AROUND THE WORLD IN FIFTY RESTAURANTS

Don’t look now, but there’s a multi-cultural food wave going on. Call it culinary expansionism, call it global gastronomy, call it whatever you like, but it’s happening, right here in Dallas, Texas. And we don’t mean French, Italian, German, or other fairly accessible cuisines; we’re talking Salvadoran, Korean, Eritrian, and Guatemalan. Vietnamese and Afghan. Indian and Middle Eastern. Ethnic food of the exotic variety illustrating a cultural diversity that is both rich and varied-and expanding. Dallas’s ethnic landscape is an ever-changing horizon where the unusual is being served up to increasingly appreciative audiences. D’s stouthearted food critics were sent on a mission to discover the most authentic restaurants in a variety of categories-and discover they did. So here it is, our ethnic tour of the Metroplex, a gustatory guide for the adventurous, a veritable road map for a palate-weary city.

ETHIOPIAN This is an ancient cuisine; many of the

dishes have been prepared nearly the same way for centuries. The soft, white, styhtiy sour injera bread could be the Biblical manna; the fiery stews of meat and vegetables have an exotic, earthy taste very foreign to our 20th-century palates. Vnhke some other kinds of ethnic restaurants, Ethiopian eateries seem to usually be full of Ethiopians; eating in one can make you feel like a tourist- a welcome tourist, because your server is anxious for you to understand what you’re eating, and how to eat it properly. Injera is used both as a serving dish-all the foods you order will be presented on one large, injera-covered platter-and as a fork and spoon. Ethiopian etiquette requires you to drop a piece of injera over a bite of food, then scoop it up and eat it. -Mary Brown Malouf

Massawa. This plain little restaurant in Oak Lawn seems to serve many purposes-bar, coffee shop, and hangout- besides serving food. The menu is limited, listing basic Italian and Eritrean (Eritrea is a province of Ethiopia) dishes-we tried the kitfo, beef semi-cooked in spiced butter and garnished with seasoned cottage cheese, and two beef stews, one made of chunks of beef with onions, berbère (hot red pepper mixed with other spices), and hot mustard sauce, the other of ground beef in shiro (peas) in berbère gravy. 2615 Oak Lawn. 528-4617.

Queen of Sheba. You might expect Sydney Greenstreet, in a white suit, to come waddling out of the back of this dining room-the lattice and bamboo dining alcoves are complete with hanging bead curtains perfect for intrigue. The menu here is fairly extensive, and we tried to explore as much as we could. We started with sambussa, the Indian-style turnover filled with spiced meat, and then ordered a selection of dishes all served together on big rounds of injera: gomen, stewed spinach with onions, garlic, and jalapeno; azifa, the cold lentil salad; yatakett wott, a mix of vegetables cooked with garlic, ginger, and berbère. Doro watt, stewed chicken in berbère sauce, came garnished with sliced hard-boiled eggs under more of the sauce. Kitfes, tiny strips of beef, barely cooked in seasoned butter and mit’mita (hot pepper sauce), was odd-looking to me, but sometimes you have to close your eyes and eat if you want to learn anything. 3527 McKinney Ave. 521-0491.

River Nite. Big is not necessarily better, but it does hap-pen that the largest, most mainstream Ethiopian restaurant in Dallas also serves the best food. On our visit, the waitress, who spoke excellent English, was helpful and informative, making sure we knew our way around the menu, and, when the food arrived, making sure we knew how to eat what we’d ordered. We selected a combination plate along with orders of lega tibs (lamb) and doro watt to give us an overview of the Ethiopian food. First we were served a small bowl of azifa, an appetite-teasing salad of lentils marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, and onion and given fire by chopped jalapeno. Most of the dishes-a lamb stew, a beef stew, the doro watt, and beans-were cooked in a thick gravy heavily seasoned with berbère. The lega tibs came sizzling on a fajita platter, along with onion and pepper strips, the tender cubes of meat wrapped in the soft injera like an Ethiopian fajita. 7001 Fair Oaks, 363-1128.



INDIAN Indian cooking is as much a matter of aronxatics as flavor, as is evident the minute you step into an Indian restaurant. The per- fume of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and coriander fills the air like incense. Though India is a huge country, with several distinct regional cuisines, Indian restaurants in Dallas focus almost ex clusively on the cooking of Northern India-Moghul cuisine. The intricate biryani, layered meat and rice pilafs, braised dishes such as korma and kofta, meat and meatballs cooked in a velvety yogurt cream sauce, and kebabs are classic North Indian dishes, as are tandoor (clay oven) specialties-the bright red-tinted lamb and chicken, ana quick-cooked breads such as naan, paratha, kulcha, and tandoori roti. -M.B.M.

Akbar. This is one of the better choices for Indian food in Dallas, an opinion confirmed by the size of the crowd in the dining room. The Indian snacks, such as samosas, short-crusted turnovers filled with peas and potatoes, and potato cutlets, make a good beginning. The tandoor specialties were all juicy and tender, and the breads, especially the onion-filled kulcha, tasted fresh. Service was exceptionally gracious. 2115 Promenade Center (on Coit Road). 235-0260.

Ashoka Indian Cuisine. The green walls and ceiling fans give this tiny North Dallas restaurant an antique semi-tropical look, lent authenticity by the crowd of Indian diners, with most of the women in saris. The chicken braised in yogurt sauce had a silken texture and gently spicy fragrance; makhni kofte, meatballs cooked in a rich tomato-butter sauce scented with cumin and coriander, and the beef aloo, a spicy stew of tender beef chunks with potatoes, were better than the slightly dry tandoor chicken. 5409 Belt Line (Prestonwood Creek Shopping Center). 960-0070.

