JonFromTJs's Profile
Chargilled Oysters on the Half Shell
not sure who serves good ones, but this is one of the EASIEST things to do at home. you can do on grill or on broiler. get your local friendly fishmonger to shuck the oysters, then add a combination of butter, parsley, garlic, parm and crushed up saltines. cook for 3-5 min TOPS.
Live Crawfish in Dallas this weekend. What are prices, where to go, how is quality?
prices - apprx 3.50. high for this time of year
where to go - i'll let others make suggestions :)
quality - varying from bag to bag. we've seen selects range from excellent to barely above 'graded' in the same shipment.
be aware - crawfish season is comign to a close, so get your order in ASAP and plan your boil quickly. this weekend could be last weekend.
Where is the best place in north Dallas area to buy fresh crawfish?
lots of good options in DFW...someone else on here can list them for you :)
word to the wise: be careful of the following...
1) there are no selects right now as far as we know. We made the mistake of calling washed and grated "selects" the first week they were avail because a vendor was misusing the term. but as of right now if someone tells you "selects" be wary
2) you get what you pay for. field run is $3-3.25 right now and wash and grated are 3.5-3.85 right now. if you find 1.99 crawfish, you'll be sorry.
Farm to table restaurants exist in Dallas?
word to the wise - don't ever eat local Dallas seafood. Trinity Tilapia? White Rock Rockfish? no thanks.
Oysters DFW
1 -no clue as to their quality, but of all things you should be careful about with lowest bidder on seafood, raw oysters have the potential to harm you.
2 - if you have an oyster knife its not hard! if you ever want to swing by TJ's i'll give you a free lesson.
Oysters DFW
great resource for all this oyster talk: http://www.oysterguide.com/
also there is a good iphone app: oysterpedia.
Oysters DFW
sorry, just now seeing this.
"Do you notice a difference between cold water and warm water oysters?"
hell yeah. colder water = better oyster.
cold water makes any seafood better. take swordfish. a sword from n. east waters has to store more oil and fat to stay warm, so you get juicier flesh.
same with oysters. cold water oysters have more fat and more sweetness.
"I eat oysters on the half-shell anytime I can, especially when I travel."
as well you should. IMO, an oyster is the best way to eat "locally"...oysters are more a product of their environment than any food. they are filter feeders, they take in the environment around them and spit it back out. a Buzzards Bay oyster, you are tasting Buzzards Bay.
"I have been told by shuckers and mongers, when in other parts of the country, that there are two reasons you don't see gulf oysters much outside the region: 1) people just don't prefer them, 2) they don't ship well, in part because of the seasonality of gulf harvests."
agree. Gulf oysters are great, but most oyster pros consider them below the premium oysters from NE and NW. and no, they don't ship as well for simple reasons...the water may be cold enough for oysters, but the air might not. Sept can be hot as shit in the Gulf. if an oyster gets stuck on the tarmac, i'd rather it be in Boston than New Orleans.
and there just isn't the demand for them. People in Dallas will pay a premium for a Malapeque, FIshers Island or Barnstable. Or they'll pay a great cheaper price for a gulf oyster. But no one in Boston is paying a premium for a fresh shipped gulf oyster when the local oysters would be basically the same price.
I love gulf oysters. Sometimes i'm just in the mood for them. But the best oysters in the world have more complex flavor. Various combinations of sweet, mineral and briny. Gulf oysters aren't as complex IMO.
Oysters DFW
ironically, oysters in the shell have the longest shelf life of nearly any seafood.
ironic isn't the right word...its counterintuitive to what you'd think. As long as they are alive and refrigerated, oysters can be really really fresh when opened but out of the water a little while.
Oysters DFW
red tide is "over" texas gulf oysters are 100% available.
the first ones i've tasted this year are good not great.
Dallas to Austin Road Food
been to both franklins and snows. i've been to laird's and cooper's and kreutz and smitty's and inman's...i love me some BBQ.
snow's is the best i've ever had. I went the first weekend after the texas monthly cover, so i don't know if the publicity has changed. the word's "melt in your mouth" are the most overused in food reviewing. the brisket literally melted in your mouth.
Dallas to Austin Road Food
Shane -
i agree with both of your suggestions in austin. i was thinking of stopping mid trip as opposed to eating in austin. but if we are talking austin BBQ, believe the hype - SNOW'S is the real deal.
Dallas to Austin Road Food
Shoepf's old time pit BBQ in belton is my favorite BBQ between dallas and austin. right of the highway.
Which Dallas Seafood Market, Rex's or T.J.'s?
read the article, they seem to have a method but i'm not sure if it will work on a large scale. again, supposedly the flesh in delicious.
Which Dallas Seafood Market, Rex's or T.J.'s?
there is! east coast and carribbean - they are pushing for eating Lion Fish. Asian Carp is a tougher species. the problem is that Asian Carp, while delicious, is FULL of little bones. so they only way to commercially harvest it is to cook the fish whole, then take the bones out, then freeze or pasturize. and not too many people or kitchens like buying already cooked fish. interesting article about this very subject here:
http://www.seafoodbusiness.com/articledetail.aspx?id=14008
Heading to Dallas - 1st Time!
love bambu thai. the tiger's tears and papaya salad are both fantastic.
Which Dallas Seafood Market, Rex's or T.J.'s?
i didn't mean to thread-jack and turn this into a sustainability lecture!
