I went to check out the new Townhouse Kitchen + Bar at the Dallas Galleria the other night, not because I had some shopping to do but because – like the Monkees in their ’60s theme song – it may be comin’ to your town. In  fact, the Dallas restaurant is the first of three scheduled to be up and running in Texas by the end of this summer. The others are, quite happily, slotted to open in Houston and Austin.

Any restaurant that has deviled eggs on the menu has to be at least a little into childhood food nostalgia – and on some dishes Townhouse is a lot into it. Sure, there’s a dizzying variety of popular Latin tastes plus a nifty array of Asian (as you’ll see). But American food is the key to understanding the high-quality but also high-casual cooking emerging from this kitchen. These deviled eggs, by the way, are excellent, mostly the classic mix of mayo-lush and mustard-tangy but given a kick by the Asian hot stuff called sriracha.

And… speaking of Asian, one of the menu’s acts of pure genius is something called kung pao shrimp tacos. Come on! That’s like three of my favorite things, in a single dish. The spicy shrimp with peanuts are out in full force, all ablaze in the hot-meets-cool collision that makes Vietnamese and Thai food so terrific. And after all, few actions make anything taste better than putting it inside a taco. 

Nobody doesn’t like a quesadilla, right?  And nobody doesn’t like barbecue either. Those seem to be the deep truths behind the duck barbecue quesadillas. It’s cheese, of course, that glues the two tortillas together. But inside of that lurks some of the deepest, sweetest and smokiest meat you’ll ever slip into your mouth. There’s an extra wonderful taste here that I never could quite identify, and I ate a bunch in the effort to do that for you. Neither the menu nor the chef was in any mood to give away secrets.

Just as there’s the Better Burger movement making the rounds in America, there’s what I hereby dub the Grownup Mac-and-Cheese Movement. You know the type: usually dripping with obnoxious truffle oil, a product that most actual truffle lovers (like me) despise. In this case, the mac and cheese is classically yellow and extremely cheesy, with no truffle oil in sight. And for a few extra dollars, you can make it almost an entree by adding applewood-smoked bacon or shrimp.

Side dishes, it turns out, are one of the strongest suits at Townhouse Kitchen + Bar. When you’re not shoveling mac and cheese in the general direction of your lips, you really need to try the hash browns. Or, to be precise, the Jalapeno Bacon Hash Browns. I ate as much of these as I could, then took the rest home. In my kitchen, the leftovers will soon find a home in what might be the best potato omelet ever.

With everything else Townhouse has going for it, including a fun wine list and even funner cocktails, you’d expect large, indulgent desserts. And you would be correct. The one we sampled was all that and more – involving, like so many other dishes here from start to finish, a salty-sweet flourish of bacon. These are “bacon doughnuts,” fried balls of sweet dough in a sugary caramel sauce plus bacon crumbles on top, topped by the perfect vanilla ice cream. Maybe your mouth needs something as simple as vanilla ice cream after an assault of barbecue duck quesadillas and kung pao shrimp tacos!

I didn’t know what to expect, or even think, when I heard the first rumblings last week about a restaurant that had just opened with a chef who was a celebrity in his native Mexico. So of course, imagining I might recognize the name, I had to ask: Does he have a famous restaurant down there? Yes, came the answer, he did have one. But what he mostly has is a famous TV show. In the Spanish-speaking world, Aquiles Chavez is apparently as big a food-themed star as Anthony Bourdain.

That said, and with the photos above as my props, you shouldn’t be surprised when I report: the days-old La Fisheria in Houston has the showbiz portion of the evening down pat. Chavez and his three business partners transport us out of Houston and Texas and the United States to some beachfront someplace wonderful that we don’t quite recognize but have always longed to go. La Fisheria is our “nice restaurant” at the beach, where we go on nights we want to put on a shirt with a collar and enjoy high-quality food with a terrific bottle of wine. Or two.

No dazzling blue water’s in sight beyond the front porch at La Fisheria, but inside there are light woods, handmade tiles and a burst of Caribbean colors born on the coast of the chef’s home state of Tabasco, funnelled through every island fantasy we ever had. And yes, there are inner tubes on the wall in case we swim out too deep. Which, by the way, is a good analogy for the food. When any dish here seems less than glorious (glorious being what most of the dishes are), it’s because it’s trying too hard not to be the same old thing diners love. Maybe the inner tubes should be in the kitchen instead of the dining room.