Kalachandji’s Restaurant and Palace. Kalachandji’s offers food for the spirit as well as the body. Housed in a Hindu temple in East Dallas, the incense-filled dining room and adjacent colonnaded courtyard with its tinkling fountains offer as blissed-out a dining experience as can be had in Dallas. All the dishes on the buffet are strictly vegetarian-pilaf with whole spices, eggplant braised with peas, curried cauliflower, vegetable curry, and crispy pappadum. 5410 Gurley. 821-1048.

Prince Indian Restaurant. The lunch buffet at mostIndian restaurants is a good idea; at Prince it seems even more so because of the wide range of dishes offered. In addition to hoi bread and a salad bar. there are eight to ten hot dishes from which to choose-or you can sample them all. The tandoor chicken was slightly dry. but the beef vindaloo, hot curry flavored with mustard oil, was pungent and tender. There was a nice range of vegetable dishes, from the fairly simple, crisp-fried okra to the eggplant stewed with peas, tomatoes, and onions. 1209 S. Cooper, Arlington. (81?) 861-3060.

Shafimar. This coffee-shop-like restaurant is in the heart of an Indian neighborhood with two Indian grocery stores and a sari shop within walking distance. Shalimar is one of the few Indian restaurants in Dallas that expands the usual North Indian menu to include some food from South India also. We tried a crispy-thin rice crêpe folded over a curried potato and onion filling; a wada. a round patty that looked like a cake doughnut but was made of spicy lentils; and tandoor chicken, which came with a spoonful of uppma, cream of wheat tinted yellow with turmeric, It was all good, and the low prices encouraged exploring. 35 Richardson Heights Shopping Center, Central at Belt Line, Richardson. 437-2858.

SITAR. The menu here is much the same as at most Dallas Indian restaurants, where tandoor-cooked chicken and lamb and biryani, the elegant and complex Moghul pilaf of rice and vegetables, are familiar foods. Fish dishes, which are not so often seen, were unavailable on our visit, but we enjoyed the roghan josh, tender lamb cubes in a creamy garlicky sauce, and the meaty mushrooms. 9560 Skillman. 3-43-2063.

Tandoor. The “Emperor Group” has given this area some of its finest Indian restaurants. Akbar. Ashoka, Kebab & Kurr)’ on Walnut Hill, and Maharaja in Fort Worth are all part of this group; the Tandoor in Arlington, however, is one of their best. Behind the glass window at the back of the room, you can watch the chef bake breads in the furnace-like tandoor oven-patting oui the circles of dough, placing them against the sides of the oven, and removing them carefully with long tongs when they are puffed and brown. The bright red tandoor chicken and lamb were spicy on the outside and juicy within, with just a hint of smoky flavor. The fragrant rice was scented with bay and cardamom, and the other vegetables, broccoli and potatoes, and spinach with cheese, were not overwhelmed by their seasoning. 512 Fielder North Plaza, Arlington. (817) 261-6604.



THAI Thailand is located about halfway between thesubcontinent of India and China; appropriately,its cooking is balanced somewhere between theelegant simplicity of the latter and the tropicalspice of the former. Some of the Thai seasoningsare the same as those used in India-coriander, garlic, andginger; others are distinctively Thai-galangal (a pungentginger-like tuber), sour lemon grass, holy Basu, and fishsauce- But in Thai, as in Indian cooking, it is the fragrance,as much as the taste of the ingredients, that matters in a dish. As complex as the aroma of a typical Thai dish may be, it is simply and quickly cooked; as with Chinese cooking, most of the labor lies in the prep, not the cooking.

Dallas Thai restaurants are distinguished from each other more by their decoration and execution than by what is listed on the menu-green and red curry, pad Thai, and panang curry are on every Thai restaurant’s bill of fare, but these are mostly Mom and Pop places, and every mom cooks a little bit differently. -M.B.M.



Bangkok Cafe Trekking north in search of Thai food,we found Bangkok Cafe on East Arapaho at Jupiter. The service was warm and welcoming, and as soon as we were seated we were presented with a plate of fried toast. Appetizers of moo satay– skewered strips of grilled, yellow-tinged (from turmeric) pork-came with a mild peanut sauce and a shredded cabbage and carrot garnish; Thai eggrolls were light and crisp around the vegetable and bean thread filling. Thai soups and salads are usually-I should say unusually-delicious. Here, the salad yam neua was true to the rule. Squares of grilled beef were mingled with a monochromatic symphony of greens-lettuce, cucumber, mint, and cilantro-and brightened with chili, red onion, and tomato. Pad Thai was a disappointing version-somehow the mélange of pork. egg. sprouts, and peanuts with noodles was all one texture. But the green curry-my favorite-was creamy, and fragrant with coconut and ginger. 2112 E. Arapaho (at Jupiter). 644-9405.



Bangkok Inn. This is indeed a better mousetrap-tiny and dim-on a side street in East Dallas; nevertheless, such a popular path has been beaten to its door that another Bangkok Inn has opened-bigger and, perhaps, better on Greenville. The original is a charming place, reminding me of those bohemian days when the main reason to eat ethnic was to eat cheap, not chic. The Thai dishes we tried-green curry chicken, pad Thai-were a little flat, not as fragrant or lively as the best. Better were the Chinese-style stir-fries. 6033 Oram at Skillman. 821-8979.



