Meddlesome Moth, a gastropub with a open patio, wide selection of alcohol, and a changing menu

Welcome to the Moth! This is a place where we always try something different.  Reason being, their menu selections constantly change .  Personally, we love it!  Just because it always gives us a fresh feeling about food and we are always excited to see what's new on the menu.  Sometimes it can be a miss, but if you don't try you'll never know.  We commend these chefs because of their bold style and are thankful for their creativity.

The interior is very casual and friendly. And let's face it, its all around pretty cool.  This is not a place where you will feel inferior if you are having a great laugh or chat. It's what we thought a gastropub should be. The stainless glass is a very interesting touch to the restaurant.  If you are an outside patio loving person, they do have a great patio for you to enjoy a great brew or cuisine.  Meddlesome Moth offers a great alcoholic selection from wine to rare bottle brews.  They also offer a wide range of ales and beers on the tap.

 Tonight we started our meal with their Pimms Cup and their Strawberry Ale.  Both were very refreshing and easy to the mouth.  Both of us are not heavy drinkers but we loved our choices.  We finished both of them and they went well with our food selections.

Our salad course was their East Coast Blue Crab Salad with heirloom tomatoes and basil couscous.  This was a very light and fresh start to our meal.  The tomatoes were slightly roasted which brought out more of their sweetness and they were very juicy.  There was an abundant amount of blue crab piled high on top, whipped with a mayo base dressing and garnished with watercress and micro greens.  The couscous on the bottom was actually a very interesting touch to the salad ,it gave it a textural difference and the olive oil and basil on it made the bite very clean.

Then came our Chilled Sea Scallops with shaved vegetables and a jalapeno vinaigrette.  Don't let the jalapeno vinaigrette scare you away, it was not spicy at all.  The vinaigrette was actually tart and crisp.  The vegetables was nicely dressed with the jalapeno vinaigrette and blended well with the chilled scallops.  The scallops was a nice change from the normal seared preparation.  This was tender, sweet,  and cool. Very necessary on hot Texas nights.  The whole plate just made you want more of it.

This is something we always come for.  Veal Sweetbreads with sweet and spicy bacon jam.   The bacon jam on this dish is something we both love.  Its very savory, sweet, and aromatic in your mouth.  I have to say, I have had it better before here in Meddlesome Moth.  The sweetbreads seemed a little over cooked.  They were not as tender and creamy as they usually are here, but still tasty and acceptable.

This is an improvement from the normal bacon everyone is used to.  Bacon Lollipops with funnel cake and hollandaise.  OMG YUM!  You want to talk sweet and savory, this dish has it all.  If you are a health guru I would stay away from this, but if you love pork belly SAY YES!  This was not what we were expecting at all, it was even better.  The texture of the bacon was fantastic.  It was a cured, chewy, yet tender, pork belly heaven.  The sauce and the funnel cake was awesome.  The sauce was very rich and buttery, yet sweet and savory at the same time. The funnel cake was "maplelicous".  You literally want to take your finger and dab it into the sweet and rich hollandaise sauce.

Our last dish for the night was their Lobster Poutine with tempura green beans and homemade ricotta.  The dish has a vinegary base to it.  The lobster of course was plump and succulent but the portion was kind of small but still good.  The green beans were nicely fried, and their tempura batter was light.   Their ricotta was creamy but we found it a little bit bland.  The overall dish was a nice combo and interesting take on what a normal poutine is composed of.

Meddlesome Moth is a great place to have a friendly gathering and enjoy new creative cuisines.  This is a place we always look forward to and have enjoyed every time.  We would rate this place a 7/10 for consistency, price, inventiveness, and flavor.  

Meddlesome Moth

1621 Oak Lawn Ave
Dallas, TX 75207

Dough, a pizzeria with diversity, so there is certainly something for everyone.

If you like homemade mozzarella, crisp tossed salads, antipasti, cured meats, or freshly tossed thin crust pizza then Dough is your type of place. We came across this inviting medium sized store about a month or two ago. We thought it was pretty good last time so decided to bring a few friends back to try more of their offerings. Normally we like to sit at the pizza bar to watch them in action, but we had 6 people this time so we just sat at the tables which makes it more convenient to share. This restaurant also has a full bar with a pretty wide selection of alcoholic products.