After three visits over three days within La Fisheria’s opening week, I’m here to tell you I could eat the good stuff often and forever and never get tired of it. This, for instance, is  Chavez’s version of a tiradit0, swimming (literally) somewhere between Japanese sashimi and Mexican ceviche. There’s an incredible citrus component at work on these slices of salmon and white fish (snapper, in this case), with a wonderful crunch from thinly sliced carrot and radish, plus tiny cubes of cucumber.

Another slightly off-the-wall starter that happens to be magnificent is a “salad” (with no lettuce) built around artichokes and a dressing/dipping sauce of cilantro and mashed potato. Like an aioli, sort of, except thicker. It’s also neither the first nor the last dish at La Fisheria that’s meant to be eaten with the hands. You make a bit of a mess reveling in these tastes, and the chef wants to pin a medal on you for it. In food, mess equals passion. In food, mess equals enjoyment.

Although my photo doesn’t do it justice, if I were asked to choose (as at the Grammy Awards) the Best New Dish of the Year, meaning any year I’m not too old to remember, I’d probably open the envelope and read “Mussels with beet coulis.” The notion sounds totally weird, but when you experience these mussels first sauteed in butter and white wine  then served within a loose puree of beets, you’re happily going where no taste buds have probably ever gone before.

Ordering the ribeye with truffled mashed potatoes and ratatouille lets me not only taste something wonderful and red in my glass but lets me talk a moment about La Fisheria’s quirky wine program. As best I can tell, all the bottles being offered right now are from Mexico – that’s right, from a place huge numbers of Americans don’t even know produces any wine. The whites are generally light, not at all overly oaked (gracias a Dios!) and simply perfect for a seafood-crazed menu. The reds are promising too, most hailing from the Baja peninsula around the U.S. border at San Diego.

Desserts are still a work-in-progress at La Fisheria – hardly a major scandal after only three or four days of operation. While the finale pictured above, a mound of fried yuca fritters (okay, they’re called torrejas) paired with an ice cream made with the exotic herb hoja santa, is fine, I predict we’ll soon see more things that are lush, sweet and decadent in the American sense. After all, while “Spanish Spoken Here” seems the motto of the staff and more than half of the customers, it’s America in which Houston, Texas, resides. Which, naturally, makes the vacation-style getaway offered by Aquiles Chavez at La Fisheria all the more luminous. And all the more necessary.

NOW HEARD IN THREE GREAT TEXAS CITIES!

AUSTIN Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Talk 1370

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

Only a week after visiting Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in Houston, we find ourselves (quite happily) chatting with the general manager and executive chef at the brand-new concept called Del Frisco’s Grille in Dallas. And let me warn you: they make us eat way too much. In our Grape & Grain segment, we visit with former NFL player Alphonse Dotson and his wife, who now earn their fame and (at least someday) their fortune growing grapes to fine make wine in Texas. 

HOUSTON Saturdays 2-3 p.m., News Talk 1070 KNTH

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

Only a week after visiting Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in Houston, we find ourselves (quite happily) chatting with the general manager and executive chef at the brand-new concept called Del Frisco’s Grille in Dallas. And let me warn you: they make us eat way too much. In our Grape & Grain segment, we visit with former NFL player Alphonse Dotson and his wife, who now earn their fame and (at least someday) their fortune growing grapes to fine make wine in Texas. 

DALLAS Saturdays 7-8 p.m., 570 KLIF

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

Only a week after visiting Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in Houston, we find ourselves (quite happily) chatting with the general manager and executive chef at the brand-new concept called Del Frisco’s Grille in Dallas. And let me warn you: they make us eat way too much. In our Grape & Grain segment, we visit with former NFL player Alphonse Dotson and his wife, who now earn their fame and (at least someday) their fortune growing grapes to fine make wine in Texas. 

Our 22nd Year of Eating, Drinking and Telling You About It! 

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER SOUP

2 heads cauliflower

3 garlic cloves

2 shallots

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups chicken broth

1 cup water

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves

1 bay leaf

2 cups heavy cream 

Preheat oven to 425°F. Cut cauliflower into 1-inch flowerets (about 10 cups). In a large baking pan toss cauliflower, garlic, and shallots with oil to coat and roast in middle of oven about 30 minutes, or until golden. In a 4-quart kettle simmer broth, water, roasted cauliflower mixture, and herbs 30 minutes, or until cauliflower is very tender. Discard bay leaf and in a blender puree soup in batches until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids), transferring to a bowl. Return soup to kettle and stir in cream and salt and pepper to taste. Heat soup over moderate heat until just heated through. Serves 6-8.