Chao Wang. This is a comfortable restaurant, without

the cozy funkiness of some other, more Mom and Pop spots. The food, for the most part, was excellent and nicely presented. Pork satay was exceptionally juicy-the thin strips are easily over-cooked-and the accompanying peanut sauce was good and hot with chili oil. An order of Thai spring rolls came as one huge roll. cut into four portions, with a sweet sauce for dipping, We mixed it with a good green curry chicken, with lots of basil, and some masstirmon beef-a dish from southern Thailand. This has a thicker sauce than traditional Thai curries, which are really the consistency of soups; it is cooked longer and tastes like a rich, mildly spicy, beef stew. Pad Thai here was a deluxe version, with chunks of chicken as well as shrimp; it came covered with chopped peanuts, more than the usual garnish, which gave the noodles a nice crunch. Mee grob was a new dish to me. This version seemed to be nothing more than lightly fried bean flour noodles, barely coated in a golden caramelized sauce; they were as easy to eat as Cracker Jacks, and set off the complicated curries very well. 13929 N. Central Kxpwy. 437-3900.

Thai China. Except for the cursory list of Chinese specials, the menu here describes the food in both Thai and English; if you don’t speak Thai, order by number. We started with chicken coconut soup-the milky while broth held whiter strips of chicken and was garnished with curling strips of Scallion and carrot. Ginger spice and sour lemon grass and lemon juice offset the gentle coconut flavor. Beef and eggplant curry was not so pretty-the green curry combined with the beef and eggplant made the dish an unappetizing gray-green color-but was good, the chili spice of the curry cooled by minty basil. The pad Thai-fried noodles-had an oddly familiar Mexican taste from the combination of chili and cumin seasoning; the traditional garnishes of chopped peanuts and scallions relieved the effect. The chicken panang, red curry this time, was good, and was the spiciest dish we sampled. 2477 Cockrell Hill Rd. (at Illinois). 339-5139.

Thai House. Like most Thai restaurants in Dallas, this one is small and unpretentious, but it has a crisp, considered look that sets it apart from its peers. The menu mixes Chinese dishes with traditional Thai food; the Thai dishes were among the best we’ve tried, especially the curries. There were a few dishes not found on many local Thai menus: for example, a salad of shredded green papaya dressed in lime juice and chili sauce, and one of shredded bamboo shoots and onions, with a dressing of rice powder-thickened lime and chili. But most of the offerings were standards-moo satay with chili-spiced peanut sauce and cooling cucumber relish, and pad Thai (a spicy fried rice dish seasoned with ground dried shrimp and fish sauce). 8989 Forest Lane (at Greenville). 699-3746.

Thal Toy’s. This tiny Thai restaurant is as small as one would expect it to be considering its name, though “Toy” is actually the name of the proprietors and not intended as a description. Inch for inch, however, (his is one of the best-looking Thai restaurants in Dallas. The credit for the clever country interior-straw and plaster walls, farm implements as objets, and sawed-off wooden barrels holding ingredients-must go to the previous tenant, but the excellent food is Toy’s. The menu is mildly vegetarian, offering no meat or poultry, but including fish and shellfish. Everything is cooked to order; the green beans in red curry, shrimp satay with spicy peanut sauce, and pad Thai were all outstanding on our visit. 4422-B Lemmon. 528-7233.



CHINESE There is a large and growing Chinese populo-lion in the metropolitan area, and most of itis located in the high-tech manufacturingarea north of LBJ (with other pockets in them Mid-Cities and elsewhere). So Dallas doeshave a Chinatown, centered mostly in Richardson (whichis, astoundingly, 11 to 12 percent Asian, depending onwhich estimate you believe), with tentacles stretching as fareast as North Garland and as far west as the Belt Line stripin Addison.

So far, the Dallas area doesn’t have the quality or the variety and individuality of authentic Chinese restaurants of a city, like, say, Toronto, which has an even larger Chinese population. But there are now lots of inexpensive, truly ex cellent places to eat for the adventuresome. (Some are much more hospitable to non-Cantonese or Mandarin speakers than others; we have omitted those that don’t at least have a sign and a menu in English.) -W.L. Taitte

Big Wong Chinese Restaurant. If you ever doubt that Dallas has truly become an international city, drop into Big Wong at lunch on a weekend. You will see a throng of mostly Chinese people, nattily dressed, merrily ordering dim sum on their way to a shopping expedition at the Neiman Marcus across the street. Dim sum, for the uninitiated, is the Chinese tea luncheon in which carts of dumplings, noodle dishes, barbecue, and other delicacies are brought table-to-table to entice diners. The diners choose what they want, and the waiters mark down their choices on little slips of paper. Everyone will probably enjoy the steamed vegetable dumplings and the smooth chicken with a bright yellow skin that is served with a dipping sauce containing more minced garlic than any Italian ever dreamed of. But the turnip cake and the shrimp fun roll are more acquired tastes. Town Hall Square, 5330 Belt Line Rd., Addison. 991-7214.

Canton. So far, Canton’s enthusiastic clientele seems to be almost exclusively ethnic Chinese, but the friendly and helpful proprietor makes this one of the most comfortable places for non-Chinese to get to know the more authentic dishes. This is one place you can order “chow mein” and still feel you are in the know; one of the house favorites, in fact, is a dish (completely unlike the Americanized version) that consists of a golden nest of slender, deep-fried noodles, crowned with a sauce full of rich ingredients. The combination beancurd in an earthen pot is also enormously popular here, but we preferred the combination fire pot-the famous Chinese “big affair” soup that comes to the table in a huge container with a burning flame in the middle, the savory broth chock full of shrimp, chicken, beef, Chinese cabbage, and rice noodles. 400 N. Greenville Ave., Suite IS, Richardson. 238-1863.

