Gordon Ramsay is at it again.  If you’ve been following Kitchen Nightmares or Hell’s Kitchen and want your own chance of working with Chef Ramsay despite being an amateur cook, here’s your chance.  FOX is launching a new reality cooking show where Chef Ramsay attempts to turn amateur hobbyists with no professional kitchen experience into MasterChefs.  According to the press release,

“Contestants on MASTERCHEF (working title) will be put through the paces with various challenges as they compete head-to-head to create delicious dishes. The series will serve as a unique platform for people from all walks of life who want to follow their dream of working as a professional chef. These everyday at-home cooks will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show their passion and excitement for food as they are put to the test and judged by world-renowned chefs.”

The show is already a hit in the UK and Australia, and now casting directors are looking for contestants for the US debut season.  Open casting calls are scheduled on January 10 for Dallas.  For a chance to audition, follow the instructions in this flyer.

One thing is for sure, this is a once in a life time opportunity for amateur cooks to learn from an accomplished professional chef, even if means surviving Chef Ramsay’s signature explosive outbursts along the way.

Want to meet arguably the most influential American chef in history?  As the only American chef with two Michelin star restaurants, you wouldn’t expect The French Laundry chef to be associated with accessible cooking for the home cook.  However, Thomas Keller’s new cook book, Ad Hoc at Home, is intended to do just that with recipes inspired by the more casual menu at his Yountville establishment, Ad Hoc.  Chef Keller will be at the Northpark Williams-Sonoma on Friday, December 11 at 2:00pm to sign copies of the new cook book, full details here.  A note to Amazon.com fans (like myself), the announcement has emphasized that he will only sign copies of the book purchased at Williams-Sonoma.

The growing food festival scene in DFW presents wonderful opportunities to sneak a peek at foreign cultures. This weekend, St. Mary’s Romanian Orthodox Church in Colleyville hosts the fourth edition of their annual DFW Romanian Food Festival. 

Invited by Romanian hosts anxious to show off their native food, drink, and culture, we arrived on Saturday night to witness packed grounds with season appropriate pumpkin decor, festive folk music, and the distinct smell of grilled meats in the air.  There’s no waiting around with this crowd, and after a few brief introductions, we were off to the food lines.  Items can be ordered a la carte or through a variety of combo plates.  The three combo plates ($15), with names reflecting various geographic regions of Romania, all included common dishes like samarle (cabbage rolls), mititei (Romanian skinless sausage), and coleslaw.  We started off with the Moldavia combo plate, hoping to try the lamb pastrami, but to our disappointment the popular item had run out.  However, the substitute, an oven baked chicken quarter, was still juicy, tender, and tasty.

It’s hard for an outsider to detect the subtle differences between various brands of eastern European cuisine, but I enjoyed all the familiar yet foreign offerings on my plate.  The pickled cabbage contrasted nicely with the smooth rich ground pork filling in the cabbage rolls.  The grilled skinless sausages had the same succulent texture as Vietnamese bo moi chai (ground beef rolls), and when dipped slightly in the sharp mustard, became the perfect companion to my Warsteiner.  The polenta generously covered in crumbled feta rounded out a hearty autumn plate.

The night was getting chillier and our hosts were growing excited for us to participate in the festive dancing.  Naturally, this was the perfect cue for my rhythm challenged self to get back in the food line and conveniently avoid the dance circle.  The cleverly named “Romanian Flu Shot” soup booth caught my eye.  The two soup offerings were the innocuous Romanian wedding soup (with pork meatballs) and the more alarmingly named Truth or Dare soup (sour tripe soup) at $3 for a cup and $5 for a bowl.  Forgive me, I’m a texturally challenged Asian who passed the dare on the tripe soup and went for the steaming hot bowl of wedding soup.

Think Italian wedding soup plus vinegar/lemon juice and tomato; a tangy, soothing cure to your flu season afflictions.

For dessert, we tried a couple of slices of cozonac (a sweet, but not too sweet, bread with stuffed with swirls of ground walnut and golden raisins) and gogosi (a lemony fried donut covered in powdered sugar that is a like the fluffier and less greasy cousin of funnel cake).

Feeling full and toasty, I was ready for the church tour to mark the end of my evening.  But as the often sitcom-esque timing of my life would have it, the performers on stage had expanded their dance circle into the audience as I was bolting to the trash can.  Caught in the circle and no way out, no outburst of “opa” to distract the attention from my clumsy feet, it was four steps forward and four steps back until the end of the song, and the end to a fun, festive, and culture-filled evening.

The festival runs until 7:00pm tonight, so it’s not too late to check out the action for yourself.

It’s official! As of Wednesday, Market Street in Coppell is open for business. I’ve been envious of McKinney and Allen residents who have easy access to this grocery chain which combines gourmets and organics with more basic grocery items as well as home needs (toothpaste, laundry detergent). Now there’s one near my ‘hood!

On a different note, my laptop has completely died after a month or so of technical struggles. Apologies for the lack of posting, hopefully I can recover everything off of the hard drive and get back into the swing of things in a week or so.

