So today it was back to work. The holiday’s aren’t really over for me yet; I’m taking off the second-half of this week for New Year’s. Today was just a necessary snap back into reality for a day or two to get some work done. Yesterday we finished the long weekend with a little post-Christmas brunch. What better place to go than Hattie’s? It was beautiful, as always. It such an adorable restaurant—lots of white, an antique tin ceiling, dark wood & simple table arrangements.
(Looking back, you can tell we really love this place.)
On my plate was a slice of banana nut bread to start. Sourdough was the other bread option, but I decided to go sweet over savory. I sipped on a spicy Bloody Mary (the perfect choice for a Sunday morning, if you ask me) & decided I was definitely in the mood for poached eggs. Hattie’s offers their poached eggs atop crab cakes with a spoonful of hollandaise sauce. Sold.
The eggs were poached perfectly. They could have probably won a medal for them. Light & delicate, the crab cakes had just a minimal amount of breading & were really flavorful. As for the hollandaise sauce… ah-mazing. I know I should’ve trusted Hattie’s from the very start, but I was a little nervous about it. I’ve had some really unpleasant hollandaise sauce before: thick, gloopy, yolky, weird… I almost asked for the sauce on the side, but decided (daredevil that I am) to risk it. There was no need to worry. It was rich, but not overpoweringly so. The eggs liked it. The crab cakes liked it. I definitely liked it. On the side I had bacon, which was standard but very crispy (bonus!) & cheesy grits. Health food, basically. No matter. It was definitely worth a little more time at the gym.
418 Bishop Avenue | Dallas, Texas 75208
214.942.7400
Camden Market is a popular tourist area in London. It’s made up of hundreds of stalls that sell lots of art, kitsch, street fashion, and semi-knockoff handbags. Imagine Canal Street in NYC plus some of the Deep Ellum Arts Festival and State Fair. Take that and then multiply. Not twice, not three times – more. Camden is huge. The part I liked most was the food stalls. Rows and rows of inticing options that all looked really good. This was the donut cart. (It looked tempting, but I resisted.)
Thanks to my friend EB for sending this. Apparently, Summer bliss is back at Jamba Juice! What’s your favorite? (Don’t say Chocolate Moo’d. That’s not a smoothie.)
Fuzzy’s is an eclectic little taco shop in the college area of Arlington. They have bright, primary-color benches on their outdoor patio, informal paper towel rolls on the tables, flat screen tvs, and beer and margaritas on tap. They are open late on the weekends and their food is quite tasty. To put it simply: I like Fuzzy’s and for more than just the food.
The open late, non-fast food market is a slim one, especially if you aren’t close to Dallas. Living in the Mid-cities your nearby options are limited, but luckily Fuzzy’s is open late on the weekends so you can head over and get an evening late snack while drinking some beers or margaritas.
Speaking of the drinks: I really like their margaritas. They give you the choice of either pre-mixed, slushy-style from the machine, or pre-mixed over ice. They’re $3.50 and $4.50 respectively, served in giant goblets, and a very good deal. Of course they aren’t mixed with premium tequilas, but they are tasty and hit the spot when paired with a chorizo and eggs plate or tacos.
Generally speaking, the food is pretty standard Mexican. Everything I’ve had there is good, but not always exceptional. Their “spicy pork” (carnitas?) burrito was filled generously with pulled pork, lettuce, cheese, garlic cream sauce, onions and tomatoes. While not as “jumbo” as the menu implies, it still delivered on taste.
Their breakfast menu is a favorite. I’ve always been a fan of breakfast for dinner, especially when it’s a Mexican joint and I can saddle up to a plate of migas. Fuzzy’s serves all their breakfast items no matter the time, which earns them big bonus points in my book.
Their shredded garlic beef tacos are delicious, their beans (black and borracho) well-seasoned, and their homestyle latin potatoes are a perfect compliment to every dish.