Chien Garden To show how variegated and specialized Chinese restaurants in the Metroplex have become, this excellent one specializes in Chinese-Korean cuisine. No, we don’t mean separate kinds of Asian cooking (there are plenty of places that have a Chinese menu to hedge the risk of other ethnic offerings). Instead, the house specialties here feature Chinese cooking as it developed in Korea, where there are ’”Chinese” dishes as far removed from the traditions of the mother country as the Chinese-American chop suey. Among the menu items in this category are the tempura-like fried squid and the fried pork with hot chili sauce. The attractions of Chien Garden also include some first-rate versions of more traditional Chinese dishes like Mo-Shu pork and shrimp soft noodles. 1144 N. Piano Rd., Suite 121, Richardson. 235-1107.

First Chinese B-B-Q. This really is the best place around for Chinese barbecue dishes, but the good things to eat don’t end there. We tried the excellent fresh shrimp wonton soup and the stir-fried rice noodles Cantonese style, which are like the Thai dish pad Thai but without the peanuts and sour taste. Stir-fried dishes like beef with either American or Chinese broccoli are outstanding, too. We saw an order of the crispy shrimp being delivered to the next table and couldn’t resist ordering some-the gorgeously brown, salty shrimp are deep-fried with their shells only half removed. The shells are a hassle to remove, and you don’t get all the flavor unless you eat them Chinese-style, separating the last bits of meat and shell in your mouth, but the dish was so good we didn’t mind doing as the Chinese do. Even harder to eat (though delicious) were the crabs in ginger sauce-a huge order of very fresh blue crabs still in their shells, quartered and stir-fried with lots of ginger and garlic. This place could definitely win the prize as the most authentic of the authentic. 111 S. Greenville Ave., Richardson. 680-8216.

Jade Garden Restaurant. The diners here are an incredible ethnic mixture-not only Chinese but Vietnamese, black, Hispanic, and all sorts of other folks in this melting-pot East Dallas neighborhood. Even though the clientele may not be predominantly Chinese, there are many interesting and authentic dishes available. Many are written out on a blackboard as daily specials in Chinese characters only, but don’t despair: the large majority of them are on the regular menu. One that is not, however, is one of the restaurant’s best dishes, lobster with cheese. The small lobster is hacked into pieces and coated with what tastes almost like a grainy French gratin, then momentarily deep-fried; the dish is as delicious as it is unusual and difficult to eat. Other seafood dishes include the shrimp in chef special sauce and clams cooked Chinese-style. You can also begin your meal here with unusual items like the Canton wonton soup (the wonton filled with shrimp as well as pork) and the deep-fried shrimp rolls as big as a fist. 4800 Bryan, at Fitzhugh. 821-0675.

Pearl Cate. This newly opened combination restaurant and Chinese store advertises “traditional Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine,” so much of what it sells will be unfamiliar. Instead of a menu there are little placards everywhere describing items ranging from authentic Chinese breakfast dishes to beef with Chinese broccoli and fish (in three different sizes) in brown sauce. Ordering the leek turnover-a real novelty-will elicit questions like, “Oh, have you been to China?” from both the proprietors and Chinese customers. All the food we have tried here, except for an overcooked fish, has been really excellent. Among the best things to eat are the various dumplings, the very garlicky shrimp in garlic sauce, and the Pancit Canton (noodles stir-fried with ten ingredients including chicken, mushrooms, and squid). 128 N. Greenville, Richardson. 680-2515.

Tasty China. Under brand new ownership, this small and unassuming-looking restaurant is the hottest word-of-mouth news in the Chinese community. Perhaps the biggest reason for the talk are the dishes served “in a clay pot,” sprinkled among the various other categories on the menu rather than listed in a separate section. The seafood combination served this way included more denizens of the deep than The Little Mermaid-shrimp, scallops, crab, squid, even the dreaded sea slug. In this setting, the marvelously soft beancurd took on a delicate flavor of ginger and seafood from the slow cooking, and proved even better than the surrounding delicacies. Also highly unusual is the pork chop with cheese, crisp pieces of thinly sliced chop that had indeed been drizzled with cheese before a short final cooking. 35I4A W Walnut St., Garland. 276-1999.



Topaz House. Chinese cooking here is some of the best in Texas, with that specially fresh, energetic quality that comes from the hand of a truly talented chef stirring the wok. You serve yourself tea or water and as much of two kinds of soup as you like. You order at the cash register. The English menu is reasonable enough in price, but they will translate off the even cheaper Chinese menu if you request. Besides the excellent fried “potsticker” dumplings, there are also bountiful portions of fat, mound-shaped steamed dumplings. The double-cooked pork is a Szechwan standby, and even a standard dish like chicken with broccoli takes on new life here. The low prices are made an even greater bargain by the “No Tip” sign. 110 S. Greenville Ave., Richardson. 234-3887.

JAPANESE People tell me Japanese food is bland.

Not so. I prefer to call it subtle-the most subtle, in fact, in seasoning of all the Asian foods available to us here. Even those unimpressed by the jewel-like simplicity of miso, the cloud-swirled clear soup studded with Scallion bits and satin cubes of tofu, would have to admit its delicate flavor is filled with nuance, and nobody has a more magical way with beefsteak than the Japanese. Still, despite the grace and style with which Japanese restaurants prepare and serve food, and the cordial ambience unvaryingly created, it took the happy informality of sushi bars to get Dallas over its squeamishness about raw fish and to popularize Japanese cuisine in general. -Betty Cook

Fuji-Ya. Not the newest Japanese restaurant around, and certainly not the prettiest, Fuji-Ya looks a little frayed around the edges. But the food on our visit was strikingly fresh and well prepared. A combination appetizer brought us four flawless items: yakitori, quick-cooked skewered ribbons of beef; tender gyoza, the crisp-edged little meat-stuffed dumplings; shrimp tempura, lavish in greaseless lacy crispness; and chicken kara age, a happy crunch of marinated meat curls on tiny wing bones. A sampler trio of sushi yielded immaculate tuna, salmon roe, and cucumber roll wrapped with lightly vinegared rice. Sunomono, the traditional Japanese salad, was a tart delight of vegetables semi-pickled in vinegar. Our entrées, no less auspicious, included a day’s-special fillet of salmon, rosy and perfectly grilled, and a teriyaki steak that brought my companion’s New York cut fresh distinction. 13050 Coit 690-8396.

