ST. PETE’S DANCING MARLIN Bar & Grill SINCE 1994 EAT AT PETE’S A DALLAS LANDMARK! WISE UP, WE’RE OPEN FOR DINE IN, to-go & CurbSIDE! City of Ate from p15 T.J.’s Dawg House Food Truck, check social media for locations T.J.’s offers hot dogs, Polish sausage and Italian beef among other things. They use Vienna Beef, and you can of course get it dipped or dry, with hot peppers (giardi- niera) or sweet peppers (bell peppers). An Italian beef sandwich should at least be wet, if not quickly dipped in the jus (or gravy for the less pretentious among us) and thus does not transport well. No one likes getting home to a cold soggy stpetesdancingmarlin.com Deep Ellum • 2730 Commerce 214-698-1511 mess of congealed bread. So, when visiting T.J.’s, try to find a place to sit, or do like we did and camp out in your car with several handfuls of napkins. We got it dipped and hot, and the giardiniera was indeed hot, which always provides a nice kick to the beef and gravy. The bread was firm enough to stand up to the gravy dunk, and the beef was tender and well-seasoned. Contemporary Indian Food WE’RE OPEN FOR DINE IN, TO-GO, CURBSIDE AND DELIVERY! Chicago’s Original 1206 East Main Street #111 (Allen) This primarily takeout place for pizza also has hot dogs, Polish sausage and Italian beef sandwiches. Owner Tom Lease even offers a prepackaged kit made in-house that you can purchase to make at home. This potentially solves the “How does one keep the sand- wich’s integrity intact on the 45-minute drive home from Allen?” conundrum. An- swer: Buy the kit, prepare yourself. If you choose to eat it there, however, 12817 Preston Road, Suite 105 972-392-0190 indiapalacedallas.com INTRODUCE YOUR DALLAS FORK know that there is really no inside seating to speak of, and you’ll either be eating in your car (again), or at one of those steel picnic ta- bles that are locked to a chain outside on the sidewalk. You might sacrifice ambiance, but you gain a pretty good Italian beef, with a nice just-right-on-the-hot-scale giardiniera, a de- cent bun that Lease proudly says he sources directly from a Chicago bakery, and fall- apart-in-your-mouth beef imbued with all that seasoned goodness that a good gravy provides. It was definitely the wettest of our dips, so if you prefer your beef sandwich drier, keep that in mind. Having said that, it was definitely one of the better beefs we’ve had since our last visit to The Windy City. How was the cheese, you ask? No cheese on an Italian beef. We’re not animals. TO THE TASTE OF NEW YORK! NY DELICATESSEN RESTAURANT & BAKERY 16 4 DFW LOCATIONS • CINDISNYDELI.COM 16 A Taste Of Chicago 14833 Midway Road, #110 (Addison) A Taste Of Chicago (not to be confused with the old Chicago food fair of days gone by) in Addison offers pizza and dogs as well as an Italian beef, and you can sit down to eat here, too. The bread held up the dip well; though we had to request the dip, they didn’t ask how we wanted the sandwich dry/wet/ dipped-wise… but they were perfectly will- ing to accommodate once we asked, and they knew the lingo (you know a sandwich is good when it has its own ordering lingo). This one we ordered with sweet peppers, and as it turned out they were red bell pep- pers rather than the traditional green. It made the sandwich pop visually, but truth be told all colors of the bell pepper world taste the same to me when they’re grilled or sauteed. The bell peppers added a taste to the beef that brought something different to the table as compared with the hotter giar- Hank Vaughn diniera. It was a nice change of pace, and it worked well. Hershey’s Palace 513 E. Abram St (Arlington) This spot sits in the shadow of AT&T Sta- dium in Arlington and has a pretty diverse menu that offers wings, chicken tenders, pizza, catfish, shrimp, and yes, Italian beef sandwiches. I was a little dubious about a beef from a place that also fries chicken wings and fish, but after I ordered, the ca- shier asked how we wanted it (“dipped”), and if I wanted hot or sweet peppers. So far, so good … until she asked if I wanted cheese on it. Oh well, as the late Meatloaf once said, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” The sandwich itself was fine, but it was also the most expensive on this survey at $12.49 (though to be fair, it came with fries). It had the right amount of dunkage, but the beef was just so-so. The beef-to-giardiniera ratio, more important, was way too high at almost 50/50. Giardiniera is supposed to be a condi- ment, not a co-equal ingredient with the beef. If you’re out at Jimmy’s to pick up some ricotta or that 5-gallon jug of olive oil, by all means go to the back and order an Italian beef. You can’t go wrong. If, however, you’ve circled Jimmy’s for 20 minutes looking for that elu- sive parking space and still want your beef, any of these three should suffice. This should tide us all over until Portillo’s shows up. ▼ EAT THIS I NIKUGEN STEAK AND RAMEN IN FRISCO SERVES A STUNNING CREAM- BASED UDON. BY DIDI PATERNO ALFREDO UDON? t is a good time to be alive in DFW as this land once barren of Japanese noodles is now fertile, spoiling us with choice. Popular tonkotsu ramen, noodles in rich pork broth, is now seen on every menu of ra- men houses along with the classics — shoyu, broth darkened with soy sauce, and shio, clear broth flavored with salt. We also have udon houses exclusively serving bowls of udon, the thick, plump wheat noodles that swim in clear broth or curry sauce, topped with an egg, suki- yaki beef, tempura or fish cakes to name a few. But have you ever seen udon in a cream- based sauce? Perhaps not yet. But, as soon as you head to Nikugen Steak and Ramen T.J.’s Dawg House hot dog truck House on Preston Road in Frisco, you will. Not authentic you’d cry! But, it is. Yøshoku, or Western inspired Japanese dishes, where the East and West meet on a plate, is part of the cuisine. Said to have begun with the trade between the Portugal, Spain and Japan in the 16th century, it further ex- panded as the once isolated island nation opened itself up with even more foreigners from Great Britain, France and the U.S. trick- ling in. Culinary techniques such as frying and ingredients including beef, pork, dairy and sauces such as the French demi-glace and bechamel are now pillars of this sub-cui- sine. As modern day Japan is very much open for business coupled with the spread of the population across the world, this cultural ex- change is still alive, thriving, adapting to newer landscapes including Texas. Nikugen’s take on the udon bowl is uniquely theirs. While internet versions of the creamy udon is a take on carbonara with the substitution of spaghetti noodles with udon, Nikugen’s is not. It is more Alfredo style with the use of cream with grated, melted mozzarella, green onion, bacon pars- ley and mushrooms. The udon noodles are simply not coated with the sauce, but swim in it as in a soup. On the menu are two kinds of this take on udon. The shiro udon, or “white udon,” is the regular cream sauce, while akai udon translates as “red udon” because of the red hue from the chilis added to the cream base. The akai udon is the spicier, but the heat is milder than the color suggests. Spice levels are lower in Japanese cuisine as compared with its East Asian neighbors. For the shiro udon, diners are offered the choice to top off the bowl with grilled chicken or crispy chicken karaage (fried). Shrimp is included in the akai udon, but you can still add any of the chicken toppings. A stark contrast to the Japanese food you know, Nikugen’s udon bowls are perfect noodle bowls to devour on the remaining cold days of winter and the seesaw of tem- peratures in the spring. Nikugen Steak and Ramen, 4710 Preston Road, No. 300, Frisco. Open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, closed Tuesday and Sunday. MARCH 17–23, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | dallasobserver.com