So for standard Mexican that’s not too traditional or too off the wall, Fuzzy’s is a consistently good choice. They have four stores (Arlington, Denton, and two in Fort Worth), and if you venture in for a weekend afternoon lunch, prepare yourself for the line. As it stands, I enjoy Fuzzy’s for what it is and will continue to frequent for late night margaritas and breakfast tacos.
510 East Abram | Arlington, TX 76010
817.265.TACO
Umm… what’s a popover? I thought I knew, but after making these and doing some in-depth research, I realized I’m not so sure anymore. Originally, I thought popovers were fluffy, brioche-ish bread rolls. However, this recipe yielded some very delicious bread-looking things that were more like hollow, fluffy quiche than anything else. Whaaat? Well apparently, this isn’t far off from what popovers are supposed to be (see link above), but I’m still not sure if this recipe can be rated as a great or not. They were incredibly tasty with lots of parmesan cheese, fresh herbs, and herbs de Provence (one of my favorite seasonings). They had a nice texture, albeit a pretty eggy one. If that’s the way popovers are supposed to be, then good job on this recipe, Giada! If not, should we just call these something else next time we make them?
What I would really love is for some popover-loving connoisseur to shed some light on the situation. Do these appear to be good popovers? Is there a recipe you can recommend to really show me what a perfect popover is like? If you got anything on this, let me know!
I’d like to end on this note: this recipe is prepared in a blender, which is awesome for mixing, filling up the muffin tins, and clean up. That is definitely working in its favor–popover or not.
Parmesan Popovers from Giada de Laurentiis
3 eggs
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. herbs de Provence
4 tbs. chopped parsley leaves
1 c.s whole milk
3/4 c. grated Parmesan (about 5 ounces)
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a blender, combine eggs, flour, salt, pepper, and herbs, milk, and cheese. Blend on medium speed.
Spray a mini-muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove popovers from muffin tin and cool on a wire rack. Save in a storage container to take to the picnic.*
*Editor’s Note: Picnic???
Sugar ruuuuush. Rise and shine! Nothing like starting the morning with a tasty bit of frosted cake! I don’t do donuts for breakfast very often, but I love the complete affront to nutrition that they symbolize. It’s a breakfast for rebels. It says: “I’m not concerned about sissy things like calories or insulin. I eat what I want for breakfast because I’m an adult and I can. Take that, Mom!”
So if you’re going to basically eat cake for breakfast, you want to make sure it’s really tasty. Yummy Donuts is a luxe version of your local donuts shop with specialty offerings like the Candy Bar Donut and the Birthday Cake. The majority seem to be a version of a super soft cake donut finished with a whipped frosting and toppings. Their frosting is the standout. In fact, I really feel like if the breakfast market doesn’t work out for them, they should start a cupcake shop because this icing puts Sprinkle’s to shame. My favorite of the day was the Strawberry Hug: a blueberry cake donut with strawberry frosting and sprinkles. (As you can see in the picture above I was really excited about it and forgot to wait for the photographer to do his thing. Oh well.) But really, what kind of person couldn’t love a strawberry hug?
We also had to try the large cinnamon roll (in the name of being through food writers, of course). It’s a brioche type roll, very sweet and not incredibly remarkable. Wasn’t bad though; I’d eat it again.
Yummy Donuts seems to be really busy; by 10:00 a LOT of the varieties were sold out. (Damn early risers.) We’ll have to go back early because there were definitely some out-of-stock flavors I would have tried. They also carry some pretty good savory breakfast sandwiches, etc. that look a LOT better than the little kolaches that are standard fare. So there is an option for those of you who don’t like cake before noon.
4355 Lovers Ln. | Dallas, TX 75225
214.520.7680
Happy New Year! I hope that everyone had a really great holiday. Lots of relaxing and lounging around, but now it’s time to get back into things!
I received three cookbooks for Christmas and was excited to try some recipes out, so my sister and I decided to bake cookies from The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook that my friend Andrea bought me. The cute pattern of these Chocolate Checkerboards made them the top-pick. We started baking the cookies late last night without reading the recipe all the way through. By the time the dough was made, we realized it needed to chill in the fridge for three hours (oops). I know sometimes you don’t always have to follow that rule, but given the checker shape that you needed to form the dough into, we decided it was a non-negotiable.
