very lucky amateur. The venue’s asking local cooks to create a “signature offering” to be offered for sale at Mavs’ and…

For folks who get in the habit of wandering around the Food & Fiber Pavilion and tasting Texas-made snacks during State Fair season, the Dallas Farmers Market Friends group is again offering a way to keep that sampling lifestyle going. The organization is sponsoring its 16th annual Hoedown on Thursday,…

A venerated gin distillery has tapped into the ongoing green tea trend for its latest release, Beefeater 24. After 15 years of making Beefeater gin according to the recipe founder James Burrough pioneered back in the 1870s, master distiller Desmond Payne was given the go-ahead to mix up his own…