nosh nook #137 - tuesday, september 22, 2009

stadium food? not so bad; in fact, many relish it (link)
09.21.09 - dallas morning news - by laurel laurentz

down in texas, if you're talking pro football, you're talking the dallas cowboys. sorry, houston, but you have a problem. your former team made it to a few conference championships, but your current team has yet to put together a winning season. the cowboys have been average at best recently, but they've won five super bowls & are "america's team." you're just the "texans." it's no contest, really. it'd tell you to put your hometown love behind the astros, but they've lost eight in a row & just fired manager cecil cooper yesterday. two weeks til the rockets preseason begins! oh wait. yao ming's out for the season. man. you houstonians can't catch a break, huh?

on sunday in dallas, the cowboys played their first game at their new stadium, an architectural behemoth that's the largest domed stadium in the world, capable of seating up to 111,000 people. since a live football game is even stupider without burgers & nachos & beers, the team has to be able to feed a ridiculous amount of cowboys fans for hours on end. according to the dallas morning news' laurel laurentz, a crowd of that size drinks/eats "about 7,000 gallons of soda; a ton (yup, 2,000 pounds) of nacho cheese; 40 tons of ice; and 7,500 pounds of beef for cowboys cheesesteak." there's even "the biggest beer cooler in texas," which holds "about a quarter-million bottles." i swear to god, they'd better have a legit recycling program at the stadium or i'll totally bust one of those stupid plastic bud light bottles over owner jerry jones' head.

laurel did the rounds at the stadium to find out "what's really good?" let me sum it up for you. ultimate nachos = great. bbq chicken sandwich = pretty decent, pretty good. truffled mac & cheese dishes = relished. angus burger = uncomplimentary reaction. chili cheese fries = really good. black angus burger = good. chili cheese fries #2 = really good. kobe burger = very good. philly sandwich = nothing but praise. green chili kobe burger = pretty good. pizza = good. bbq chicken sandwich #2 = good. seriously, cowboys fans. it's time to learn some adjectives. two-thirds of you described your football fare as "good." didn't you at least pick up one food adjective from one time texan melissa d’arabian on this past season of the next food network star? it only makes the fact that the cowboys blew the game on a last-second field goal that much worse.

nosh nook #51 - monday, may 25, 2009

ew, y'all: bizarre foods show comes to texas (link)
05.24.09 - houston chronicle - by jeanne jakle

to me, texas has always been this strange, unfamiliar world, an enormous state with big skies, a penchant for secession & a reputation for barbecuing both tasty meats & their worst criminal offenders.  personally, other than a stopover at the dallas airport, i've only been to the state once & that consisted of no more than driving through the skinny part up at the top of the state near amarillo.  sure my brother lived in austin for a spell & i dated a girl whose family was from dallas, but i've never actually visited.  now i really have a reason to go there--bizarre foods.

as jeanne jakle reports, andrew zimmern, host of the travel channel's bizarre foods (a show where he samples old delicacies from around the world), traveled to texas & shot an entire episode there, highlighting texas' wacky cuisine.  the episode, which premieres this tuesday, took zimmern all over the state, where he came across such crazy dishes as rabbit sausage, alligator kabobs & something called "skunk pig."  mmm...skunk pig.

for zimmern, two of the big highlights were a trip to houston's johnson space center (where he tested out a range of freeze-dried astronaut food) & san antonio's liberty bar, where he found a new favorite snack--"goat cheese with chile morita & piloncillo sauce."  it makes sense that he'd fall in love with a goat cheese dish.  if i was him & had just had a texas experience that included eating both cow's head & wild dove wrapped in bacon, i'd probably go with the goat cheese too.