So, this morning we unwrapped the dough and baked cookies for breakfast. How decadent. Along with a cup of dark coffee, they were a wonderful treat. The balance of the bittersweet chocolate and the vanilla shortbread is perfect and I really liked the simplicity of these cookies. Easy to follow, this recipe yields four logs of slice-and-bake cookies ready for after-dinner desert (or breakfast). As you can tell, a perfect checker pattern is harder to achieve than the directions led us to believe. Instead of the straight lines in the book, ours are more of a Dali-inspired checker. Could be because we sort of disregarded the tedious dimensions included in the instructions… Oh well.
Chocolate Checkerboards from The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook
3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4 oz. Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate baking bar, broken into 1-inch pieces*
1 1/4 c. (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 c. white granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
2 tbs. boiling water
3 tbs. Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa
(*Editor’s Note: I used 72% cacao bittersweet)
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
Melt the bittersweet chocolate pieces in the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl, over barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer on medium to low speed until smooth, about two minutes. Mix in the sugar and beat for an additional two minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined. Reduce the speed to low, and add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing until just incorporated. Separate out half of the dough and set aside.
Dissolve the espresso powder in the boiling water and set aside to cool. Once cool, mix the espresso and cocoa into the remaining dough until the dough is uniformly colored. On low speed, add in the melted chocolate, mixing until throughly combined.
Divide the dough into four equal pieces, two of each flavor. Shape each of the four pieces into a rectangular log 10″ long, 3″ wide, and 3/4″ thick. Wrap each log tightly in parchment paper and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Cut each log into four quarters lengthwise, giving you 16 strips that are 10″ long, 3/4″ wide, and 3/4″ thick. To form a checkerboard rectangle, place a chocolate strip and a vanilla strip side by side, and then place another vanilla strip on top of the chocolate strip and another chocolate strip on top of the vanilla strip. The checkerboard log should be about 10″ long, 1 1/2″ wide, and 1 1/2″ thick. Repeat with the other 12 strips to make three more logs. Chill the dough for at least three hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Make sure the dough is firm enough to slice, and use a sharp knife to slice each rectangle into 1/4″ squares and place 1″ apart on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 12 – 13 minutes, making sure not to brown the edges too much. Remove the cookies from the oven, and let stand for one minute. Transfer to wire racks and let cool completely.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. Yields 160 cookies.
(Thank you again to my brother Dan who’s helping with photos while the usual LD photog is off globetrotting)
‘Tis the season of baking! This weekend, I decided to bake biscotti and pair it with little coffee packages as gifts for my coworkers. Unfortunately, my go-to cooking mentor Barefoot Contessa doesn’t have a biscotti recipe 
So in this instance, I turned to the trusted cooking blog, Smitten Kitchen. Run by Deb, a true foodie, it’s been a favorite of mine for some time but for some strange reason, I’ve never baked any of the recipes! What gives? Looking at pictures of food and dreaming about them is no good. So, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to give Smitten Kitchen a long-overdue try.
The recipe? Toasted almond biscotti. The result? Delicious. They were very easy to make, crisp (without being really hard), and perfect for dunking. I decided to dip mine in chocolate because really, everything is better with a little chocolate. The only surprise with this recipe is how prominent the orange flavor is. It’s not a bad thing (very complimentary to the vanilla and almond). However, it’s more than just an undertone and I think that’s something that’s worth mentioning. Maybe the oranges I bought were just superstar, really strong ones… Overall, highly recommended. (Lots of people at work told me they loved them!)
Almond Biscotti From Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from Bon Appetit, December 1999
They’re supposed to make 3 dozen, but my batch yielded at least 45
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier or orange liqueur
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 cup whole almonds, toasted, coarsely chopped or sliced almonds
1 large egg white
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Mix sugar, melted butter, 3 eggs, vanilla extract, orange liqueur and zest in large bowl. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and stir with wooden spoon until well blended. Mix in almonds.