Well, I did it.  Three different food festivals in one weekend.  I also managed to log 7 miles on my running shoes but I don’t think that burned off even 10% of the calories I consumed.  Onto the food!

First up is the opening night of State Fair, starting with the much publicized chicken fried bacon, the winner of Best Taste in the Big Tex Choice Awards.

I mentioned earlier that I feared this deep fried treat would be soggy due to the fatty grease of the bacon soaking through the batter.  Turns out that was the least of my worries.  It appears that the bacon strips are precooked before being dipped in batter and refried.  At least that’s the only reasoning I can gather up for these dry and overcooked bacon strips coated with a thick layer of cornmeal batter.  I imagine that Beggin strips have a similar texture.  It was hard to eat and you can barely taste the bacon.  Early reports from other state fair goers reflect positively on this item.  However, even my bacon-loving companion who had never met a piece of pig he didn’t like had to force himself to finish the last two strips.  Maybe we’re just too in love with pork belly to accept any form of it that doesn’t ooze with richness. 

Disappointed, we wandered over to the car show and found this year’s winner for Most Creative fried item, the fried banana split.

The fried banana split comes in two sizes, mini (shown above) and regular.  The description on the State Fair website describes it as “a mixture of banana and honey peanut butter rolled in balls, battered and deep-fried and topped with assorted, delicious fixings, including powdered sugar, caramel and chocolate syrups, chopped peanuts, whipped cream and banana split flavored ice cream bites then fittingly crowned with the traditional cherry.”  This would be my description: “Fried peanut butter ball topped with powdered sugar, generic brand syrup, chopped peanuts, whipped cream, and a few banana split flavored Dipping Dots.”  It’s not that the fried banana split didn’t taste good, it just didn’t taste anything like a banana split.  By far, the dominating flavor was the peanut butter.  Am I missing something here?  I don’t remember banana splits having peanut butter on/in them.

Thank goodness the our next course, the fried cake, veered us away from an evening of deep fried train wreck.

Wait, is that a deep fried chili covered corn dog?

That was our initial reaction, too.  No, it’s deep fried chocolate cake on a stick.  It’s the only fried item we tried on opening night that didn’t have that “we use the same grease to deep fry your chicken and your dessert” taste.  Perfectly moist chocolate cake inside a fluffy blanket of light, not too greasy, batter. 

That was the same fluffy batter blanket I was looking for on my Fletcher’s corny dog.  However, though the outside of the batter was fried to a perfect crunch, the middle layer of corn bread “fluff” was missing… just crunch, then hot dog meat.  This was my first Fletcher’s corny dog, are they all like this or was I just unlucky?

Next, we went for a favorite from a State Fair visit two years ago, the fried S’more.

It was tasty, but there seemed to be a thicker coating of batter (detracting from the ooze of the marshmallow) this year than two years ago. 

We rounded out the night with a caramel covered apple.  When almost everything else fails, this sweet and crunchy classic saves the evening.

The next morning, I shook off my fried food hangover and headed to the Greek Food Festival for lunch.

The $10 plate lunch (includes admission to the festival) features oregano chicken over rice, meatballs, spanakopita (spinach pie), Greek salad with feta and olives, and pita.  The crackly skin on the oregano chicken and the flaky phyllo pastry shell on the spanakopita were lovely.  However, the Greek salad was grossly overdressed and the pita bread tasted store-bought. 

A la carte items fared better.

Grilled Greek sausage (loukaniko) with its crisp casing is always a delight.  Pork souvlaki was tasty but a little overcooked (dry).  A few swigs of Greek Aris beer helped that situation, though.

Moussaka presented itself in a monstrous serving.  The rich dish was well seasoned with melt-in-your-mouth tender eggplant.  The thick layer of bechamel topping had good flavor, but was a bit overwhelming for the casserole. 

For dessert, loukoumades, honey balls, never fail to impress.

Take note, State Fair vendors, this is how you do a killer deep fried dessert.  These golden globes sport a crunchy exterior with an unbelievable light interior.  Honey sweetens the pot but doesn’t overwhelm like generic brand syrup or mountains of powdered sugar.  I think this is what funnel cake wants to be when it grows up.

We also tried the baklava sundae.  Unfortunately, the delicate flavors of the nutty baklava was overpowered by the nagging sweetness of the cheap vanilla ice cream it topped.  Thankfully, my box of take-home baklava I bought from the marketplace won’t have that same problem.

Oh we’re not done yet

Sunday lunch was all about Akimatsuri, the Japanese Fall Festival.

There were many teriyaki chicken bowls and shrimp tempuras to be had, but we were here for the less common stuff.  Starting with the elusive takoyaki, which is normally only available in on Sushi Yama’s menu, but served by Sushi Sake at the festival.

These plump little spongy balls of batter and octopus covered in okonomiyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, aenori, dried fish flakes, and pickled ginger pieces are more fulfilling than the version Sushi Yama serves, which makes me wonder why they’re not on the regular menu at Sushi Sake. 