With the Houston openings of two glittering sushi palaces from two hipster ideas of heaven – Uchi from Austin and Katsuya from Los Angeles – perhaps chef-owner Ji Kang had little choice but to keep expectations under control. Though Kang has an impressive-enough resume from Dallas and even New York, he was quick to subtitle his newly opened NABI on Montrose’s Westheimer a “neighborhood restaurant.”

Overall, NABI shows considerable promise, as you’d hope for any place a chef names for his mother. Kang’s mother did a lot of cooking commercially while he was growing up in Korea, so the notion of becoming a chef was nothing outlandish – to him or to her. Nor is the notion of dabbling in some culinary revisionism. This terrific grilled romaine hearts salad, for instance, with sea salt, pickled vegetables and herb dressing might be, in one of those chain eateries, be dubbed a “Japanese Caesar.”

Speaking of revionism, that has to be what’s happening when Kang’s kitchen sends out some very classic Chinese-style potstickers, only to have the first bite reveal they’re filled with beef brisket that’s been smoked Texas-style for 24 hours. The green chile involved is Southwestern in flavor and origin, but the citrus-kissed ponzu for dipping is Asian all the way.

And really, who wouldn’t go for a couple of tacos right about now. Kang isn’t the first Texas chef to re-purpose the taco delivery system to deliver Asian flavors, but he shows a solid mastery of both Asian taste and textre. The “taco meat” inside is a trio of tartares – tuna, salmon and hamachi – given a pleasurable couple of crunches by pinenuts and Fuji apples.

Compared  with the tacos – which, after all, seem to be made from almost anything these days – the tuna pizza seems more of a stretch. The challenge, really, is the name more than the dining experience. If you go to a sushi place at all, you’re surely pre-qualified to eat spicy tuna served up with crispy rice, jalapeno and gold tobiko, all atop some perfectly fine vegetable tempura. The only nagging question becomes: how is this a pizza?

Finally, for the more adventurous, NABI has an octopus dish that’s at least as hardcore as anything served in those little restaurants along the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, Italy or Greece. Known simply as “seared octopus,” this is light years removed from your grandmother’s fried calamari. Turns out, NABI serves calamari, and makes sure they’re crispy the way most people like them. But this tentacle-happy octopus with endive, blood orange brown butter and hazelnuts is enough to make anybody wonder exactly what Houston neighborhood NABI is a “neighborhood restaurant” in.

NOW HEARD IN THREE GREAT TEXAS CITIES! 

AUSTIN Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Talk 1370

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

It’s that time of year again: the season when the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo demonstrates its surprising commitment to class-act wine and food. For three segments, we chat with wine importer Stephanie Baird and Del Frisco’s GM Arthur Mooradian about the annual Rodeo Uncorked wine competition, as well as its food component known as Best Bites. In our closing segment, we launch a new feature titled Samira’s Table, talking about dining in Paris with Samira Anne Salman. 

HOUSTON Saturdays 2-3 p.m., News Talk 1070 KNTH

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

It’s that time of year again: the season when the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo demonstrates its surprising commitment to class-act wine and food. For three segments, we chat with wine importer Stephanie Baird and Del Frisco’s GM Arthur Mooradian about the annual Rodeo Uncorked wine competition, as well as its food component known as Best Bites. In our closing segment, we launch a new feature titled Samira’s Table, talking about dining in Paris with Samira Anne Salman. 

DALLAS Saturdays 7-8 p.m., 570 KLIF

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

It’s that time of year again: the season when the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo demonstrates its surprising commitment to class-act wine and food. For three segments, we chat with wine importer Stephanie Baird and Del Frisco’s GM Arthur Mooradian about the annual Rodeo Uncorked wine competition, as well as its food component known as Best Bites. In our closing segment, we launch a new feature titled Samira’s Table, talking about dining in Paris with Samira Anne Salman. 

Our 22nd Year of Eating, Drinking and Telling You About It! 

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe

BACON-JALAPENO CORN MAQUE CHOUX 

Tasting the corn dish Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House is serving at this year’s Best Bites competition in Houston so inspired us, we reached into our own South Louisiana bag o’ tricks and came up with our version. 