Hana. This amiable place, set off Inwood Road in an Addison shopping center, deserves commendation as a refuge for conversation and pleasant dining. The regular menu offers much variety, including a suprise or two I’d never sampled before. Gyoza were the standard dumplings, accompanied by a tangy dipping sauce. Hana bento, a multi-sampler of special morsels beautifully served in a compartmented lacquer box, contained a sparkling array of complementary components, from fresh salmon grilled tender-crisp to air-light tempura shrimp and vegetables, balanced against the zippy sharpness of mild pickled shrimp and thin-sliced beef, and the rather sharper tartness of pickled cucumber chunks. The starring novelty of the meal, though, was a noodle soup of ikura-fresh salmon eggs-afloat with a vast array of flawless vegetables, seaweed, scallions, and egg drop swirls in rich-flavored broth. 14865 Inwood Rd., Addison. 991-8322.

Hana Sho. Behind the storefront exterior in its shopping center strip, Hana Sho is a charming oasis of mauve tabletops, airy shoji screen window covers and partitions, and clean wood touches-a carved ceiling frieze over the sushi bar is serenely attractive. And so was our food: my companion’s broiled salmon with salt was curiously but aptly named-the tender fillet was moistly infused with a light salty flavor without, somehow, tasting oversalted or pickled at all. A Makunouchi bento lunch box was the house version of the compartmented lacquer box sampler. Served with delicate miso soup, it held fresh nibbles of sashimi-raw tuna and fine-fleshed white Fish-along with crisp tempura-fried shrimp and vegetables, with lean strips of beef and chicken teriyaki, pickled cucumber, and plump cubes of tofu to cut their sharpness. 2938 N. Belt Line, Irving. 2S8-02S0. Hibachi-Ya. Owner Pete Yamamoto presides over a hibachi counter grill here-not with the spotlighted showmanship of most Japanese hibachi houses, but with a quiet expertise and concern for quality that turns out some of the best beef in town. If you know your sirloin, you’ll recognize it in an appetizer of sirloin tataki, rare slices subtly anointed with fruity ponzu sauce, or in hibachi rolls, a sushi-like presentation of bite-sized fresh vegetable strips wrapped in succulent steak leaves. On the entrée side, the Ume steak, its tender leanness marinated in plum sauce, was grilled to rose-centered beauty, then cubed for easy chopstick eating. Your surf-and-turf cliché is transcended here by cubed filet played against scallops and shrimp, with chicken for lagniappe. Accompaniments-miso soup, lively salad, better-than-average house wines-live up to the beef. So does the setting, which is tranquil, and the service, which is seamless beyond what one would expect in such an unpretentious place. 3850 \V. Northwest Hwy., Suite 510. 350-1110.

CENTRAL AMERICA Central America borders southern Mexico,

so it’s only natural that the cuisine of the

area resembles Mexican cooking in the

Southern style-but since that style of Mex-



ican cooking is not all that common in North Texas, Central American food is like-ly to seem fairly exotic. As in Mexican cuisine, there are tamales and beans-hut

the tamales are wrapped in banana leaves rather than corn husks and the beans are usually black. Since Central America is a rather narrow isthmus, the sea is important in the area’s geography and seafood is impor tant on its tables. Sadly, since the political situation in the area continues to be unstable, we can look forward to more immigration from the region and (happily) to more places manned by and catering to people from the Central American republics. -W.L.T.

El Gallo de Oro. He is from Mexico, she from Guatemala, so the menu at this unassuming little place features specialties from both countries. When we visited, though, the food was not as tasty or as interesting as reports from others had led us to expect. The Guatemalan-style tamal-with a whole chicken thigh, complete with bone, imbedded in the heavy-textured, moist corn-meal surroundings-was probably the best dish we tried. But the various seafood items (shrimp and octopus) were not pristinely fresh-tasting, and other dishes like the grilled pork reeked of the spice actuate, savory in small doses but overpowering when used indiscriminately. 4I14 Maple Ave. 522-6624. Gloria’s Recent trips to both locations of Dallas’s first Salvadoran restaurant- and one of its most delightful ethnic places of any variety-brought excellent food in each case. The North Dallas outpost is not really a move upscale-the setting in a budget hotel is modest, and the clientele seems at least as much drawn from the Salvadoran community as at the original. Gloria’s Super Special is still the best buy, with the most exotic dishes (including a banana-wrapped tamal, a pupusa-another delicious cornmeal-based creation-black beans and rice, and fried plantain and yucca) at a low price. But the shrimp a la plancha and the asado de puerco (grilled pork with a tropical taste) are also winners, and the flan is rich and flavorful beyond your dreams. Some of the best dishes are also available for breakfast. 600 W. Davis. 948-3672. 9386 LB] Frwy. at Abrams. 690-0622.