Next up, a mystery bowl labeled “Japanese stew” from Ino Japanese Bistro.

Oden is a cheap, popular Japanese winter street food (often sold in convenience stores) consisting of fish cakes, daikon radish, eggs, and Japanese yam stewed in a light dashi broth.  Not exactly appropriate for the hot September Texas weather, the tasty stew still stood out as one of the best items we tried at the festival.  Though the textures of the various gelatinous and chewy and spongey ingredients can be challenging for the crunch-loving Western palate, it’s easy to imagine how satisfying this flavorful bowl of steaming hot broth with so many nutrients can be during a cold Japanese winter.  My favorite part?  Brushing the boiled egg with the nostril-stinging karashi (Japanese mustard) served on the side.  That’ll clear up those cold weather sinus issues.

One of the more interesting vendors at the festival was Totoya (no, that’s not a mispelling of the Prius producer), a soon-to-open Japanese restaurant in north Dallas that featured environmentally conscious choices like free range chicken teriyaki and wild shrimp tempura at its booth.  We tried their gyoza, which featured a great thin skin and the pungent flavor of Chinese chives.  Sadly, some of them had broken by the time they reached the serving plate.

We finished the weekend of feasting with a deliciously sticky and savory eel bowl from Tei Tei Robata Bar, with the shiny individual rice grains gleaming under the sun. 

I think I’ll be logging a few more miles on those tennies this week.

Well, it’s happened for the second year in a row.  The last weekend in September seems to be food festival mania in DFW.  I present my ambitious festival food eating schedule for the weekend:

Friday: Opening day for the Fried Food Festival.  Oops, I meant the State Fair.  The “novel” fried item garnering the most pre-Fair press this year is the chicken fried bacon, but Sodolak’s Original Country Inn in Snook has been serving this artery-clogging specialty for years with the majority of the diners reporting that deep frying bacon makes it too soggy.  Worth the calories to try at the Fair?  We’ll see how tempted I am.  The fried banana split sounds tasty though. 

Saturday: Opa!  It’s time to hit the Greek Food Festival of Dallas.  The plated lunches and dinners are a good deal, but the highlight of this festival is always the dessert selection.  Loukoumades, anyone?  You can also stock up on baklava and kourabiethes by the dozen at the Agora Marketplace.

Sunday: Rounding out the weekend is the Japanese Fall Festival (Akimatsuri) presented by the Dallas Japanese Association.  Get there early!  Most vendors ran out of the popular food items a couple of hours into the festival last year.  Good chance to try the elusive takoyaki (fried octopus dumplings) if you haven’t already.

KRLD’s annual Restaurant Week will take place August 11-17 this year, when patrons can enjoy three course meals for $35 ($7 of each meal goes to benefit The North Texas Food Bank and Lena Pope Home).

New for this year, a “Preview” weekend will feature three course meals plus a 10 Cane Rum drink for $40 on August 8-10.

Anxiously waiting for the official list of participating restaurants to be released? Here’s a hint: check KRLD’s website on July 14.

Local pizza chain i Fratelli just opened their eighth location in the DFW area at the Polo Towne Crossing Center at Park and the Tollway in Plano.  Loved the thin crust and the intense marinara sauce on the pepperoni pizza I sampled for lunch today.  Toppings aren’t too exciting though, with basil and artichoke hearts being the most exotic ones on the menu.  It’s no gourmet Grimaldi’s but I can’t manage a 30-mile round trip for lunch break.  I always welcome more choices for pie in these northern parts and i Fratelli is a great addition.

A third branch of the local chain Cowboy Chicken opened in Carrollton this week on Hebron Pkwy just east of Midway Rd.  I had read favorable reviews of this chain in the past but haven’t found the chance to stop in until last night at the new location.  The verdict?  It’s a more Texan and much better version of Boston Market.  $6.99 buys a half chicken (mixed white meat and dark meat, white meat only is $1 more) with two sides.  Chicken was moist and well seasoned, to the point where the meat was flavored enough to stand alone without the skin.  From a personal preference, I wish the skin had a little more crispiness to it.  Sides of smooth, slightly peppery creamed spinach and fresh tasting golden fried okra and a nonoffensive dinner roll round out the affordable meal (which can easily feed two average appetites).

Cowboy Chicken
3450 Hebron Pkwy
Carrollton, TX 75010

Kenichi is hosting a special four course sake dinner this Wednesday night at 7:00pm as a part of the Vine Connections Sake Brewer Tour of 2008.  Kenichi boasts the second largest sake list among US restaurants and this Wednesday’s special dinner will feature tastings with brewers from three Japanese sake breweries (Kanbara, Rihaku, and Takasago).  Additionally, the event will feature an in-depth sake seminar from Vine Connections Sake Ambassador Paul Tanguay.  Dinner is $75/person and the evening’s set menu is available here.  Seating is limited, RSVPs taken at (214) 871-8883.