BBQ Texas Style

As soon as I landed in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area I was hungry I already have a Texas sized appetite and was thrilled when the colleague who picked me up suggested that we start our meeting day with lunch. He said, "I assume being from Montana you are not a vegetarian, so how does BBQ sound?"

We drove out to Plano and pulled up to a strip mall. This is not normally how I do BBQ, well unless I am back in DC. But this is Texas, so strip mall and BBQ joint did not scream Feed Me! First thing that struck me when I walked in to Kenny's Smoke House was the wall. It was a dark wood plank that reminded me of charred whiskey barrels. We walked in and were met by a nice hostess who sat us immediately. 

The menu looked interesting and my colleague was telling me how good the brisket was here and that they might be sold out since it was 2pm. It was after 2pm so I was hoping there was brisket still left. Before I made it too far down the menu I saw an appetizer that I HAD to try and have now decided that everyone in this world should experience the perfect TX BBQ appetizer: jalapenos stuffed with brisket and Vermont cheddar, served with a Chipotle dipping sauce. Fabulous. The brisket balance the heat from the jalapeno with smoky perfection. We  also shared the Smoke House Sampler (note: Tons of MEAT!) and it was more than enough to feed the 3 of us.

I was lucky that they had enough brisket for each of us to order. My coworker who came with me from DC has never been to Texas and has never had brisket. And the colleague we were meeting happens to be Muslim, so the only BBQ he can eat (and eats plenty of) is brisket! It was tender, moist, loaded with spices and you could see the smoke ring. It was too thick but you could certainly taste the smoke throughout the whole piece of meat. Also you must try their mac and cheese with truffle oil---the smoked Gouda, diced ham, and the LIGHT touch of truffle oil---delicious!!

Our server came over and started chatting with us about the food and asked if this was my favorite BBQ ever. I was honest and told him that I was a pretty faithful follower of The Pork Barrel in the Del Ray area of Alexandria, VA. As any good foodie, I of course had pictures from my first time eating at Pork Barrel. I showed him the "Smackin' Big Daddy" and he asked, "Did you eat that whole thing?!" "Of course I did!" was my shocked reply. I mean how do you ask that of the woman who ordered 2 appetizers and a plate of wet brisket. For the none BBQ folks out there, "wet" brisket has the lovely vein of fat still in it. Anywho, he immediately called over the general manager to see the pictures. So one conversation led to another and I started telling her how I liked the motif of the restaurant. Turns out the GM is a Somm who helped pick out the decor for the restaurant after going on a wine and whiskey distillery tour for Beam Brands. Turns out that I was sorta right about the walls...they are made with charred Marker's Mark barrels.

Working Lunch

So after years of knowing a co-worker and both being relocated from California to the DC metro area we finally had our first working lunch. All I can say is that we should have started this working lunch idea years ago. Why you ask...because he is a foodie just like I am. Chef Enzo Fargione opened his restaurant Elisir on 11th Street in Downtown near the end of 2011. The original was an Italian fine dining concept with tasting menus and the average check around $130. Fargione eventually came to realize that the expensive Italian restaurant concept wasn't working and he closed the restaurant for about 10 days and rebranded it as Osteria Elisir with a more country Italian feel. With the new decor come lower prices and more simple, home-style cooking, I had been dying to go. Most of my co-workers still felt it was too expensive for lunch and to be honest after I get off work, I really don't want to stay in the area. So when my co-worker from Cali wanted to go I was more than willing.

I ordered the Saffron Tortelli. It is filled with a creamy ricotta and spinach and served with braised veal cheeks sauce.

My co-worker got the Spinach Tagliatelle with duck ragu, porcini, Grana cheese, and red wine. I am pleased to say that my foodie co-worker was more than willing to get side plates so that we could share. All the pasta is house made and in addition, most of the times the dishes are prepared by Chef Enzo Fargione (or his sous-chef).


Osteria Elisir is one of my co-worker’s favorite places to eat and I am happy that he introduced me to it. I look forward to sharing this place with other foodie friends in the area.

Diving into a Volcano

Today was one of those days that I had been looking forward to for months. My boyfriend and I were finally going to be able to get to spend some time together and we were sharing that time by jumping out of an airplane. Yes, you heard me right…skydiving. He picked me up and we took the hour plus drive out to wine country in Virginia to enjoy being away from the city and to catch up on the past week. We both have pretty busy careers and having this time to catch up is precious.

We got out to the jump space; the sun was shining but a few clouds started to roll in…which meant a jump delay. No worries because we had plenty of entertainment surrounding us. A couple was on their first date going skydiving and it didn’t seem to be going in the direction either was hoping for. The young woman had a decently thick accent the her date took that to mean he needed to yell at her as everyone knows the louder you speak English the better.

As we waited for another half hour or so the winds picked up and we heard a ripping metal noise.  As someone who has spent plenty of time around barns with metal roofs I knew exactly what that sound was. Sure enough one of the roof panels on the barn style hanger had been lifted and bent up. So needless to say we took that as a sign that we should reschedule and call it a day. My boyfriend was already a bit anxious about the jump and a tin roof ripping off a barn wasn’t going to help settle anyone down! I also had no interest in waiting another 3hrs for the winds to calm down. So we rescheduled and headed out to where we were going to have dinner.

There is a unique little place in Gainesville, VA called Volcano Hot Stone Grill. So the concept of this place is grilling on volcanic rock. Some volcanic stones have unique and valuable properties.  Cooled lava rock is a poor conductor of heat (meaning it tends to hold heat inside rather than release it quickly) so it makes an excellent cooking stone. Ancient cultures used nothing but flat stones for cooking, considered the ancestor to the frying pan and the griddle. So Volcano will heat lava rock for 6 to 8 hours to a temperature of 550 Fahrenheit. 

As you know from other posts my boyfriend is a foodie. What I didn’t know is that he loves, loves, love poutine. So as soon as he saw the Montreal Poutine on the menu it was a must order. For those of you who don’t know what poutine is (because I didn’t) it’s a classic Quebec dish with a mixture of fries, peppered gravy and fromage beaucronne (cheese curds). And it was pretty damn good a Volcano. The gravy was on point!

As for dinner we both ordered the “Wild Plate” so that we could share all of the wild game that was available. We had elk, wild boar, kangaroo, bison, and a filet mignon. The entrees arrived at the table bursting with aroma, seared and sizzling on a hot volcanic stone!  You get to finish cooking the wild meat to your perfect level of "doneness." I must say that we both loved the kangaroo. It was a lean dark meat like a steak but a flavor that I can’t really describe properly. Maybe a cross between beef and venison. Whatever it is though, it’s lovely!

We also shared the “starch” side dishes. I wasn’t a fan of the tri-colored mashed potatoes. They looked pretty but were dry. The potato au-gratin with boar bacon now that is more my taste but of course it had bacon so you can’t loose with that.

For those of you looking for something unusual and not in the local DC area by all means go try this place out and get the kangaroo!