VIETNAMESE Like other Asian food, Vietnamese emphasizes seafood and chicken, mostly grilled and broth-simmered,with some pork and beef for varie-ty, augmenting these with vegetables, herbs, and spices. Unlike most others, Vietnamese dishes are hardly ever piquant to the point of pain, although the ubiquitous Asian red-pepper heat is a subtle presence. Because of their country’s former relationship with France, though, the presence is never permitted to overpower seasonings that celebrate fresh ingredients with a Gallic sensitivity to flavor and texture balances. In Dallas, the first Vietnamese restaurants sprang up near the Inner East Side’s Little Asia, where early Vietnamese migrants initially lived. As the community prospered and moved northward to Richardson and Garland, other eateries followed, giving culinary converts easy access in near-downtown and northern suburban areas. Low prices and high quality dominate the genre, and the Vietnamese warm cordiality is universal. -B.C.

Ba Le. Mid after noon of a raw winter day is a lovelytime to visit this liny East Dallas eatery. To stave off starvation, we sampled a bank bao while waiting for more substantial fare, and found the pale, steamed sweet-bread pouch a delectable snack. stuffed with pork sausage and boiled egg quarters. A starter of pork and shrimp steamed roll (goi cuon) turned out to be another kind of roll entirely-this one soft rice paper, wrapped around shredded pork and shrimp, served with a fine peanut-laced sauce that held a little heap of red pepper, to be stirred in if we chose. We did. It was fiery. A similar heap, considerately isolated, appeared on one side of our entrée, com bi xuong cha, an impressive structure involving steamed rice topped with barbecued pork slices, moist-hearted and crisp-edged, and a quartet of huge, suc-culently barbecued shrimp decorated with chopped scallions, car-roi and tomato slices, and grated pickled carrot. The whole flawless meal. including perfect Vietnamese coffee brewed in the cup. came to just under ten dollars-which may partly explain the fairly constant stream of customers picking up takeout dinner bags on their way home from work. 4812 Bryan, Suite 102. 821-1880. Mai’s. This long-running standby in a spiffed-up former convenience store next to Hall’s Hobby Shop serves up fine Vietnamese fare to a list of loyal patrons that includes as many Caucasian as Asian names. A Vietnamese roll-mung bean noodles, sprouts, and vegetables wrapped in rice paper-was crisp and zippily enhanced by excellent peanut sauce. Goi chay the traditional Vietnamese vegetarian salad, was a delectable mélange of shredded cabbage with mint, cilantro, and strips of fried tofu lopped with peanuts in a tangy dressing. Banh cuon. described on the menu as Vietnamese ravioli, actually was soft rice rolls filled with minced pork and mushrooms, topped with bean sprouts, shredded lettuce, mint, cilantro. and cucumber, with half-rounds of smooth pork paté on the side. The dish was delectable. 4812 Bryan, off Fitzhugh. 826-9887.

My Tho. Named for the Vietnamese town where its chef was reared, and pronounced Mee Taw, this spic-and-span new Garland establishment is strictly neat but not gaudy. Its preppy young host was easy with his English and informative about the menu-to a point. He didn’t laugh at us, but the gods must have when we followed shrimp rolls in rice paper (more vermicelli-stuffed than usual) and a steamed bread-roll snack starter with an entrée called Tom Bo nuong vi and described as “shrimps and beef over heated plate.” As it happened, the heated plate was electric, a hotplate topped with a dome-bottomed wok on which we were expected to cook the main dish ourselves. Which we did, and not very gracefully. The raw food provided was flawless, though-a dozen shrimp and a half-platter of leaf-thin lean beef, both marinated in sesame-soy sauce, together with many butter pats, sliced onion, and rice paper for wrapping the meats with fresh leaf lettuce, cilantro, cucumber, and bean sprouts provided on a separate platter. Our industry was rewarded; we may not have cooked or wrapped as dexterously as those to the manner born, but we had fun doing it, and the food was delicious. Both iced Vietnamese coffee and a mildly sweet soy drink made nice closing touches. 4413 W. Walnut, Suite 115, Garland. 494-3963.



GRFFK Someday, we must all go to Greece and check out the upscale places that I’ve heard elevate Greek food to elegance worthy of the gods. Meanwhile, though, Dallas could do worse than m content itself with the more muscular country cuisine served in local Greek restaurants. Neither trendy nor flashy, they rock comfortably along, offering robust, un complicated fare that is almost as familiar to Texans as Tex-Mex or Italian-hardly related to the new, chic Mediter ranean consciousness, but with its roots in the same sun drenched soil. If it’s Never-on-Sunday ebullience you’re after, a couple of Dallas dinner-and-show establishments of fer that, complete with dark lights, dancing, and tummy- tossing floor shows. But for the get-down-good ethnic eating that is our concern in this survey, most of the Greeks in the city do, indeed, bear rewarding gifts. -B.C.

Kosta’s Cafe. Viewed from the street, Kosta’s Cafe looks perfectly ordinary. Inside, though, it is as fresh and pretty as a little Greek villa, all done up in the clean blue and white of that country’s flag, with plants on pedestals and tables nicely clothed. Clearly, it attracts a sizable lunch crowd-and small wonder, if my own lunch visit was typical. The Greek salad that came with the day’s under-six-dollar special was chilled joy, crisp lettuce and ripe tomato generously graced with feta and tangy black olives in a sunny lemon-based dressing. The special itself was a mammoth joint of lamb shoulder, roasted to fork-tendemess and served on an ample bed of orzo, that marvelous little pasta that looks like larger-than-life rice. My dessert, a rum cake made in-house, was hardly Greek, but impressive nonetheless, a triple layer affair lavished with golden fruit filling and airy white frosting. 4914 Greenville Ave. 987-3225.

