FOOD & DRINK

COOKBOOKS

Racy Recipes

Intercourses accents aphrodisiacs

Authors Martha ’ Hopkins and Randall Lockridge, who met while attending Baylor University in Waco, had a “mid-20s life crisis,” as Lockridge describes it, and decided to self-publish Intercourses: an aphrodisiac cookbook. After researching foods that historically have been reputed to be sexual stimulants, they included those ingredients in scores of simple yet elegant recipes and created a book devoted to the link between appetite and Eros. “It’s a new take on food and sensuali-

ty,” says

Lock-

ridge. The

authors “cou pie-tested” the recipes, then provided . some hints and results from the participants. In addition to the his-tory of aphrodisiacs. sensuous recipes and suggestions for all stages of romance. Intercourses contains beautiful pho-tography-colorful and erotic images of body and food. “Even if you don’t cook anything in it,” notes Lockridge, a designer, “it’s stimu-lating to read and

look at.” Indeed..-AE. McGill HOT SPOTS

SUCCESS SPARKS CHAIN REACTION

Café Brazil pours another cup of coffee.

EVERYBODY GOES TO CAFé Brazil. Or at least it seems that way. The four locations are packed for breakfast and weekend brunch, and on week nights, hungry hordes descend around 7 o’clock.

What is it that makes these places so special? Is it what Abrams Road manager David Blair describes as management’s restaurant philosophy- make the cafés cozy, dependable, neighborly places with reasonable prices and a coffee selection from around the world? Yeah, that could be it. And it’s gotta be the food-colorful, flavorful food that reaches Dallas from South America by way of the Far East, Europe and southern Louisiana.

Empanadas, the South American sandwich, are featured on platters from breakfast to dinner. There are breakfast tacos, migas, omelets, crepes, pasta, steaks, all available with the colorful vegetable medleys Café Brazil prides itself on, and soups, chili and nachos. And the delicious and-should it be said?-cozy aroma of coffee (seven varieties daily) hangs over the entire meal experience.

It’s been just two short years since a trio of management employees-accountant Craig Feronti, location manager Beth Weideman and consulting chef Ernest Belmore, previously an executive chef at Old Warsaw–bought out the creator of Café Brazil’s coffeehouse concept, local restaurant visionary Michael Tate.

The Lakewood, North Cen tral (near SMU) and Deep El-lum locations are going great guns, and so is the trio’s newest location, in Richardson. And it’s all been done with little tan-fare and very little advertising. Word of mouth by loyal customers is doing the job.

Now, Café Brazil is cooking up plans for a fifth location and will soon bring forth an expanded menu that includes, among other things, yet another empa-nada, one stuffed with smoked meats and a zesty olive relish called the Yucateca.

Watch for it in a neighborhood near you.-Elizabeth Eckstein FESTIVALS

A WOMAN’S TOUCH

Watch and learn as some of Dallas’ top women chefs

prepare a tasty brunch featuring Texas-style cuisine 11 a.m. to l p.m. Saturday, April 19. The demonstration is part of the Fifth Annual Texas New Vintage Wine and Food Festival set for April 17-19 in Grapevine. Featured chefs include Helen Duran, Crescent Club; Liz Baron, Blue Mesa Grill; and Karen Cassady, L’Epicurienne. Cost of the brunch is $30 per person.

New Vintage is the official release of the latest Texas wine vintages. Each year, culinary and wine enthusiasts gather to celebrate and bless the flowering of the vines. The festival will include a series of wine and food seminars and tastings, among them tours of Grapevine’s historical wineries and samplings of gourmet food products provided by the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Taste of Texas program.

For more information, contact the Grapevine Convention and Visitors Bureau at 800-457-6336.– Mark Stuertz