1/2 pound bacon, chopped

6 ears young sweet corn

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped green bell peppers

1 tablespoon chopped jalapenos, or to taste

Salt

Ground red pepper

2 cups chopped, peeled, and seeded tomatoes, or 1 cup chopped canned tomatoes

1 cup milk

1/4 cup chopped green onions 

In a large skillet, over medium heat, render the bacon until crispy. Drain the bacon on paper towels and set aside. Pour off all of the bacon fat except for 2 tablespoons. Cut the corn off the cob by thinly slicing across the tops of the kernels and then cutting across a second time to release the milk from the corn. Scrape the cob once or twice to extract the milk. You should have about 4 cups of corn with the milk. To the pan, over medium heat, add the oil, onions, bell peppers and jalepenos. Season with salt and cayenne. Saute for 2 minutes. Add the corn. Season with salt and ground red pepper. Continue to saute for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until the corn is tender. Stir in the milk and remove from heat. Stir in the crispy bacon and green onions. Serves 4.

NOW HEARD IN THREE GREAT TEXAS CITIES! 

AUSTIN Saturdays 10-11 a.m., Talk 1370

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

This week we travel to New Orleans to visit a chef with a new restaurant that has not only exotic, delicious food but intriguing historical references. Tamarind, part of the stylishly reborn Hotel Modern on Lee Circle, serves French-Vietnamese cuisine, a reflection of the century the Southeast Asian spent under French domination. In our Grape & Grain segment, we taste and talk about the wines from Snowden Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. 

HOUSTON Saturdays 2-3 p.m., News Talk 1070 KNTH

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

This week we travel to New Orleans to visit a chef with a new restaurant that has not only exotic, delicious food but intriguing historical references. Tamarind, part of the stylishly reborn Hotel Modern on Lee Circle, serves French-Vietnamese cuisine, a reflection of the century the Southeast Asian spent under French domination. In our Grape & Grain segment, we taste and talk about the wines from Snowden Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. 

DALLAS Saturdays 7-8 p.m., 570 KLIF

A Presentation of Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods 

This week we travel to New Orleans to visit a chef with a new restaurant that has not only exotic, delicious food but intriguing historical references. Tamarind, part of the stylishly reborn Hotel Modern on Lee Circle, serves French-Vietnamese cuisine, a reflection of the century the Southeast Asian spent under French domination. In our Grape & Grain segment, we taste and talk about the wines from Snowden Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley. 

Our 22nd Year of Eating, Drinking and Telling You About It! 

This Week’s Delicious Mischief Recipe

TEX-MEX SOPAPILLAS 

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional if needed
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1/3 cup hot water 

Put flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and shortening in a mixing bowl. Use your fingers or a pastry blender to thoroughly combine and evenly distribute shortening. Add hot water and stir with a fork until mixture forms a dough. If dough is too dry to mold or knead, add a bit more water. If dough seems too wet add 1-2 tablespoons flour. Knead a couple times, then place in a plastic bag and let rise 1 hour in a warm place.

Lightly flour work surface and roll dough in to a rectangle about 1/8 to1/4 inch thick. If the dough seems too elastic to roll easily cover and let rest a few minutes more, then roll again. Fold the dough in half and roll the rectangle again. Cut the dough into 3-by-4 inch rectangles.  Heat at least 5 inches of oil in a 3-quart sauce pan or deep-fryer to 350 to 360. Fry 1 or 2 at a time, spooning hot oil over the top to encourage puffing.  Drain on paper towels. Immediately dust with powdered sugar and serve with honey. Serves 6.

When most of us think of a hotel in New York City, we think of a place that’s big and bustling, with maybe 1,500 to 2,000 rooms. And when we think of a hotel restaurant – or “F&B outlet” outlet in the industry’s parlance – we think of much the same: something large, loud and forgettable. With only 66 room spread over a very narrow 24 stories between Fifth and Madison avenues, the Gotham Hotel  on 46th Street has every reason to rethink how we eat while visiting  New York as well as how we sleep.

With new executive chef Nickolas Kipper in the kitchen, the “hotel restaurant” called Tenpenny is emerging as not only a place worth a couple meals from the folks renting beds upstairs but even from guests of other hotels and from the toughest nut to crack of all – New Yorkers themselves. Dinner last night, which started with an amazing salad of both fresh and dried components, plus some house-cured bacon with grilled rustic bread – left no mystery as to why a crowd with all the choices in the world might well choose to eat here.

Though the name Kipper, as the saying goes, doesn’t end in a vowel, there is considerable mastery of the Italian tradition coming out in dish after dish. Pastas at Tenpenny get treated as entrees for the most part, which of course isn’t traditional; but this chef goes the extra mile to make sure things are interesting enough we can finish a whole big plate. This mushroom risotto, for instance, arrives topped with enough forest mushrooms to cover a large pizza, in addition to a crispy golden crumble made from Parmesan cheese.