We were starving so we ordered 3 starters, 4 pizzas, and 1 dessert to share this time. To start of course we began out with our appetizers. They were pretty fantastic last time, so we have been raving about it to our friends. They were all pretty excited to try it.

We started our with our 2 orders of Spedini and their sampler which comes with garlic flat bread.

Spedini, oven-roasted house-made mozzarella wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma. We placed 2 orders of these just because it comes with 3 skewers of mozzarella wrapped in Prosciutto so it was perfect, each person gets 1. Underneath the skewers they give you a bed of nicely dressed fine lettuce to compliment. The warm salty cured prosciutto with the chewy and creamy mozzarella is really just a simple, delicious combo. Then you take a bite of the crisp and vinegary lettuce gives it a good finish.

The sampler comes with an offering of 3 of their mozzarella creations:

• Burricotti, House-made mozzarella with a herbed ricotta cheese filling and bluebonnet Farms baby greens. This was very soft and just kinda breaks in your mouth. This went great with the flat bread.
• Burrata Caprese, House-made mozzarella filled with a mascarpone-ricotta-truffle oil filling and heirloom tomatoes. The tomatoes were very sweet. The mozzarella balls was made well but I didn't really taste the truffle flavor, if it was not written on the menu, I would not have known it was there.
• Fior di Latte Stracciato, Creamy melted mozzarella cheese curd and a balsamic reduction with a slice of tomato to hold it up. The cheese was very creamy and the balsamic reduction gave it a touch of sweet and tart. The basil brighten it up the whole dish.

To pair these flavorful mozzarella selections, they give you a side of garlic flat bread drizzles with olive oil. The flat bread was crispy, warm, and still pulls apart with a touch of chewiness. Then you get this roasted garlic tidbits and good olive oil flavor. Take a piece of that and just dip it in the mozzarella goodness, you won't be sorry! We ordered an extra basket of flat bread at the end to soak up all the yummy olive oil left on the plate.

Then comes our pies.

Pork Love - Tomato sauce, house-made Fior di Latte, salami, sausage, pancetta & speck. We also added basil.

Margherita Pizza - Tomato sauce, house-made Fior do Latte, finished with Parmigiano Reggiano, and basil.

We also had the Pancetta Pizza and one of their specialty pizzas, the Preston Hollow which was topped with local italian sausage (which we've never heard of and are quite skeptical), tomato sauce, mozzarella, peppers, and caramelized onions.

We were all delightfully stuffed after all of this wonderful food, but we promised a fellow foodie that we would try and save room the polenta cake. He said that this dessert reduced him to grunts and moans, but we couldn't just take his word on it, we had to try it for ourselves. The Polenta cake is crisped in their wood burning oven in order to get some color and smokey flavor that made it special. We were afraid that the cake would be dry considering the main ingredient is polenta, but we were delightfully surprised at how moist and how well it mixed with the creamy and raspberry sauce that accompanied it.

Overall, Dough did not disappoint us and we were happy to be able to share this experience with our friends and guests from Oklahoma City. What more can you ask for in a pizzeria?  A wide variety and good quality ingredient, a good dough base, a flavorful tomato sauce, homemade mozzarella, and wonderful people to share it with.  We will be back. On our scale of 1-10, we would like to give Dough a 7.5 for value, taste, and consistency.

Dough Pizzeria

11909 Preston Rd
Ste 1444
Dallas, TX 75230

A japanese restaurant that keeps you coming back for more, Hanasho

Hanasho is one of the places we have been meaning to blog and brag about for a while now.  If you are craving fresh sashimi, the perfect nigiri, traditional and special rolls, japanese small plates, tempura, japanese soups, or anything japanese...Hanasho has it all!  At a reasonable price, you can really indulge in some homey japanese eats.  We are very picky with our Japanese foods, we hold high standards, and Hanasho never disappoints.

Our favorite spot to sit is the right side of the sushi bar.  This way we are right next to the "special" board and we get to chat with our friend Yuji, the sushi chef and the owner of the restaurant.  He pays close attention to details, is always hospitable, and knows what's fresh for the day. We've been coming here for the past 3 years and this is the first place that someone has named any dish after us. Please ask for the Khuong Roll next time you're in. Its an off the menu delight

We started out our meal with Hanasho's happy hour dollar sushi.  These are definitely a steal!  The nigiris were super fresh, the fish sizes beats what you get at other sushi restaurants in the DFW which costs much more, the sweet tamago (egg) is homemade and not out of the package that you can buy at the supermarket, and the sushi rice portion and the flavor is just right. I have to mention, Yuji is super generous for giving us the salmon belly cuts.   For $1 each, you really can't ask for more.