Little Gus’. There may be those who don’t know that this tiny breakfast-and-burger lunch haven leads a double life, transforming itself after dark into one of the city’s longest-running Greek restaurants. The menu here is dictated by the day’s availabilities and the cook’s whim-on the night we were there, chicken was featured, a dish called kotapolo ritani, which arrived on the plate as an entire half-fowl, very simply roasted to fall-from-the-bone tenderness. A starter Greek salad was a main-dish-sized mélange of crisp greens with actual chunks, rather than mere crumbs, of feta cheese, as well as tomato and black olives in lemon-lively dressing. Inescapably romantic Greek music set the scene; family-warm service underscored the casual friendliness that has made Little Gus’ a survivor through all Lower Greenville’s feverish ups and downs. 1916 Greenville Ave. 826-4910.

Theodore’s Seafood Restaurant. The sign outside says seafood, which may explain how Theodore’s escaped my notice for two years as purveyor of the best Greek fare I’ve had in Dallas. In addition to a long list of fresh-daily seafood dishes, this place serves authentic Greek food in a setting that is Continental in nature, with service to match. Salads were a lovely arrangement of greens, subtly dressed; a creamy lemon soup of the day was light as a sunbeam. My companion’s assortment of Greek appetizers featured a splendid spanokopita and a properly plump dolma. The sautéed fillet of sole was perfection, moistly flavorful in its skin-thin gilding of batter. My own lamb kebab brought a dish I’ve usually found less than inspiring to Olympian heights-the lean cubes of lamb were rare and tender, the onion and pepper still crunchy and unscorched. To cap it all. the house-made galaktobouriko was an airy miracle, ethereal lemon cream pillowed in a crisp wrap of phyllo pastry. 8041 Walnut I fill Lane, in The Corner Shopping Center. 361-1922.



AFGHAN Afghanistan really entered the American national consciousness because of the military involvement of the Soviet Union there. But as in so many other instances in our history, tragedy in other parts of the world-and the resulting emigration-has meant an enrichment of America’s cultural melting pot. Afghani food turns out, not too suprisingly, to be a little like Persian cooking and a little like North Indian. But this cuisine, based on delicate neepilafs and flavorful skewered meats and a judicious use of herbs and spices, is really sui generis, it isn’t nearly as aggressive as Indian food in its use of hot peppers or heavy spices and is therefore much more accessible to manyAmerican palates. – W.L.T.

Safi’s Afghan Cuisine. Dallas’s first Afghan restaurant-in fact, the first we know of anywhere in the country-is a very fine one, fancier in its decorations (and in its prices) than most other places devoted to Asian cuisines. Unfortunately, the weekday lunchtime buffet is not as good an introduction to Safi’s cooking as the buffets of most Indian restaurants are to their wares. The variety is limited (on our visit, a soupy noodle dish, a main course of meatballs and peas, a cauliflower dish, and rice, along with salad and dessert) and doesn’t offer a taste of the excellent kebabs that reign in the evening. So go for dinner instead, and sample such appetizers as aushak (dumplings) and bulanee (turnovers) before turning to the skewered meats or the karma chdllaw (tender chunks of beef in a tomato/onion sauce). 14849 Inwood Rd., Addison. 991-9292.



MIDDLE FASTERN There is a fairly large Middle Eastern population in Dallas, so it seems odd that there is only one soup-to-nuts restaurant, Hedary’s, offering a completely Middle Eastern menu. Most places serve a selection dishes in addition to a deli menu, or piz-za; ft makes sense, since so many Middle Eastern foods, wrapped in vine leaves, threaded onto skewers, folded into pita bread, are perfectly portable and easy to eat on the run, as well as being quick to prepare. You find the same kinds of dishes all over the Middle East, from North Africa to Iran- cracked wheat and rice pilafs, meatballs, savon’ pies in paper-thin pastry, skewered meats, and syrup-soaked desserts. But it is the Lebanese who have made it an international cuisine, and it is the Lebanese interpretation of these foods that you find most often in Dallas.-M.B.M.

The Cedars. This is a downtown lunch spot, par excellence; it serves an inexpensive breakfast starting at 7:30 a.m., and the lunch listing includes pizza, broiled chicken, and hamburgers; you can get it to go. have it delivered, or fax in your order. But what makes The Cedars special is that there is a section of the menu titled “Middle Eastern Specialties’-the owner’s mother’s home cooking. We’ve tried it all at The Cedars, and it is all good: juicy beef kebabs come with refreshing tabouleh. a salad of cracked wheat, parsley, mint, and scallions in lemon juice and olive oil; lender spiced chicken breast is paired with a rice pilaf with sautéed pine nuts and ground meat. Kefta. a kind of spicy Lebanese sausage, makes a dandy sandwich on pita bread, while fried falafel on pita makes a great veggie burger, especially good along with a dollop of garlicky hummus, garbanzo bean dip. 204 S. Ervay. 744-1332.Falafel House. Like many ethnic restaurants, Falafel House seems to provide more than food service-it is B gathering place, information clearinghouse, and home away from home for the Middle Eastern community in Arlington. But even if you’ve never tasted this kind of food. Falafel House is worth a trip. It specializes in Middle Eastern “fast food,’” dishes that are quick to prepare and easy to handle-falafel sandwiches on fresh pita; football-shaped patties of fried kibbeh. a meat and wheat mixture seasoned with allspice; kefta on a kebab; and potato chap, a fried potato patty filled with ground meat and onions. The dolma are long and thin, the briny vine (eaves enclosing a tender mixture of meat and rice; the tabouleh provided a clean contrast to the other foods with the sharp tastes of parsley and lemon. There is a selection of desserts here beyond the expected bakiava (honey-soaked layers of nuts and pastry): balorieh, a dessert of syrup-drenched shredded wheat, and namora, a kind of brownie baked with cream of wheat, yogurt, and sugar. 1310 S. Cooper, Arlington. (817) 277-0938.