Divide dough in half. Using floured hands, shape each dough half into 13 1/2-inch-long, 2 1/2-inch-wide log. Transfer both logs to prepared baking sheet, spacing apart. Whisk egg white in small bowl until foamy; brush over top and sides of each dough log.
Bake logs until golden brown (logs will spread), about 30 minutes. Cool logs completely on sheet on rack, about 25 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.
Transfer logs to work surface; discard parchment paper. Using serrated knife, cut logs on diagonal into 1/2-inch-wide slices. Arrange slices, cut side down, on same baking sheet. Bake 12 minutes. Turn biscotti over; bake until just beginning to color, about 8 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.
Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature.
Special thanks to my brother Dan who is helping me with photos while Brian is out of town!
So I have been uncovering some damn fine french toast lately. You can say I’m a connoisseur. It used to be the only thing I would order for breakfast as a kid, which has turned into an obsession to find the best there is, wherever I am. It’s hard to order though because I’m rarely up early enough to get a breakfast menu. So my french toast endeavors are limited to the all-day-breakfast type places, or come few and far between.
These past two occasions have been at both: at an all-day breakfast place and a trip early enough for breakfast food. Both occasions were wonderful; the first resulting in the best french toast of my life, the second being the most unique french toast to date. You’ll have to wait for the former, but welcome to the latter.
Hattie’s serves a brunch menu on Sundays and if you read the little dish, you are already aware of this. We previously reviewed their take on Chicken and Waffles, and were delighted. Sadly I was not in attendance on that last visit, so this was my first experience with the Hattie’s brunch. I was surprised at the moderate pricing and was expecting a possible drop in quality, but by the look of everyone’s food as it arrived at our table, I knew there was nothing to worry about. There were five in our party and everyone was extremely pleased with their meals. I (of course) ordered the french toast with bananas foster sauce, which turned out to be the best $6.95 I have ever spent on breakfast. I continually go back to our review of the $10 Dream Cafe pancakes and am baffled at how they get away at charging such a price in a mediocre cafe type setting. Hattie’s is brunch at a white linen restaurant where I can get these far superior, delightful french toast slices with bananas, strawberries and a delicious sauce for $7. Who are Dream Cafe kidding? Ridiculous.
The only fault I found with the french toast was that it was extremely rich. The bananas foster sauce, while a welcome rendition of the usual unadventurous staple french toast recipe, became a bit too much about half way through. I would recommend sharing this with someone else and ordering a more traditional omelet or sandwich to balance out the sugar/carmel overload. But that’s it. There’s nothing else to gripe about here. Hattie’s is a fine place for a Sunday brunch with great service, a welcoming atmosphere, moderate pricing, and most importantly, quality food that tastes superb. Go get it!
Price: $6.95
418 Bishop Avenue | Dallas, Texas 75208
214.942.7400
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If you were banana nut pancakes from Buzzbrew’s, everyone would love you and want to be your friend. They would be really excited to see you and say nice things about you. Trust me.
Cafe Brazil used to be my favorite after-bar, late-night eatery. However, the Greenville and Mockingbird locations have been having some service issues and the waits are getting longer and longer. It seems to be getting more crowded. Basically, it’s just not as easy as it used to be to stop in for a quick bite.
(Note: I mean no disrespect to Cafe Brazil. They are great and their migas are the best. I will gladly dine there, tonight even. I just mean that it has lost its premier spot as the late-night, go-to place for me. We can’t always be on top, you know?)
That coveted place now goes to Buzzbrews. Their food is excellent, their attitude low-key, and I can get one of my new favorites there: banana nut pancakes. Look at that picture! How could people not love that? Delish!
(P.S. The address below is the Buzzbrews I like. There’s another location on Lemmon Ave. that I have yet to visit.)
(P.P.S. They have free wi-fi and self-serve, all-you-can-drink coffee.)
4154 N. Central Expressway | Dallas, TX 75204
214.826.7100