Then Yuji handed us our Spicy Crawfish Roll and the Raw Scallop with Smelt Roe.  Yum!  We drool just thinking about them!  The Spicy Crawfish Roll has an abundant amount of crawfish.  The bite is a combination of spicy from the crawfish, creamy from the avocado, then you get a little bit of chewiness and vinegar from the rice, and the popping of the masago (orange caviar).  Tell me that doesn't sound good?

The Raw Scallop with the Smelt Roe is awesome!  You really get the  velvety texture and sweetness from the scallop, the richness from the mayonnaise, and the popping juice of the masago come through, and of course the nori and the sushi rice ties it all up into one gratifying bite.

This is one of our normal picks, the Lava Roll or Volcano Roll as its called everywhere else.  This is basically a California Roll base, topped with a spicy mayo cooked with scallops and topped with masago and sesame seeds.  This rolls really fills you up.  The richness from the mayo covers the rolls, but you always want to keep coming for more.  You really just want to smear every bit of that sauce onto the california roll if it isn't already covered with the spicy mayo sauce and abundant amount of scallops...don't worry if you have extra sauce left over it will not go to waste, you literally want to lick the plate or dab anything you can find into it.

Then we were on to our cooked dishes.  We ordered the Fried Oysters and their Takoyaki (octopus balls).  We really wanted to order their Hamachi Kama too but they were out that night, but if you ever go, we highly recommend this dish.  The fried oysters were very crispy and light.  There was not much excess oil, you get a really clean bite from it.  The oyster size was good, so you still get a big bite of oyster vs. batter only.  The sauce was a little bit sweet, vinegary, and with a touch of mustard.

The Takoyaki was pretty special.  This is not always available so make sure you ask Yuji or call ahead if this is what you are coming for.  This was made well as its suppose to.  This is basically a Japanese round dumpling, made of batter, minced octopus, and pickled ginger.  If you go to Japan, this is a type of their street food found all over the place.  There are variations of it elsewhere, dependent on the chef.   Hanasho's is brushed with their special sauce which is tangy and sweet, with a hint of BBQ essence,  crispy grilled exterior, moist and chewy (from the octopus) center, and I love the wiggling bonito flakes, nori flakes, and the sweet and sour red ginger on top.  I have had pretty bad, gooey, glob of just BAD Takoyaki in the States. Hanasho's Takoyaki definitely doesn't fit that definition and hits the spot every time.
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This is our Chawan Mushi.  This is a steamed egg custard with seafood and chicken on the bottom.  If you want to try this there, make sure you order early because it takes a while to make.  But every good thing is worth waiting for.  This is one of our must eats.  The eggs is super delicate and steamed with a seafood broth.  This just slips in your mouth, and trust me, you don't want to talk afterward. You'll be reduced to grunting.  The texture is really silky and smooth, then you get bites of the shrimp and chicken at the bottom.  We also really like the citrus peel as a garnished on top.  It actually adds brightness to the dish.

This is the PRIZE!  Our all time favorite...TORO.   Pricey, but truly worth every penny.  We always save the best for last.  We don't want any interference with this precious nigiri.  Hanasho never fails, always fresh, always fatty, and always irresistible!  The flavor is seductive, fatty, buttery, meaty, melts with the warmth of your mouth, and completely coats your palate with its richness...OMG speechless!  

Well, that's another one of our "fit for a king's" meal.  Writing this blog has really made us realize how well we really do eat.  We can't wait to share more of our delightful finds.  Hope you get hungry soon and try our recommendations!  Enjoy!

Based on our scale of value, quality, flavor, and most importantly consistency, Hanasho gets a well deserved 9 out of 10.

Hanasho
2938 N Belt Line Rd
Irving, TX, 75062
(972)258-0250

A sleek, sophisticated, and experimental type restaurant...ROOT

ROOT...What a special find on our foodie vacation to New Orleans in the beginning of July 2012!  This restaurant experiments with  molecular gastronomy, deconstruction, and other truly contemporary cooking techniques.  The feel of the restaurant is very comfortable and casual but the food they serve there is far from the standard dinner fare.  Both of us were intrigued by their menu and eagerly awaited as each plate was brought to us.