Who’s Who. The selections at this takeout/lunch spot have an Israeli flavor instead of the usual Lebanese touch. Baba ganoush, garlicky eggplant spread, is an unusually rich version incorporating eggs and mayonnaise. The beef sausage, cooked on the grill and served with pita, is kosher, and the menu lists shakshoka, an Israeli egg-based dish made with tomatoes and bell pepper, along with the usual kebabs, grilled lamb, and hummus. Everything is prepared very quickly and with great good will. 6025 Rovell Lane (in Preston Royal next to the post office). 739-7139.



KOREAN For Western palates, each new Asian cuisine takes some getting used to. Korean takes more than most, partly because it is among the more recent-and therefore purest- arrivals. So pure, in fact, that it has not been modulated at all for American tastes. Until you get the hang of ordering, your first few adventures may include a few surprises, too.

One of the things you’ll encounter is kimchi, coarsely chopped cabbage that has been lethally doused with red pep per and semi-fermented to a strength I’m convinced would burn holes in an asbestos raincoat. Kimchi is Korea’s na tional dish. It may also be Korea’s national joke on unwary diners. The same waitperson who will stubbornly refuse to let you order an entree he/she fears you ’11 find off-puttingly alien will then blithely bring you kimchi, along with three to six other small bowls of pickled vegetables ranging from delicately briny to viciously searing. Be warned that these are best taken, not as side dishes in the conventional cafeteria sense, but as condiments to complement and col or the main dishes they accompany. Be warned too that some of them-kimchi particularly-will leave you for at least half a day with dragon’s breath of a potency hitherto unknown to the Western world. Moral: either take your significant other along, or brace for solitude. -B.C.

Korea Hometown. Three-fourths of Korea Home-town’s booth tables are equipped with center grills and overhead vent hoods. As ours was not, we had to content ourselves with a dish chosen from the cook-your-own listing but grilled instead in the kitchen. Never mind-we probably couldn’t have done as well as the chef by the pul ko ki. razor-thin beef slices mildly marinated and done to a perfect turn, with a zesty sauce for dipping. Our waitress, who briskly recommended the hardly foreign entrée, approved of the oyster pancake we ordered, but only agreed to let us try the restaurant’s raw beef when we assured her we’d had it before. We were glad she did-the scallion-garnished steak strings were the best I’ve had anywhere, marinated in a slightly sweet “secret” (she said) sauce and topped with a raw egg yolk for mixing at-table. The pancake, too. was superior, studded with scellions and oyster bits in an egg batter and sliced in rectangles for easy eating with chopsticks. Both were nicely zipped with bites of kimchi, daikon threads, and marvelous spicy-hot cucumber strips, the most outstanding of the seven side dishes served here. No desserts are offered, but we were satisfied to people-watch over the beer we’d brought ourselves (as you will, if you want any; the areas dry). 10560 Walnut, Suite 200, at Piano Road. 272-9909. Korea House. A restaurant and club designed to appeal to businessmen for lunch and dinner. Korea House is, indeed, club-like, all polished woods and dimmer lighting than other Korean eateries we visited. It also differed in having as many Caucasian as Asian diners on our visit, and an English-speaking manager energetically bent on steering us toward menu selections he considered sale. In the case of one entrée, I’d rather he hadn’t-

the day’s-special pork cutlet he recommended was dry and flavorless, as thin and square as a shingle and served with a cream-dressed mound of grated cabbage and carrot, indistinguishable from ordinary cole slaw. Our other main dish, though, made up for that one-a perfectly poached eel, moist and fresh, was split and boned and served at room temperature with raw garlic pods, Scallion slivers, and fresh jalapeno slices. The combination was memorable. Plate presentations here were attractive, too-the steak tartare. although still partially frozen, rested on orange slices under a carrot flower and daikon threads. Oyster-scallion pancake bites came with a lively dipping sauce, and the side dishes included seaweed ribbons among those already mentioned elsewhere. 2598 Royal Lane at Harry Hines. 243-0434.



New Palace. Newest of the Korean restaurants we’ve visited, and possibly the newest in Dallas, New Palace calls itself a Korean and Chinese restaurant, but the division’s not equal : the only English on the menu is on the Chinese side, leaving us to drag information on Korean offerings from our willing but dubious waitress. Like the menu, the Korean offerings we ordered made no concession to Caucasian customs; apart from our Chinese-style fried dumpling starter (there were no Korean appetizers, she told us firmly), every morsel that appeared was liberally laced with hot red pepper dust. We enjoyed it all anyhow-boneless barbecued chicken, dexterously scissored to chopstick size by our server, was moist and flavorful, splendidly augmented by side dishes of quartered daikon, great crunchy cucumber sticks, and succulent seaweed ribbons. One we’d not seen before was scallions with hotly spiced, rather leathery strands we assumed were vegetables until the waitress corrected us: they were, she said. “fishies,” of some sort she hadn’t the words to define. A Korean soup of spaghetti-like noodles was heady stuff indeed, a fiery red-gold broth swarming with scallions, zucchini snips, and carrot shreds, along with scallops, baby shrimp, and an abundance of chewy squid parts. The heat in every dish we sampled was cumulative, causing us to rely heavily on accompanying rice and OB (the Korean beer brewed in Seoul) for relief. I have little doubt that the cuisine at New Palace is as authentically Korean as any to be found in town. 2502 Royal Lane, Suite MB (at Stemmoms Freeway). 484-6090.