Last Thursday, Priti Patel taught the weekly cooking class at Gourmet Gallery, preparing chole masala, vegetable biryani and puri. It was a 2-hour class, so we're bringing you the highlights.
If you're intrigued, Patel will be teaching at Gourmet Gallery again on April 26. Click here for a complete list of Gourmet Gallery classes.
I really wish smell-a-vision was a real technology and not just something I saw on Futurama, because these Indian dishes were fantastic aromatic.
This is an early afternoon news brief as I have a few items to share before getting into production of a video blog highlighting last Thursday's Indian cooking class at Gourmet Gallery during which chef Priti Patel made chole masala, puri, vegetable biryani and mango lassi. Look for it later this afternoon.
Until then ...
(Guest blogger Holly Duke, who manages Plum Boutique in Spice Village, brought to our attention the new Olive Branch Express, which provides Olive Branch's brand of fresh and tasty food in a convenient venue for shoppers. It's just up the stairs from Olive Branch's cafe, so we're going to keep them under one restaurant listing, but it's a great, quick option for some, as Holly will describe.)
By Holly Duke
The Olive Branch Express is quickly becoming my go-to place for lunch. They offer up ready-made wraps, salads, and sandwiches for you to grab and go (or grab and stay.)
The more I dine at Clay Pot, the more I like it.
I think I saw this phenomenon coming when certain friends would come into town and always insist on lunch at Clay Pot. Admittedly, I didn't understand at first. It was one of those situations when I looked at a menu and felt confused and overwhelmed. I reckoned that if they loved it, then there was a greater than zero chance that one day I would, too.
So this WacoFork adventure is getting close to its first birthday. We launched on April 7 of last year and since that time we've been pumped to see a steady increase of participation with us.
Already this year, we've welcomed plenty of new enthusiastic web and iPhone app users as well as restaurants who have joined us. Not to pat ourselves on the back excessively, but we feel like WacoFork is becoming a thing with a place in our town.
The WacoFork wire got me all fired up about the possibility of BIG restaurant news today.
A couple of our resourceful citizens of WacoFork land found a craigslist ad asking for potential employees to staff a McCormick & Schmick's seafood restaurant. This would have been huge news as Waco lacks many heavy-hitter seafood restaurants outside of Red Lobster and Buzzard Billy's. There's plenty of places that serve great catfish, mind you, and perhaps the best bets for ocean-type seafood might just be one of the hibachi joints.
Making the rounds this week, I've learned that a pair of local restaurants are just about ready to open for business.
I've been asked multiple times when the Wako Roll in Central Texas Marketplace will go live. This morning, Hong Park said he will debut his new restaurant March 7. That's a week from tomorrow in case you don't have a calendar within an arm's reach.
Also opening its doors next week will be the new El Conquistador on N. 19th Street in the building formerly occupied by La Fiesta. I caught owner/manager Willie Gonzalez on Monday afternoon. He was busy at work getting everything ready at the new location in order to open on Monday.
The common thread here is that both new restaurants will be extensions of already-popular establishments in town. El Conquistador, obviously, is part of that family of restaurants while Wako Roll is a new restaurant brought to us by the people who own and operate Teriyaki Park.
One more bite: Since there aren't many things I enjoy more than the annual three-week indulgence of college basketball known as March Madness, I have to mention this: Baskin Robbins' flavor of the month is 3-Point Chocolate in celebration of the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament.
This blog is a follow-up to Sunday's blog about Texas and country music and food, particularly Mexican food.
It's a follow up because I couldn't get the image of a steamin' greasy plate of enchiladas out of my head. So late Monday morning, I made my way to Taqueria El Crucero for the physical manifestation of the image in my head. To complete the picture, I decided to sit at the picnic table on the front porch.
While cruising the Texas highways this weekend, I encountered a unique combination of Texas culture that I never really thought of until now.
It involved food, of course.
As I contemplated Fried-day this morning, I felt kind of basic and thought to myself that I could just go for a Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken sandwich and some waffle fries.
It was just before 11 a.m. (I'm a big fan of an early lunch) and I was uncertain whether or not there would already be a long line at the Chick-Fil-A drive thru. I briefly considered driving to the mall so I could avoid the possibility of a line, but that seemed counterproductive as I was already on New Road and within a mile of the Franklin Avenue Chick-Fil-A.
And then I remembered an idea I had to document driving thru Chick-Fil-A on video to capture the phenomenon of its popularity as proven by the number of people who flock there at lunchtime, the friendly service and the efficiency with which they turn out bag lunches and send customers on their way.