We began our feast with a carbonated apple on top of a bacon cream, which was actually compliments of the chef.  This was a sweet touch and a great start!  The plating was beautifully constructed and the flavor was a combination of sweet, savory, creamy, and fresh.

Following the starter was our truffle scented chicken liver parfait and moroccan spiced pork and duck rillette. The plating was definitely an eye opener. Both of our choices were made very well. The parfait was ultra smooth to the palate then it hits you with that good livery funk which is what most people crave if they love livery delights, for example foie gras. The rillete's texture is different from the parfait which gave variety to the board.  Their home made pickles (cucumbers, zuchini, red peppers, cantaloupe, leeks, green tomatoes, and apples) went really well with both of our choices and helped cut through the richness.  We loved their homemade pickled cantaloupe and red peppers the most.  Their homemade strawberry mustard was a first for us.  They thoughtfully inserted the mustard into a paint tube which was a great presentation, making it look like a paint color.  The flavor was also a burst of strawberry sweetness with the spice of mustard.  You can definitely tell they used real strawberries to make the mustard.

Ménage à Foie which is a trio preparation of foie gras was our next course.  Our plate consisted of a bowl of foie gras dipping dots in a lychee consommé, lollipops of cotton candy, wrapped in foie gras and pop rocks, and a foie gras  Pâté  on top of caramelized onions and paired with honeycomb. The foie gras dippin dots with the lychee consommé had the rich and creaminess of foie gras but was very cool and refreshing at the same time.  The foie gras  Pâté  paired really well with the caramelized onions and the honey comb gave it some sweet chewiness to go along.  Last but definitely not least was the cotton candy lollipops.  OMG this was a playground in my mouth!  First you get the expected sweet playful cotton candy, then the popping of the pop rocks hit your tongue, and ends with the buttery flavor of the foie gras.  This is not something you can share, so make sure you ask for an extra lollipop if you are have more than 1 person because 1 order of  Ménage à Foie only comes with 1 cotton candy lollipop.  We, of course ordered one extra one!

Our next course was our roasted tri-color pickled beets salad. This is a work of art!!! Head cheese, blue cheese, blueberries, gingersnap beet crumble, and candied pistachios...what a combination!  All the ingredients worked really well together, not only in taste but texture as well.  The juicy and sweet of the blueberries, the tart and sweetness of the beets, the tang and creaminess of the blue cheese, the salty and chewiness of the head cheese, and the crunch from the pistachios really made it one GRAND bite.  If all salads were  made like this, who can ever say salads are boring?

Chicharrones 2 ways, pork crackling & crispy pork belly.  They came with 4 types of sauces: Limón, Mole de Sangre, Lemon Balm Chimichurri, and Adobo.  Our favorite was the Adobo (sweet and savory) and the Chimichurri (fresh and spicy), they paired the best with the pork belly.  The crispy pork belly was delicious.  Crispy on the outside, soft, moist and delicate on the inside.  The pork crackling...sad to say, were a miss.  They were hard to the bite.  We left them.  

Our 2 entrees :

Cohiba Smoked Scallops with chorizo dust, caramelized cauliflower, and fennel choucroute (sauerkraut) & Grilled Hanger Steak with crispy sweetbreads, smoked blueberry bordelaise, and pommes frites.  

Cohiba smoked scallops, this was truly drool worthy!  The presentation was gorgeous!  The scallops are presented to you in a closed cigar box.  When they open the box in front of you..MY GOD!  The smell is very tantalizing to the senses.  You will get a little bit of cigar smoke fragrance incorporated with the aroma of seared seafood.  The scallops were seared perfectly on both sides.  The caramelized scallops were sweet and soft with a kick from the chorizo dust.  The caramelized veggies paired well with the scallops.  But I must be fair and give the bad part of dinner.  We actually received 2 boxes of scallops.  Despite the beautiful presentation, we actually found a piece of cardboard in our 1st box of scallops.  The waiter was very attentive, and quickly arranged for a new box to be made and brought to the table. We were also not charged for this box of deliciousness =)

The grilled hanger steak was very good.  The steak was very tender and seared to perfection.  The crispy sweetbreads were very special.  We eat sweetbreads all the time but this was the first time we had them fried.  All the ingredients melted really well together.  The fries were also surprisingly delicious, crispy and well seasoned on the outside and soft on the inside.  They also made homemade ketchup and placed it in a paint tube for presentation, but the ketchup was lacking in tomato flavor.  We finished the steak but left the fries.  We were WAY too full!

