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FOOD & DRINK

OUR MONTHLY MENU OF TRENDS & TIDBITS
By D Magazine |

COOKBOOKS

Chef Stocks the Classics

AS YOU MIGHT EXPECT, HOTEL St. Germain’s executive chef William Guthrie’s kitchen dominates his home, But the kitchen itself is dominated in turn by Guthrie’s collection of almost a thousand cookbooks.

Glass-doored library cases house the oldest volumes, starting with The London Art of Cookery, published in 1796. His collection focuses on antique cookbooks, but his shelves also hold esoteric works such as The Explorers Cookbook, which includes recipes like “Iguana Thermidor for 25.”

Guthrie collects the books not only for posterity, but to use them as research for each new menu that he plans. The books help him reintroduce forgotten wordslike”collop”(athinsiice) and techniques, like the ’50s-era habit of coating chicken with crushed potato chips, which triggered his modern interpretation of coating capons with potatoes. Guthrie hopes to publish a cookbook someday, filled with “old recipes of grannies” gleaned from his collection.

When asked what’s the one cookbook no one should be without, Guthrie didn’t hesitate. “The Joy of Cooking,” he said, pointing to his copy, above the kitchen sink. -Suzanne Hough

CHEAP EATS

Alibaba Kabab House

THIS RECENTLY OPENED RES-taurant’s prices are daz-zlingly low. While the $4.99 lunch buffet and the $5.50 ($6.99 on weekends) dinner buffet provide plenty of all-you-can-eat goodies, Indian food is best when fresh from the tandoor (a clay oven), and with no entrée more than $5.50, you can still fill up cheaply. The menu lists seven choices of the renowned Indian bread roti, including the classic flat breads naan and chapati, for 75 cents to $2.50 an order. Entrées include kababs, rice-based dishes and curries. The chicken tikka ($3.99), juicy chunks of white meat marinated in garlic, ginger, spices and yogurt, is especially good.

Surprisingly, the menu lists none of the Indian staples-chut-neys, pickles and relishes, but a counter by the door has plenty of ingredients for the palate-freshener called paan. made by wrapping various ingredients like fennel seeds, coconut and cardamom in a large betel leaf and folding it into a cone shape. It makes a fine finale to a meal. 2540 Old Denton Rd., Carrollton, 972-323-6024. -S.H.

BOTTOMS UP: Jim Woll’s mead has a non-traditional sparkle.

NEW BREW S

MEAD ME IN DEEP ELLUM

The Golden Grail Meadery’s sign actually says ’’free honey wine tasting” because nobody’s ever heard of mead. But that’s mead they’re serving in there, behind the huge wooden door that looks like it was lifted from a castle dungeon.

Golden Grail owner Jim Woll, a 43-year-old Texas Instruments drop-out who has been developing his one-of-a-kind mead recipe for five years, knows that most people who have ever tried mead find it tastes like children’s cough syrup.

In other words, not too marketable. As Woll says, “People might go buy traditional mead because they read about it in Beowulf. But they probably wont buy it again.” So Woll simply added carbonation. For $10.16 a bottle, you reap the refreshing benefits of his creation: Texas honey fermented with Texas peaches, apricots, raspberries or strawberries, and complete with a no-hangover clause, since mead, like home-brewed beer, contains vitamins that cure a hangover.

-Dawn McMullon

HOT STUFF

Hit-and-Run Coffee Shop Fuels the Morning Drive

JOE-TO-GO (LOVE THAT NAME) slid open its drive-through window in July, and has been brewing vats of coffee nonstop ever since, catering solely to customers at the window. This latest trend, which first percolated in the Pacific Northwest, offers sustenance for commuters, whether it’s cappuccino and a bagel in the morning or fruit smoothies and a freshly baked fistful of cookies for the afternoon carpool. Children like the cool straws that come with their drinks; canine passengers appreciate the free biscuits.

Owner Paige Delk created Joe-To-Go out of sheer desperation. For five years, she battled a killer commute from Melissa (north of McKinney) to downtown Dallas, and her 24-ounce mug of joe usually ran dry around Piano. Since she could not find a place for a good, quick refill, she toured the country checking out drive-through coffee shops, and tasted and drank her way around Dallas to find the best coffee {High Society) and bagels and muffins (Bagel-stein’s) for her new venture.

She must be doing something right, because she’s redeemed more than 2,000 drink cards (buy nine, get one free) so far and is scoping out other sites. Customers are nutty about her blueberry cinnamon crumble coffee (shipped from New Hampshire), and I can’t get enough of the spoonably thick strawberry banana smoothie and the zesty Mediterranean cream cheese spread.

Clearly, Delk cares about every detail, right down to picking a perfect moniker. For a month, she had everyone she knew over to her house for wine-and food-filled evenings to select the name. Chum Steve Douglass knew the right Java jive and gets full credit for the name. 5945 Forest Ln. (east of the Tollway, south of LBJ for you commuters), 972-702-8484.

-S.H.

BUSINESS

Doctor’s Operation is Wine

DOING FACE LIFTS AND CRUSHing grapes may not seem like complementary pursuits, but for retired Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Lemmon, it’s all in how you look at it. “I’ve been watching people ferment for over 30 years,” he says.

Dr. Lemmon is the owner of Dallas-based San Saba Vineyards, a Monterey, Calif., winery named after a circa-1720 Spanish mission in West Texas. Always passionate about wine, especially Bordeaux, Dr. Lemmon purchased San Saba in 1975 and devoted it to cabernet sauvignon and merlot grapes.

The rich, moist soils in Monterey County, known to produce wines marked by an excessive vegetative aroma, presented a challenge. Dr. Lemmon has minimized this characteristic aroma through diligent vineyard work, including the implementation of special pruning techniques.

The 1995 San Saba Chardonnay ($20) is distinctive and rich with pear and vanilla aromas, a creamy texture and a smooth, nutty finish. The 1994 San Saba Merlot ($20) is sturdy with a deep pepper/herbaceous layer and needs several minutes in the glass (or, better, five to seven years in the bottle) to release its satisfying fruit aromas and flavors. The 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon ($18) has black cherry, plum and green pepper aromas, but its flavors are disappointingly flimsy. San Saba wines are available at Marty’s, Pogo’s, Sigel’s and Simon David. -Mark Stuertz

WINE

BEAUJOLAIS BOUNTY

I told a friend of mine that I was going to write up the Beaujolais. “Great,” she salivated, anticipating a free meal. “Can I go with you?” Sony, Ruth, but Beaujolais is a French burgundy, a light red wine whose yearly release-by French law, midnight on the third Thursday of November-is more eagerly anticipated among the fine wine set than the Oscars. And, believe it or not, the world’s largest Beaujolais festival is again here in Dallas, at Southfork Ranch from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22.

Beaujolais should be savored early, within a few months of production; thus the rush to get the first of the new vintage. The first few cases of the wine will be flown directly from France the night before. This fresh, fruity wine goes with everything. Forget wine cellars, sommeliers and elaborate pouring rituals- you can serve Beaujolais in a tumbler and enjoy it with a plate of pasta or even a grilled cheese sandwich, as well as a perfectly cooked lamb chop.

In fact, at the Beaujolais Festival many of Dallas’ finest restaurants-like Chez Gerard, dani foods, Hotel St Germain, La Madeleine and the Mozzarella Company-will offer tasty bites to complement the wine. Thirty dollars per person will buy samples of more than 40 bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau as well as lots of food. Valley View and NorthPark malls are offering round-trip shuttle buses to and from the festival. For information, call the French-American Chamber of Commerce at 214 991-4888.-S.H.

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