Though my heart has been known to belong to mushroom risotto, with only asparagus risotto a close second, I was excited to sample Kipper’s “porchetta ravioli.” A very special edition of roast pork, so-called “porchetta Romana” is served everywhere in Rome, from street stands to fine-dining palaces. That very same seasoned and caramelized pork finds its way inside ravioli at Tenpenny, and boy am I glad it does.

Call it the Sick-of-Chilean-Sea-Bass Vote, but I sure do seem to be seeing (and eating) a lot of halibut in restaurants these days. You might say it’s become my default fish, the way salmon is for everybody except me. Tenpenny has a delicious and interesting rendition of halibut – pan-seared, of course, served over parsnip puree pretending to be mashed potatoes and some lovely sauteed Swiss chard. That “ice cream” on top of the fish, well, isn’t. It’s a tart-sweet mousse made from cranberries.

If you need further proof that we’re not in hotel restaurant Kansas anymore, just check out Tenpenny’s intriguing rendition of ribeye. Far from being the “big steak” that eateries inside hotels had to have for most of the 20th century, this ribeye is closely trimmed of fat, grilled and sliced, then set atop a Spanish-tinged romesco sauce. Vegetables abound, including orange-glazed chanterelles and butter-braised baby leeks. Chefs cook with a lot of hyphens these days.

And if you, like most people in Tenpenny’s dining room last night, are trolling for something sweet, head directly for the folksy-sounding huckleberry pie. There… now Chef Nickolas has me using hyphens too. Though folksy-sounding, the dessert is pretty much a class act, more of a delightfully warm crumble than a pie, with a caramel sauce underneath and vanilla ice cream melting on top. The way mealtimes are going at the Gotham Hotel on 46th Street, I may never “go out” to dinner in New York City again

After driving 14,783 miles around Texas to write a book on the state’s barbecue, I certainly never expected to discover some of the best smoked brisket, pulled pork and ribs of my life in New York City. Then again, I can take some solace knowing that the guy who gave the world Dinosaur BBQ did so originally up in Syracuse, and that he did so only after riding his motorcycle on several tasting tours of Texas and the rest of the South.

To say that the Harlem – yes folks, that Harlem! – outpost of Dinosaur serves Texas BBQ would not be accurate. There’s a whole lot of big Texas flavor served up ’round the clock here; but that doesn’t keep its founders from celebrating the best of Memphis and Kansas City, Mississippi and Alabama, even the far-distant BBQ mystery known as The Carolinas. If it’s BBQ and it’s delicious, it’s probably on the menu. And having tried a few places alleging to make BBQ around touristy Midtown and its Times Square, I’ll now choose a subway, bus or taxi up to Harlem every time.

The folks at Dinosaur BBQ know their way around the Texas Hill Country, and they saw the way the old German or Czech butcher families resisted being in the “restaurant business,” instead of the “meat business.” That, for instance, is why such places in Texas have been slow to introduce appetizers, like that would mean actually taking care of people. There’s no such silly reluctance at Dinosaur, where you can get a sampler of starters that includes everything from kicked-up deviled eggs to super-spicy boiled shrimp, with stops for fried green tomatoes along the way.

When it comes to sides, same story. The next time some Texas BBQ joint offers what amounts to a choice of white bread or Saltines, I’ll wistfully remember the embarassment of riches alongside the meats at Dinosaur. The “salt potatoes” belong to Syracuse as much as wings belong to Buffalo, and they are terrific, but everything else is delightfully all over the map. There’s lush mac and cheese, an amazing  swirl of sweet potatoes and even a BBQ “fried rice” that keeps one foot firmly planted in Chinese food, where I say it belongs. Most things come with a Deep South vision of cornbread that’s hot, sweet and moist.

There are significant desserts offered at Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem, some dipping deliciously into the soul food tradition, along with a list of local and other craft beers that just won’t stop – including two brews I tried that are made in Syracuse just for these restaurants. On the sweet side of things, the customer favorite may well be the key lime pie, which may strike you as oddly non-Texas and even non-Alabama, until you remember that guys traveling the country on motorcycles couldn’t possibly resist heading down that highway of bridges to Key West.

Totally different but every bit as good is the new apple cake with a whiskey caramel sauce. Talk about tasting homemade! And somehow, the whole thing kept coming into my mind with the word “Dutch” in front of it… thinking of Johnny Appleseed and his adventures through countrysides tamed by Dutch farmers, thinking of “Harlem” itself, even thinking of a city long ago known as New Amsterdam before the redcoats decided they couldn’t leave well enough alone.

