| CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Chivago You Go Korean fried chicken with snow cloud bever- ages arrives in Dallas. BY HANK VAUGHN tended soft opening, this Korean fried chicken spot is offering these oddly satisfy- ing treats at 50% off the normal menu price. Now, there’s no way we were going to try frozen slushy beer, but the place also does snow cloud soft drinks. Plus, we’re always ready to try out a new chicken place, espe- cially after hearing some good things on the usual foodie Facebook groups. The interior is steel and wood and neon A and corrugated metal, a sort of industrial modernist take with a clean, sleek look punctuated by purple, violet and teal candy- hued lighting. We found a table, sat down and started exploring the menu, curious, of course, about the snow cloud. We went with a pineapple-flavored snow cloud, and we watched while the server manned the mythical snow cloud machine, turning dials and pulling levers. Grinding and swirling sounds filled the space as we waited in anticipation. It arrived in a larger-than-expected glass mug with a couple of spoons and straws. As expected it was indeed similar to a snow cone, but of a finer texture. And it wasn’t simply flavored with a syrup but rather was the result of the soda itself being flash frozen and formed into a cloud of snow. All this sat atop a portion that was unfrozen. It was re- freshing and interesting, but again, it’s hard to imagine ordering a Blue Moon or Stella Artois (both of which are on the menu) as a beer snow cone. But, to each his own. This is a Korean fried chicken place fore- most, and one orders via a three-step pro- cess: First, pick the chicken (wings, boneless or whole), then the batter (crispy, which is a lighter brown, or Chivago, which is a darker brown) and finally the sauce (choices in- clude soy garlic, bulgogi barbecue, honey garlic, etc.). The menu also offers a few sides such as odeng tang (fish cake soup), sotteok sotteok (sausage skewers), tteokbokki (stir- fired rice cake, beggis, fish cake) and Chivago buns, the latter of which we were eager to try. Again, this is still the soft opening, so we were informed that the buns were not yet available. But when the server saw our crest- fallen faces, he offered to prepare some for us anyway at no charge. It wasn’t the full or- nyone craving a beer snow cone is in luck, because Chivago in Carrollton has what it calls a snow cloud on its menu. During its ex- der of five, but they were good, sort of semi- sweet and savory with a firm texture and dusted with a bit of powdered sugar and some Asian spices. Our chicken was a mix of crispy boneless honey garlic and Chivago sweet and spicy wings, both the medium serving size. This came with a bowl of white radish and some fries. The garlicky ones were really garlicky with a slight kick. A batter that was indeed crispy yet not overcooked surrounded the tender and juicy chicken. The wings were also flavorful — the sweet perhaps overpowering the spicy a bit — and garnished with sesame seeds. This might be described as a medium-sized or- der, but there was plenty, leaving leftovers for us to enjoy the next day. Chivago is worth a visit if you’re willing to be a bit patient while the staff works out some of the inevitable kinks during the opening. Hopefully, braver souls than our- selves will report back about the snow cloud Miller Lite. 4070 Highway 121, No. 320, Carrollton. 11:30 a.m. – 10:30 p.m. Tuesday – Thursday and Sunday; 11:30 a.m. – midnight. Friday and Saturday; closed Monday. ▼ FOOD NEWS GOT CRABS? W WITH FISHERIES CLOSED, DALLAS DINERS WILL NEED TO GET SNOW AND KING CRAB WHILE THEY CAN. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS here did seven billion crabs go? If you zoom all the way out on Google Earth, you might not be surprised that humans have lost track of (or murdered) hundreds of millions of small crustaceans on the bottom of the ocean floor, but for Dallas diners, our view is hy- per-focused. Where’s the meat? For the first time in state history, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) has canceled the winter snow crab season in the Bering Sea, which typically starts on Oct. 15 and runs for two to four weeks. All the snow crab we see in restaurants and at stores for the entire year is harvested in that window. The red king crab season is also closed for the sec- ond year in a row. Pineapple-flavored snow cloud at Chivago. Hank Vaughn Ben Daly with the ADF&G told CNN that the snow crab population has shrunk from eight billion in 2018 to one billion in 2021. The cause of the decline is debated; climate change and migratory patterns lead the pack, but mostly the former. “I asked my vendors, and I got five differ- ent stories from five different people,” says Jon Alexis of TJ’s Seafood Market in Dallas. “Nobody effing knows. The truth is that we don’t know that much about these animals in the ocean.” Alexis adds that crab prices are still ele- vated, and crab supplies will be “challeng- ing.” Brian Wubbena, director of culinary for Truluck’s, manages crab inventory for 11 res- taurants from Washington, D.C., to La Jolla, California. He doesn’t deal with snow crabs as much, but king crab is a big seller for the chain. “We have it,” Wubbena says of his king crab stock, “I started hoarding it to hedge my bets. We have a great partner who put it away for us. We have about 60,000 pounds.” That might seem like a lot, but for 11 res- taurants, he expects it to last maybe through January, if they’re lucky. He explains the company stores crabs in large frozen-stor- age facilities and flies or ships them to dif- ferent locations as needed. He says the price that dealers are charging per pound still makes king crab a hard sell. “Pre-COVID it was selling for $79 to $85 a pound. I think our cost on that has dou- bled, so we raised it to $110 to $115. It feels offensive, feels like we’re gouging custom- ers, but there’s a limited supply,” Wubbena says. But he says some people will still pay for it because there’s just nothing else like it. For now, diners can still get fresh Florida stone crab claws at Truluck’s. For that vari- ety, only one claw is harvested and the crab is released; the claw regenerates in 18 months. The restaurant serves 200,000 pounds of claws during the season, which runs from October through May. “The real problem is next October,” Wubbena says about the king crab stock. He points out that another big hit on the >> p14 1313 dallasobserver.com dallasobserver.com CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER OCTOBER 27–NOVEMBER 2, 2022 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014