Which Dallas Seafood Market, Rex's or T.J.'s?
it surprises me that WF of all places would support cod fishing. maybe its pacific cod? or are they getting hook and line? hook and line to us seems silly - in order not to overfish, use archaic inefficient fishing methods? that's not sustainable economically - diesel costs the same whether you are catch fish in bulk or not. bandaid, nothing more.
best of luck in your search. info on cod sustainability:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=14
i can't read the foreign language, but there seem to be many sites that list haddock as a fine fish with which to do bacalao.
Which Dallas Seafood Market, Rex's or T.J.'s?
DEAREST MODERATORS - THIS IS NOT A TJ'S PLUG, BUT INFO ABOUT THE SUSTAINABILITY OF COD!!!!!
This is Jon, Owner of TJ's. i'll let others answer the subjective part. Just wanted you to know that TJ's will not have Cod this weekend as the fish is criminally overfished.
Instead we feature Haddock, which is incredibly similar and a "best choice" or "good alternative" via Seafood Watch.
If you decide to come to TJ's, let us know and we'll be sure to have some haddock for you.
Thank you for your interest in fresh seafood wherever you get it.
New Trend in Tipping?
completely inappropriate in my opinion. TIP = to ensure promptness. in a restaurant setting, if its included in bill it doesn't accomplish the point, which is to get you better service.
Restaurants everyone loves--except you
Alligator Cafe on Live Oak is great and very authentic.
10 best things to eat in Dallas
where is the soul food you like in dallas better than NYC? not challenging...want to check it out!
Nosh tonight
I like the grilled salad with jonah crab.
agree with gavlist. You can have superior execution without creativity and have a delicious meal. Doesn't work the other way around though...
Lucia tomorrow night
Went last night. One of the best meals I've ever had in Dallas.
Salumi
Burrata with ash. Yes ash!
Sweet potato ravioli. Ordered it twice and considered getting another for lunch.
Brown butter gelato
Everything was great. The above were sublime.
Chef is amazing and Jennifer is sincerely sweet.
Sushi lovers. What's the consensus on Kenichi at the W?
do you know who had pretty good sushi rice? the sushi bar at the clarion hotel at 75 and 635, which now just moved way up north in plano. i was shocked. it wasn't tokyo (you know what i'm talking about, luniz) but it was surprisingly good for a moderately priced place in dallas.
Sushi lovers. What's the consensus on Kenichi at the W?
i tend to agree with this on shinsei. they order top quality fish (some of the same vendors as TJ's) and they have great people working in the kitchen. but for some reason it all hasn't added up to the quality of meal we expected. Maybe we ordered wrong, maybe we hit an off night.
HOWEVER, i'll put that sake sangria up with any light fruity cocktail i've ever had. and its easy to make at home:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/shinsei-sangria-cocktails-2008
Sushi lovers. What's the consensus on Kenichi at the W?
if we are doing tiers, my top tier is Yutaka, Teppo, Tei Tei, Nobu and Kenichi. Tei An is remarkable but i don't go there for sushi.
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Tei Tei Restaurant
2906 N Henderson Ave, Dallas, TX 75206
Nobu Restaurant
Hotel Crescent Court, 400 Crescent Court, Dallas, TX 75201
Where's the best place (if any) to buy Raw Oysters in copious quantities
right now we have blue points, and we can get galvetson bays with a day's notice.
Is it ethical to eat Bluefin Tuna?
not from Boston, but i own a seafood market in Dallas Texas and honestly, no you shouldn't eat bluefin. its not a matter of "if" but a matter of "when" we overfish it to extinction.
that said, if you can find upscale restaurants that serve farm raised blue fin, check it out. the future of the species is farm raising it. which is tough. tuna that is ready to eat can be 2 tons and travel 60mph for hours upon end...not exactly ideal for aquaculture!
Sushi lovers. What's the consensus on Kenichi at the W?
i typed a detailed response on vacation and it didn't load! gggrrr.
We all know the common complaints about dining in Dallas, but you simply cannot overstate how fantastic our Japanese food is. Both authentic and creative, excellent sourcing, fantastic chefs. i haven't done much international traveling but i have eaten all over tokyo. i came home thinking "wow, i can't believe how great the top level of sushi is in dallas freaking texas!"
Kenichi is definitely in the top tier of Dallas sushi.
First off is Hung, the sake sommelier. Having a sake sommelier elevates the experience immensely. We've learned so much about sake and how to pair it with japanese dishes. Just tell him what you are ordering and he'll pick great sake for your meal, or even a flight of several. And like any good sommelier he is respectful of your budget.
Where Kenichi excels in my mind is their creativity with raw dishes. Taste, texture, presentation...my favorite dishes are the ones that i order blindly from the specials menu. They take very fresh ingredients and combine them with interesting sauces.
also excellent is the more traditional nigiri. but even here there is a great blend of "authentic creativity"...if you request, you can get other dipping sauces like white soy sauce, pickled wasabi and fresh grated wasabi. and ask your server if they have anything special off the menu. this was the first place i had yellowtail belly, and now its one of my favorite nigiri.
speaking of which, the servers we've had have all been very knowledgeable and good at guiding us through the menu to things we'd like given what else we've ordered.
the ambiance can be a little lacking, but honestly that's a Victory problem as much as anything else.
and other disagree, but i dont' love the hot savory dishes at Kenichi as much as the raw dishes. we'll get the pork belly and maybe something else hot, but mostly stick to nigiri, rolls and the raw specials.
in my best forrest gump, "and that's all i've got to say about that"