At Dinosaur BBQ in New York, just as at any BBQ joint worth its dry rub in Texas, if you ask enough questions about wood, seasoning, time and temperature, you’ll probably luck out and get a tour of the pits. Here, a company stalwart  named Garth seasons meat just beginning to get real good, the way each of perhaps 30 items at our table already was. And since there’s a new Dinosaur opening in Newark, with others on tap for Connecticut and, yes, even Brooklyn… this Syracuse-born BBQ chain has no intention of letting us ever “fuh-get-about-it.”

At night, the tiny Greenwich Village restaurant called simply Wong is darker than I like restaurants to be – which is my subtle way of apologizing for how grainy the photos from last night turned out. But within only a few months of opening, the eatery created by Malaysian-born Chinese chef Simpson Wong has become one of the brightest lights on the New York City dining scene. Finally, cuisine from as far away as you can get is wildly “local” at the same time.

Though there are some reasonably exotic dishes on the menu, this is not a case of “Bizarre Foods” meets Molecular Gastronomy, thank goodness. What Simpson Wong serves, mostly, is traditional Chinese (and/or Vietnamese) dishes upgraded from anything we’re probably used to. And since the concept was born while the still-young Wong was recovering from a heart attack and shopping for his health in New York’s farmers markets, the first thing your taste buds notice is how wonderful the ingredients are. The notion of New York’s first “Asian Locavore” restaurant was born.

One of the more touching aspects of the menu, especially once Wong himself describes each dish, is how many things hark back to recipes his parents cooked when he was a child. The incredible shrimp fritters, for instance, are a tribute to his mother, and they’re a festival of temperatures, tastes and, this being Asian cuisine, textures. But the Duck Bun pictured above is a tribute to the chef’s late father – who used to come home from work with a cooked duck late at night and prepare something of the sort.

One of my favorite dishes at Wong, and surely carrying one of my favorite stories, is the Lobster Egg Foo Young, made with salted duck egg yolks, leeks and an intriguing crumble of the dried shrimp Asians have made wherever they move in the world. A cheap “peasant” dish that resembles a loose omelet, Egg Foo Young screamed out to Wong for an upgrade – initially with shrimp. “But,” he pronounced matter-of-factly on my radio show, “if you can use shrimp, then you can use lobster.” With such logic, culinary classics are born.

Considering the menu’s love affair with duck and all the attention this dessert’s been paid, I figured I had a  date with pastry chef Judy Chen’s Duck a la Plum. And boy was I scared, since my idea of dessert runs roughly from cheesecake to pecan pie. Turns out, the dessert is very subtle, and very delicious – the “roast duck ice cream” so mild and creamy and sweet that virtually anybody would like it. Same for the star anise-poached plums, the crispy sugar tuile and the cookie zapped with Chinese five spice powder. All in all, it was an incredible ending to an incredible dinner.

They had me at the corn! Then again, if you make your way to Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House in Houston to record radio about Rodeo Uncorked – yes, that would be “radio about rodeo” – GM Arthur Mooradian isn’t likely to let you leave after only the corn dish with bacon and jalapeno they’re serving for Best Bites. After all, Del Frsco’s has developed a steady habit of winning the People’s Choice portion of the thing.

Besides the magnificent corn dish (which inspired me to rework one of my original recipes for south Louisiana maque choux to taste more like it), Arthur also shared a tasting portion of the beef-on-skewers dish they’ll be serving at Best Bites, this one with a sauce spiked with Jack Daniel’s. And just to make sure I remembered where I got it, the chefs sent out my alltime fave Del Frisco’s appetizer: sweet-and-hot Shanghai calamari.

Before long, with dish after dish arriving at our table, the foods Del Frisco’s is creating for Best Bites began to run together in my head with the foods being introduced on their new bar menu. A lot of people, it turns out, have dinner at Del Frisco’s bar. And I can’t wait for my next encounter with these parmesan-garlic baked oysters. I grew up around Rockefeller and Bienville, and I think these are better than any version I’ve had of either.

Finally, another new dish on the bar menu has traveled what the Beatles would declare a long and winding road. The notion of Philly cheesesteak eggrolls began, by all accounts, at Del Frisco’s sister (or brother?) concept Sullivan’s. And they made the crossing as well to the brand-new, more casual Del Frisco’s Grilles in Dallas and New York City. After a tweak here and a tweak there, fans of the dish can now enjoy it at Double Eagle. Along with everything else!