| CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Because It’s Right There The Office’s BJ Novak nails Texans’ unwavering faithfulness to Whataburger. BY ALYSSA HIGH T VOTE FOR US BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT BEST OF DALLAS 2022 12817 Preston Road, Suite 105 • 972-392-0190 indiapalacedallas.com exans love Whataburger. It’s just a fact, but it’s also some- thing that out-of-staters don’t always understand. The Office’s BJ Novak discovered the hype while researching his new movie Vengeance. The movie stars Novak as Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and aspiring pod- caster from New York City, who finds himself in West Texas attending the fu- neral of a girl he’d hooked up with. Her sweet and quirky West Texas family thinks they had a more serious relationship and ropes Ben into trying to solve the case of what really happened to her, particularly her brother Ty, who is played by Boyd Holbrook. They’re convinced she was murdered and Manalowitz is convinced they’re all deluded. To prepare for the movie, his directorial debut, Novak took a tour of the state with Texas Monthly’s Christian Wallace to better understand nuances of West Texas’ culture. With that, the movie offers scenes set inside a Whataburger as Novak’s character at- tempts to unravel what makes Texans who they are. In one scene, Ben asks the family what they like about Whataburger, which Ty says, “Asking why you love Whataburger is like asking why you love Christmas.” The scene dissolves into the family screaming at Ben that the main reason they love Whataburger is simply “because it’s right there!” His character isn’t the only one who grew to love it. Novak himself learned what makes the burger joint so special. “It seemed to be the big hangout. … Peo- ple loved Whataburger but couldn’t explain why. I thought that was a very interesting and fun dynamic,” Novak said. Novak may have fallen for its charms. “I love everything but the burger. I think the burger is OK,” he says. “But where it re- ally comes to life is the late-night menu: the honey butter biscuit, the shakes, the Dr Pep- per shakes and specifically the fries. And that spicy ketchup is incredible. All the sauces are great. So for whatever reason, the burger is the least of it.” Spoken like a true Texan. Though the ENTER TO WIN TICKETS 12 love of Whataburger is evident in the por- trayal of West Texas culture, it’s the conver- sations about that culture within the burger joint that helped shape the movie. “[It was] a lot of the warmth of the fam- ily dynamics, a lot of the rhythms of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, and both being extremely welcoming to strangers. But also, you’re not a local un- less you live there for five generations,” Novak said. “There were surprises around every corner, you know, like a grandfather who can take you out shooting and then cry when he gives you his book of self- published poetry.” ▼ EAT THIS SMOKE AND SKEWERS F FAT NI BBQ BRINGS NYC FOOD TRUCK FARE TO NORTH TEXAS. BY HANK VAUGHN at Ni, named after founder Guigiao Chen’s nickname, started off as a food truck in New York City before eventu- ally becoming two physical restaurants in NYC and then expanding to three Texas lo- cations, two in North Texas and one in Houston. The menu offers a variety of Chinese street food in the form of skewered meats and vegetables as well as dishes with noo- dles that are made in-house every morning. The Carrollton location is in the shopping center that 99 Ranch Market anchors, and anyone who’s made the trek out there can attest that the parking situation is just hor- rible. Fat Ni BBQ is open until 2 a.m., how- ever, so visiting then for your skewer fix can make it easier to find a parking space as well as provide a bit of a respite from the broiling Texas heat that is just starting to dissipate around 11 p.m. Occasionally. The skewers are extremely affordable, the vast majority costing under $3 each, and the op- tions are numerous. Protein choices in- clude lamb, beef, shrimp, scallops, pork belly, sausage and chicken, along with more interesting selections such as lamb kidney, chicken gizzard and chicken heart. These come at about 8 inches of delectable well- seasoned goodness and are cooked to order on an open grill full of hot coals that sits front and center behind a window that al- lows you to watch the whole grilling pro- cess play out. The sound of the sizzles and pops coming from the grill combined with the wisps of smoke and steam rising from the skewers provide a nice diversion and time killer while one waits for the food to arrive. BJ Novak (left) stars in Vengeance. Patti Perret/Focus Features We opted for lamb, beef, shrimp, pork belly and scallops. One fills out the order form in much the same manner as at a su- shi place, where you’re allowed to specify if you do not want the items to be spicy. We went with spicy and were glad to real- ize this was not so much a hot spiciness rather one that brought a bit more com- plex flavor to the meats, which were ex- tremely good and cooked perfectly, very juicy and not at all dry as some skewered items can be. The vegetable choices include leek, corn on the cob, broccoli, mushrooms, eggplant and others, some of which are also skewered and grilled, while others, such as the cab- bage, are grilled loosely on the hibachi, al- lowing them to obtain a different type of grill flavor. We tried the hibachi cabbage, enoki mushrooms and Chinese buns, all of which were wonderful and full of rich, grilled flavor with just the right level of spice. Turns out there’s a sauce bar as well, though we didn’t realize this until after we left. Finally, there are various noodle dishes as well, each running about $12, such as lamb noodle soup, beef soup and wheat starch noodle, as well as a few braised items including tofu, chicken pieces and chicken feet. Our choice here was the oil spill noodles, which arrived in a nicely sized bowl and contained obviously fresh wide noodles with a great chew, bok choy and bean sprouts, all enveloped in a garlic sauce that didn’t let you forget that it was garlic. The long noodles were hard to eat because of our chopstick skills (or lack thereof ), but the ef- fort was worth it, even if we did end up with some oil on our shirts. This is most assuredly a place we plan on returning to again and again, though we may try the Plano location next just for the easier parking, but if you’re at this lo- cation you might try to save room for some of the ice cream shops that are in this cen- ter as well. Take advantage of your parking success. 2528 Old Denton Drive, Suite 310 (Car- rollton) and 111 Spring Creek Parkway, No. 130 (Plano); 11:30 a.m. - 2 a.m.; closed Tues- day AUGUST 18–24, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