I know what you all are thinking...These two people really EAT!  Yes we do!  The whole meal overall was very very good.  Even though there was a miss here and there but this restaurant has lots of potential.  ROOT managed to surprise us in their presentation, preparation, choices of ingredients, and flavor.  The hospitality was also fantastic.  Out of 10 this restaurant would get a 7 just because of some of the mistakes made, but again this meal was pretty fantastic!

ROOT

200 Julia St

New Orleans, LA 70130

Shinjuku Station a new take on Japanese Fare

A little store in downtown Fort Worth's medical district, modernly decorated, by a mixture of black and white and colorful Japanese urban photography. The ambiance has a casual and trendy feel.  The wait staff was knowledgable, attentive, and polite while providing fresh plates with every course.  Shinjuku Station is not your normal sushi bar.  Don't expect to go in there and get away with just a normal california roll.  Go in with a open mind to indulge in cooked and uncooked Japanese small plates.

Our meal started with brown butter sautéd Chinese broccoli (forgot to take a picture).  The brown butter really came through but we think the flavor would have been better if we ordered the baked mushrooms with brown butter.  But it was enjoyable all the same.

Our a la carte tempura choices for the night were red snapper and tiger prawn at $.89 a piece.  They were delightfully light, crisp, and the seafood was fresh.  It came with the usual tempura sauce and ground daikon (Which should be a more common thing in all Japanese restaurants except the normal clientele doesn't seem to appreciate).

 Our next course was their Hokkaido scallops and tuna tartar on top of a crispy fried lotus root chip and topped with rice pearls.  The presentation was a nice change from the usual tartar tower with avocado.  The  texture was a mixture of smooth tartar, tender raw scallops, crispy rice pearls and lotus root.  A refreshing take on a overdone classic. We have never had a tartar like this before and we've had LOTS of tartars. 

Ceviche roll and Kobe nigiri (forgot to take picture)  was our sushi course and their specials for the night.  We appreciated the freshness and components of the ceviche but the red cabbage disrupted the texture if the roll.  The Kobe Nigiri on the other hand, melted in your mouth like Kobe is suppose to.  The fattiness of the Kobe melted into the rice and combined into one delicious bite.

Then came our highlights of the night with the king crab tempura with Masago aioli and our extra pork belly okonomiyaki "Japanese style pizza".  The king crab tempura out shined our a la carte tempuras as it is suppose to.  You are given four portions of bite sized crab leg meat and one gigantic pre-cracked crab claw. Be prepared to grunt after you dip that crab claw into the aioli...it was an awesome burst of real fresh crab flavor vs. imitation or frozen crab.  Our okonomiyaki was fatty in a good way.  Other than the pork belly, the texture of the napa cabbage and the freshness of the pickled ginger melted well together.  The pizza was also topped with bonito and nori flakes, and drizzled with Japanese mayo.  We recommend requesting extra pork belly so you have more than one piece of porky goodness with every bite.

After this monstrous meal we did not leave ourselves any room for dessert but definitely left with sweet smiles and desire to explore more on the menu. Out of 10 this place gets a solid 7.

Shinjuku Station
711 W Magnolia Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX, 76104

Why you should value our opinion?

So why did we decide to start blogging?

Well the answer is actually very simple...we love food.  We love going on foodie adventures, love discovering new interesting restaurants and eats, love sharing and introducing different types of cuisines to people like you, have an admiration for new cooking methods, and acknowledge how boundary-less food can be. 

 We do have a few ingredients we are addicted to : foie gras, fatty meat in general (pork belly, fatty beef brisket, pork feet), fresh seafood (oysters, uni, toro, shellfish), and interesting parts of meat (bone marrow, tendon, tripe, chicken feet).

 After naming things we like, let's talk about our pet peeves.  We really dislike food that are bland, over cooked, and dumb down.  Food should be flavorful, moist, and enticing to the senses.

How we rate our destinations? Mainly on flavor, then value, service, and cooking execution. We hope you follow us on our adventure.

The ride is the best part.  Hang on tight, we hope to make it an interesting adventure for you!